Gen D Consulting’s Jacqueline Langlois Brings Cultural Intelligence and Thermostat Leadership to WIA Summit 2025
- Michelle Pelletier Marshall
- Aug 12, 2025
- 6 min read
By Michelle Pelletier Marshall, Women in Agribusiness Media (August 12, 2025)
In today's rapidly evolving landscape, leaders face unprecedented challenges in meeting goals, influencing teams, setting boundaries, and fostering inclusive workplace cultures. The opportunity to master key skills and ensure a leadership mindset is only a session away at the 14th annual Women in Agribusiness Summit, taking place next month, September 22-24 at the Hyatt Regency Orlando (haven’t secured your seat at the table yet? Register here).
Among the many opportunities to learn and connect, Jacqueline Langlois—founder and CEO of Gen D Consulting—will lead two standout sessions. In a world where we are all digitally connected but more siloed than ever, her company specializes in helping agricultural organizations bridge the gap between traditional practices and modern workforce expectations, creating environments where diverse teams thrive. In her Tuesday breakout, “Dialing In Your Leadership Thermostat: Mastering Boundaries & Mindset,” she’ll show attendees how to build mental guardrails, reframe self-talk, and adopt a proactive leadership posture that protects their most precious resource: time. Langlois will illustrate how through the power of clear communication, realizing and developing leadership habits and mindset changes, and reframing situations to build trust and expertise, one can achieve greater leadership skills and boundary-setting abilities. Her aim to provide easily achievable habits as solutions to those in attendance.
And don’t miss Langlois as the moderator of the popular annual Transforming the Workplace panel, which aligns with her business focus of balancing building brands and maintaining the human element, while always taking into account the critical factor of cultural intelligence (CQ). Joining her on stage will be Heather Dumas, chief people officer with Ardent Mills, Jennifer Thompson, EVP chief administrative officer with Capital Farm Credit, and Gwyn Schramm, North American Talent & Human Resources Lead at Bayer. The group will reflect on the ever-changing workplace driven by technology, shifting values, new ways of working, and fluctuating government guidelines. They will explore practical strategies for building a more flexible and innovative work environment, sharing tips for harnessing the benefits of diversification in the workplace.
WIA Today caught up with Langlois to talk about what’s in store from her participation at the 2025 WIA Summit.
1). WIA Today: Tell us more about cultural intelligence (CQ) – what is it and why does it matter?
Langlois: At its core, CQ is the capability to step outside your own frame of reference and understand how others interpret the world. It’s like stepping into someone’s shoes and trying to understand their “why”. Whether those differences are generational, geographic, educational or even different agricultural sectors. CQ matters because as we are becoming more and more connected, agriculture is becoming increasingly diverse. We have multi-generational workforces, global supply chains, and customers from vastly different backgrounds. We need to remember that every innovation, every new process, still has to be adopted by people. Leaders who can navigate these unique differences build stronger teams, make better decisions, and create more innovative solutions.
2). WIA Today: How does CQ go beyond traditional DEI efforts? And what are the long-term benefits of strong CQ in ag organizations?
Langlois: While DEI focuses on representation and inclusion (“who’s at the table”), CQ is about building the actual skills to work effectively with diverse groups (“How are people at that table interpreting the conversation?”). In practice, this means moving from token inclusion to genuine collaboration; it's the difference between having diversity and leveraging diversity for better outcomes.
Traditional DEI might ensure you have people from different backgrounds on your team. CQ ensures you can actually harness the unique perspectives, problem-solving approaches, and networks that each person brings. It's about becoming fluent in different "cultural languages" within your organization. The long-term benefits are substantial: better decision-making because you're drawing from more perspectives, increased innovation as different viewpoints spark creative solutions, improved employee retention because people feel truly understood and valued, and stronger market relationships because you can connect authentically with diverse customer bases. In agriculture specifically, strong CQ helps organizations navigate everything from local community relations to international trade relationships more effectively.
3). WIA Today: How will this come through in the Transforming the Workplace session at the WIA Summit?
Langlois: Our panel will explore real-world examples of remote work, flexible scheduling, and cross-cultural teams in ag. I’ll steer the discussion toward how leaders can use CQ frameworks to convert policy changes (e.g., hybrid work, digital collaboration tools) into human-centered practices that build trust, rather than confusion or resentment. The panel will provide practical tools attendees can implement immediately, like cultural mapping exercises for teams and communication frameworks that work across different cultural contexts. We'll also address common challenges, such as resistance to change and how to measure the ROI of cultural intelligence investments.
4). WIA Today: Switching gears a bit, you work with many executives to help them “dial in” to their leadership thermostat. How does this help ag leaders succeed?
Langlois: A thermometer reacts to external conditions—stress, market swings, weather reports—whereas a thermostat sets the desired climate (tone), then adjusts to maintain it. The leadership thermostat concept is about developing consistent, intentional responses to leadership challenges rather than reactive ones. Many agricultural leaders are incredibly skilled at managing operations, crops, and logistics, but can often struggle with the human element of leadership—especially as their organizations grow. They become very comfortable in the business side and tend to lean heavily on that strength out of a place of comfort and familiarity. Think of it like precision agriculture for leadership. Just as farmers use data and technology to apply exactly the right inputs at the right time for optimal crop yields, leaders need to apply the right leadership approach at the right time for optimal team performance. I help leaders identify their default settings—how they naturally respond under pressure—and then expand their range of effective responses. This is crucial in agriculture where leaders face seasonal pressures, weather-related stress, market volatility, and increasingly complex regulatory environments. When leaders can "dial in" their response to match what the situation requires, they make better decisions, maintain stronger relationships, and create more stable organizations that can weather industry challenges.
5). WIA Today: You’ve also identified three common mindset traps in agribusiness leaders. What are they, and better still, how does one work around them?
Langlois: The "Good Girl" Syndrome: Shouldering every challenge alone and being everyone’s hero. You don’t need to save everyone and everything all-the-time. Agriculture requires attention to detail and control over many variables, but this can translate into micromanagement when leading people and individual burnout. I work with leaders to identify what truly needs their direct oversight versus what can be delegated, empowering themselves and their teams while maintaining operational excellence.
The "Always On Addiction" Trap: Agricultural leaders often operate in “Always On”, managing crisis after crisis because of weather, markets, and business pressures. While this creates resilience, always being on can become a response addiction. It can also prevent strategic thinking, networking, collaboration and team development. The solution is building strategic boundaries or “pause practices”—regular times for reflection and planning, even during busy seasons.
The "Technical Expertise = Leadership Ability" Trap: What got you here won’t get you there. Many ag leaders were promoted because they were excellent agronomists, operators, or technical experts, but leadership requires a different skill set. I help leaders recognize that their technical credibility gets them in the door, but emotional intelligence, cultural intelligence and communication skills determine their long-term success.
6). WIA Today: Finally, what is one actionable step readers can take to start dialing in their own leadership thermostat?
Langlois: I encourage my clients to start their day with a quick self check-in and ask:
What is my leadership thermostat set point today?
Are there any big “temperature swings” I am anticipating/apprehensive about?
What mindset will help me maintain my thermostat?
This simple practice helps you not only assess your day but move from reactive to intentional leadership. By asking this questions upfront, you choose the tone for the day. You can then proactively plan, whether it’s a reframing prompt (“This challenge is an opportunity to innovate”) or setting a quick personal boundary – to maintain your ideal climate and take ownership of your life.
Don’t miss Jacqueline Langlois at WIA 2025:
Tuesday, Sept. 23 | 11:30 AM | Breakout Track BDialing in Your Leadership Thermostat: Mastering Boundaries & Mindset
Tuesday, Sept. 23 | 4:05 PM | PlenaryTransforming the Workplace (Moderator)
To our readers, there’s much more to come at the 14th annual Women in Agribusiness Summit, September 22-24 in Orlando, Florida. See the full agenda here and join us for the learning, networking and connection!
