Thank you for all the inquiries (phone calls) about NMA facilitating your leadership team/organizational retreat. I have 5 phone calls this week discussing what would work best for you. Must be the season to put your people together to create amazing and accountable results.
Many of you do an annual retreat for your team each year. Congratulations!!
Leading can be tough. Teams don’t always agree with each other although they can be exceptionally adept at working together. They lean toward consensus where they can agree and support the final initiative and next steps. This is good and it is mature.
BUT
What about the challenges of not answering or getting to the root of what the team needs to work well with each other: vulnerable; honest; brave; interactive and accountable? These can be hard to achieve if you have residue within the team that has not been addressed. What I mean by residue is the following:
- A new leader has come on board but has not hit the mark yet
- Ongoing disagreement on substantive issues, but the strongest in the team gets their way
- Coaching and training have gone by the wayside because everyone is too busy leading and doing “stuff” to take part
- Organizational issues that are not the team’s mandate, but the team’s problem anyway
- New team members that have not been onboarded well because of time issues
- Mergers and acquisitions that are not clear with duties and mission/vision
- New products, services and innovations not fully integrated into the “value” of the team’s talents
- Great things are happening for the team, but positive feedback is scarce
Your retreat (or planning one) has the ability to clear up, clean up and cheer up the existing issues. The beginning process to getting your team ready to spend time together, whether you call it a retreat or team meeting, should probably include most of the following suggestions:
- Ask the individuals what is most important to them about spending time together and what a great outcome of this time spent would be – not all the feedback you get will be the same.
- Assessments of skills – leadership, communication and behavioral performance are key – then the information is shared with the team so people now “know” why people behave, communicate and behave the way they do – it is their talent and strength!!
- Evaluate what worked and what did not work – discuss these areas, especially what worked so you can learn how the team best worked together.
- Off-site is the best, good food, some relaxing time, maybe even sharing some unique aspects of each person
- Awards are nice especially if they are unexpected and/or relevant.
You have so many choices, but the most important aspect about spending communication time together is to make it relevant, valuable and have outcomes that will be worth the time. The best way to find this out, ASK. Then listen. Then share the information. Then gather the most relevant actionable points and implement them.
It builds credibility, inclusion and trust/respect. Sometimes the work is hard. Leading can be exhausting. Make your retreat rewarding and valuable.
Let me know if you need a great facilitator and mentor in getting ready for your retreat, annual meeting or trip to Bora Bora. My bags are packed!!
To Your Success,
P.S. There are still VIP days left in the year – are you ready to complete this year in a remarkable high-performance way? Come VIP with me. You can come to Nashville or I can come to your location. Do this – you deserve to transform your behavior and create amazing results. Drop me a note and we will make things happen – together.