Organizations use retreats to accomplish all sorts of vital work, including team building, business development, strategic planning, visioning and problem solving. But have you ever considered a retreat devoted specifically to leadership development?

You count on your leaders to develop people and drive results, so why not equip and empower them with opportunities, skills and tools to do so as effectively as possible? Leadership retreats can be an exceptionally impactful way to drive leadership performance.

Meeting Your Leaders Where They’re At

When you commit to carving out time for a leadership retreat, you’ll want to make the very most of it. First up, you’ll want to assess the current state of your leadership team. Are your leaders:

• Experiencing change? As leaders move on or retire, and as your company grows, your leadership team is likely to include employees new to the company or new to their particular roles. These times of transition are prime for focusing on leadership development in order to establish trust, cultivate relationships, tackle changing demands and more.
• Struggling? Perhaps your leadership team is falling short of objectives, lacking consistency or feeling some sort of disconnect; a leadership retreat can afford them the time and space to recognize, identify and address environmental problems (which can be nearly impossible to do during day-to-day operations).
• Looking for growth? Sometimes a leadership team is thriving but ripe for growth and motivated to become even stronger and more proactive. Leadership development allows leaders to create opportunities for themselves, for one another and for their companies.

Any time is a great time to actively develop your leaders—but you’ll want to do so with intention and planning. When you partner with Leap Solutions, we’ll help you thoroughly examine the dynamics, characteristics and personalities at play in your organization and the complexities, challenges and opportunities you’re currently facing. To that end, we might recommend a number of pre-retreat activities, including:

• Internal and/or external community surveys. We’ll solicit candid feedback about what’s working and what isn’t, individual commitment levels and so forth.
• In-person interviews. We can ask key players about what challenges they encounter, what they hope to accomplish, etc.
• Individual behavioral profiles. Our programs provide invaluable information about each team members’ attributes, competencies and temperament, ideal workflows, communication tendencies and preferences, decision-making approaches, leadership and management styles and more.
• Team assessments. Our assessment tools such as 360-degree evaluations can identify team dynamics and group traits, examine the effects of particular management styles, offer a composite view of what’s successful, and identify areas for enhanced communications.

Armed with a deep understanding of your leaders and what’s possible for them, we’ll work together to determine your leadership retreat goals and priorities and craft the perfect agenda for achieving your desired outcomes. We’ll also determine a timeframe and location that’s within budget and gives your leaders the chance to step out of everyday work and away from outside influences and distractions so that your retreat will be as focused and productive as possible.

Improvement Tools

The retreat facilitators at Leap Solutions have decades of leadership development and coaching experience, and we bring to your retreat seasoned insight, objectivity and efficiency as well as effective tools and approaches for dramatically strengthening your team. We’re known for our ability to get all retreat participants to engage, open up and readily contribute to a purpose-driven dialog around shared issues, challenges, objectives and vision.

Leadership retreat participants can expect:

• Forget about those wacky, uncomfortable, time-intensive icebreakers everyone dreads; Leap facilitators use well-designed, deliberate icebreakers to establish connections and build trust.
• Team-building exercises. We draw on team assessment results to guide group formation and activities, and we show leaders how to recognize threads between team members and link systems and processes for a more bonded, cohesive and productive group dynamic.
• Deeper-level interactions. We guide leaders in using behavioral profile results to capitalize on one another’s natural strengths and contributions, bridge communication styles, and promote mutual understanding, empathy and appreciation.
• Skill-building activities. Leap facilitators help participants build tangible leadership skill sets, broaden and nurture strengths, develop interpersonal and management styles, and establish more collaborative and efficient workfl
• New systems and strategies. We share proven tools and techniques for overcoming barriers and resolving conflict, solving institutional problems, setting and achieving worthwhile goals and objectives, driving change and more.

Ultimately, everything we do together is meant to bring meaning and purpose to your workplace. Your leadership team is sure to come away with better communication, greater efficiency, enhanced productivity and markedly improved performance.

The Impact

Your well planned, well organized and well executed Leap retreat is a priceless investment in the outcome of your organization. Stronger leadership teams are more motivated, more accountable to one another, and more likely to impact others and inspire creativity and innovation. When you drive leadership performance with a dedicated leadership retreat, you equip your leadership team to lead your people and your organization to next-level success.

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