A couple of weeks ago, our leadership team held a retreat in Atlanta. We’re committed to holding in-person meetings like this bi-annually, at the beginning of the year and in the summer, even though they cost us time our of the office and, of course, money. Here’s why:
- BHAGs or Big, hairy, audacious goals. To move forward as a company, we need BHAGs that unite and motivate our team. I suppose I could just create and enforce them on the leaders, but by establishing them as a group, we create buy-in. This also helps us set realistic goals; our leadership team won’t be shy if they think a goal is unachievable.
- Focus. To achieve our BHAGs, we need focus. Day-to-day issues, such as staffing, customer projects and email, distract us from the main goal. Meeting regularly helps us ensure we are making progress on our BHAGs, while still meeting our customer’s needs.
- Camaraderie. Our remote team needs occasional face time to build trust, deepen relationships and improve our ability to work together.
Our management team only attends the meeting in January, but we include the entire team in a retreat each summer for the same reason.
