If your organization is anything like the companies surveyed by Boston Consulting Group, you may relate to those that identified leadership development as the “Highest Need to Act” in 2024.
But even if you’ve prioritized leadership development this year, you may be stuck trying to figure out the best way to get your efforts off to a powerful start—one that provides a strong foundation for your team and sets you up for success.
Why not kickstart your initiatives with an offsite meeting focused on leadership development?
While an offsite meeting isn’t required to launch a leadership development initiative, it can be a powerful way to improve team or cohort cohesion, provide classroom learning opportunities, and set expectations and goals for leaders who participate in the initiative.
But before you book a block of rooms and start booking air travel, consider how to get the most out of your leadership development offsite. Here are seven tips for planning an offsite that will give your leaders a solid foundation for growth in the coming months and years.
Design Your Program
Start by designing your leadership development program. What are your areas of greatest need, your goals, and your ideal participants? Once you’ve established those answers, design a program that meets your goals. It could be a project or new business initiative that would help the company grow, or it could be something more like an out-of-the box learning program.
Whatever kind of program you consider, don’t hesitate to ask for outside help. Not everyone has the expertise or time to design a learning initiative. A consultant with expertise in leadership development can help you create the right program for your needs.
Decide on the Offsite Format
Different kinds of development need different formats. For example, if leaders work on a project together, having a traditional classroom-style initiative may not make as much sense as a professionally facilitated planning session or a workshop filled with experiential learning opportunities.
If you are looking at more of a classroom environment, find a program or system that will drive your team toward your objectives. Say you want to develop your middle managers. A program might involve workshops to develop crucial management skills, individual coaching, or some combination of approaches. You could use the offsite as an opportunity for the workshop portion and group coaching and then follow up with individual coaching as necessary.
Define Desired Outcomes
The most productive offsite meetings have defined outcomes, and leadership development offsites are no different. What do you want out of this offsite? Is there a classroom element that your leaders need to complete? A project they should work on? What goals should they develop together?
Use Assessments Before the Offsite
It’s tough to train when you haven’t uncovered specific needs. Assessments can help. Assign appropriate assessments before your offsite, and then use those assessments to help establish the most critical focus areas.
Hire an Outside Facilitator
There are many advantages to hiring an outside facilitator, especially if that facilitator is willing to help you discover areas of critical focus and help with the pre-work necessary for your leadership development offsite. Ideally, the person facilitating your offsite will also be well-versed in any program or assessment you use, such as Stewart Leadership’s LEAD NOW! training.
An outside facilitator can also help with follow-ups after the offsite, whether those follow-ups involve additional coaching, project wrap-up workshops, or other learning initiatives. The ideal outside facilitator doesn’t just leave after the offsite. Rather, your facilitator should be available to ensure that participants are set up to follow through and achieve long-term goals for themselves and your organization.
Include Social Time
Your leadership development offsite should not be all work and no play. Make sure your leaders have some time to relax outside of work. Social time can be a planned group activity, or it can be informal, or some combination of both.
If you want to go the more formal activity route, consider things other than the traditional round of golf. There’s nothing wrong with golf, but not everyone plays it. You could hold an activity at a local escape room, giving your leaders time to solve problems together. Or you could try something like a group cooking class, which could encourage teamwork and result in something delicious.
Of course, there’s no reason that downtime can’t be informal, too. Your leaders may be tired and ready to just relax at the end of their learning sessions. Unscheduled time is fine, especially if your planned sessions are intense.
Follow Up—a Lot!
Each leader at your offsite should come away with an Individual Action Plan or personalized goals. Ensure these leaders get the follow-up they need to fully integrate and develop new skills. Incorporate follow-ups into regular development conversations and provide additional coaching if required.
Leadership development is imperative for any company that wants to thrive well into the future. An offsite meeting can be an essential ingredient to boost your initiatives from the beginning.
The Stewart Leadership team of coaches and consultants can be a powerful partner in your leadership development efforts. From workshop facilitation to coaching to training in the necessary skills your leaders need, we can amplify your efforts and help you achieve the business results and people results you need.
SELF-CHECK:
- Do we have any leadership development initiatives in the planning stage?
- Can we add an offsite to our leadership development initiatives?
- Is there one critical element of leadership development that we need to focus on above others?
Erin.Ellis
