From Informed Decisions: Conversations and Q&A with Randall Craig and Ronja Francoeur

From Informed Decisions: Conversations and Q&A
with Randall Craig and
Ronja Francoeur

Leadership Retreats: Financial Focus – From Budget Mistakes to Real ROI

Leadership Retreats: Financial Focus – From Budget Mistakes to Real ROI

About this episode: 

Your executive retreats are an investment in your leadership with the goal of creating a higher performing team. So what is the strategy behind your offsite's budget? Each line item should help you reach your organizational goals.

This session is not about shrinking the budget or cutting corners; it's about making the right investments to generate the alignment and results you want to grow your organization.

Topics Discussed (with timestamps)

• 01:09 Opening comments

• 03:28 Frameworks for setting a leadership retreat budget: Scope the size of the problem

• 05:08 What are the hidden costs of a leadership retreat?

• 13:09 Fitness, meditation, hiking, etc: Should these be prioritized or bumped on a leadership retreat agenda?

• 16:30 Outsource vs keep in house: Hiring a designated event planner?

• 19:31 Does the retreat start upon arrival or during transit? i.e. Should attendees travel to the leadership retreat together or independently?

• 21:11 Individual rooms or roommates: What’s appropriate?

• 23:41 Communicating to the leadership team the financial investment being made in their professional development on the retreat: How to do it in an untacky way?

• 28:55 Where are organizations penny wise and pound foolish in their leadership retreat budgets?

• 32:08 Getting swag right

• 34:37 Best uses for shared meals: Opportunities for speeches and messaging vs no-agenda social time

• 37:35 Volunteerism as leadership retreat activity: Cheaper option… or savvy PR opportunity?

• 39:08 Using multiple facilitators/trainers vs using one throughout the retreat: The impact on costs and investment made by the facilitator/trainers

• 43:16  Where does the team retreat (the all-hands retreat) fit in?

• 47:09  When the boss prioritizes the leadership retreat as a luxurious party time for the team rather than an opportunity for training, alignment, and accountability

• 49:44  When the company has grown from a few dozen to 1000+ employees: Holding on to the mom-and-pop feel

• 51:55  When the CEO has different priorities for the leadership retreat than the other members of the leadership team

• 54:56  CEO as retreat facilitator: A lost opportunity

What people said about the session

What people said about the session

“Thank you Randall and Ronja. I appreciate the very good tips you have given us.” – Brenda Rebman, President and CEO, Futures Resources Partners

“Awesome – thank you Randall and Ronja! I’ll definitely be attending more of these sessions. I’ll be bringing these ideas back to my team." Ken Rothe, Senior Analyst, Leadership Team, Pro-Claim Group

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