We're People, Not Just Business Colleagues

I was recently in one of my Two Day planning sessions with one of my leadership teams, and it's a company that is fully virtual as a lot of companies are these days.

So instead of doing the Two Day planning session live and in person, we did it virtually over Zoom and from a productivity standpoint, it's great. There are even some reasons to believe that over Zoom, we might get more work done, than we do in person. It's just more structured, more disciplined, all good, right?

Not really, what this company found, and what a lot of companies are finding is, because they're actually not spending time together in a room, they're losing some of what made that culture great. It's very often what makes culture great is kind of the meeting before the meeting, or the discussions in the hallway or lunch together or dinner together after the meeting. That's where the brick walls come down, and you get to know each other much better as people. And that creates a greater culture, that creates more trust, more vulnerability, higher heights as a team, it is a business.

So my coaching to you as a leader is, especially if you spend a lot of your time, virtual or hybrid these days, take some time. I do Two Day quarterly planning sessions with my clients. And one of my clients took the time for their annual retreat, instead of a two-day planning session, to get some work done. Instead of it being on Zoom, they got together, they got together in a gorgeous place. I can't imagine how much they spent on the lodgings there, or I can't imagine, and it was a lot of money, but they were in a gorgeous place. And instead of spending two days, they spent four. And they took what would normally be a two-day meeting, and they spread the business stuff out over four days. And went and took a hike before one morning meeting, went skeet shooting, after one, had beautiful dinners every night, did an obstacle course, swam together, did some amazing things together as a team.

And that created a bond that they couldn't do any other way they couldn't do in Zoom, they couldn't even do in a two-day meeting if they were together. They wouldn't had fun together.

Now, I'm not suggesting you do that every week. I'm not even suggesting you do that every quarter, in your quarterly planning sessions. But why not plan for your next annual retreat. Don't just get together and plan the business. Get together and become friends, get together and do things together, create experiences together that you'll never forget, go to a beautiful place and get this all done to show your team that you really care about them.

And most of all, hire me to do it because I want to go to that beautiful plays with you. But think about that culture on the team, not just productivity.

What do you need to do to create those bonds on the team?
What do you need to get together and get to know each other as people, not just business colleagues?