Written by: Linda Allen-Hardisty, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Imagine returning from a 4-day retreat that you spent with other women in leadership positions. What will be your takeaways? Who will you meet? What great things will you experience? Tough things? How can you write the business case for your company to invest in you to go? Here are the Top 5 benefits of an upcoming retreat.
One: The remarkable setting makes the difference in being able to truly connect with yourself. You just can’t get this at home! This allows you to immerse yourself in the beauty of nature. Being surrounded by nature “naturally” brings open space without judgement.
There are a lot of commonalities between nature and your own leadership journey – things like renewal, seasonal change, the dawn of a new day, weathering the storms and making it through to tell the story, interdependency, breaking open, new life, moving on. This participant’s reason to attend a Women in Business Retreat highlights the benefit of a nature experience:
“…Finding balance, introspection, and looking forward in my life.”
Two: A fresh experience co-facilitated by an all-female team of Canadian experts with a unique integration of yoga and meditation, and leadership development. It makes THE difference when the facilitators are proven experts in their industries. As well, they are running their own businesses constantly maneuvering through the demands of competitive environments while facing the realities of family and personal life.
When the facilitators have literally walked a mile in your shoes, you can instantly feel “They get me!”. Plus, all the participants collectively make up an extraordinary group of listeners and supporters who get it. While participants’ specific career and life experiences differ, their commonalities are a tight thread.
Three: This “program” is way beyond traditional leadership training and traditional yoga. Learning comes from discomfort, and I see that in almost every leader I coach. The restorative yoga experience can prepare your mind and body to explore your own leadership journey.
“We can do hard things”, ‒ Diana Bye, certified yoga instructor.
An open mind and heart enable you to listen to women’s inspirations and realities, to listen to yourself, and empower you to share out loud, like this participant’s reason to participate in a “Women in Business” retreat:
“I am feeling burnt out… I want to begin reconnecting with prioritizing self-care”
Four: For over a decade, I have witnessed the transformational journeys that so many of Canada’s leaders have chartered! I provide executive coaching to women and men, and I design and deliver co-ed leadership programs I know the value of such programs. So why also facilitate women’s leadership retreat? Honestly, there is a unique value that can be added to the experience in women-only retreats:
A. The atmosphere with just women in the learning space is just a different kind of rapport – an energy that can be very relaxed and open.
B. Creating a network of women leaders is really important and yet it is sometimes tough to do, so retreats like this can easily expand networks.
C. Our ability as women to lift each other up is a characteristic to nurture. It is the power of working together to rise.
Five: Seize the day! Wondering what a retreat of this kind looks like? An upcoming Women in Business Retreat is happening in October 2022, in western Canada. I am so pleased to be co-facilitating with Diana Bye who is a yoga and meditation teacher. Those facilitators I described above are us! We’ve leveraged the points in this article to carefully craft a wonderful experience for women in business to have 4 days of The Power of Three: Results, Connection, and Interaction. To see how we do it, visit the Events page here or here.
Women are changing the face of leadership because they actively participate in retreats like this. Imagine what will happen when women leaders gather in a single place to leverage that power together and to put on their oxygen masks so they can effectively lead others.
Linda Allen-Hardisty, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Linda Allen-Hardisty, is a leader in executive coaching, emotional intelligence, and leadership team performance. After her own corporate leadership experiences left her full of curiosity about development, Linda discovered strategies to dramatically strengthen leaders and their teams. She has since dedicated her professional practice to coaching leaders in the C-suite and on leadership teams to do the inner work of achieving tremendous results. She is President and Founder of Allen-Hardisty Leadership Group, the executive leadership development firm with clients across Canada. Her clients include industries of oil and gas, utilities, aviation, universities, crown corporations, Indigenous business, agri-value, and more. Linda is a lead facilitator in the Organizational Development Program at Queens University IRC, Professional Certified Coach with the International Coach Federation, a keynote speaker and author on emotionally effective leadership, and a national award winner. Her mission: Spark new insights in each coaching conversation
