Leadership Retreats
If you Google the term "Leadership Retreat" you'll get thousands of hits, many of them about services and facilities provided by organizations whose mission it is to assist the top managers re-invigorate and redefine their strategic direction. Here are some excerpts from the top link on a recent google search; it comes from an organization called- appropriately enough- Leadership Retreats:
Why a leadership retreat?You and your team are at a crossroads. Perhaps your company has grown. Perhaps you are about to launch a new product or service. Or perhaps you're facing ever stiffer competition in an increasingly tougher market. You look at your managers. You know they work hard and do their best - but you feel something else is possible, something you can all reach for together.You wonder how to re-invigorate their vision and commitment to fulfill the organization’s full potential – and their own. You wonder how to instill in them the recognition that they are the most important asset of your organization.What you need is time to step back together, to reconnect with your core competences, goals, and values. Imagine working with a highly productive team, driven by a shared vision and a deep sense of cohesion. Envision a corporate culture that brings out the best in people, that cultivates creativity, accountability and high levels of performance. Imagine the power of highly motivated people coming to work energized, and going home satisfied. Imagine that translated into your bottom line and keeping the best talent on your team?
They make a compelling argument, one for which I- as an instructor of leadership, strategy and organizational behavior- have much sympathy and regard. But looking over recent headlines from the War on Terror, it seems that there is another kind of leadership retreat, the kind where leadership not just takes time to "reconnect with it's core competences, goals, and values", but literally retreats to a safe-haven from the battlefield: