FULL TRANSCRIPT

00:00 – Show Opening

Are you a professional who wants to become a more effective leader? Then get ready for daily tips from the coach with the experience and inspiration to help you succeed in any leadership situation. You’re listening to the Meeting Leadership Podcast with Gordon Sheppard.

00:27 – Podcast starts here

Welcome to another episode of the Meeting Leadership Podcast. My name is Gordon Sheppard, and I want to say thanks for being here. Thanks for being the type of leader who is going to be proactive, so out, get another tip, get another strategy, learn how to build your leadership skills, and also figure out how to run outstanding meetings. The fact that you choose this podcast to come and do that, I really, really appreciate it.

00:50 – The RoI of corporate retreats

On today’s show, we’re going to talk about a type of meeting that is rare, but for a leader, it can be a major investment in your team because today, we’re going to talk about the pros and cons of corporate retreats for your staff. What would happen if you held your next meeting in Hawaii or Paris, Las Vegas or maybe even on a cruise? What sort of meeting return on investment would your company get? Would the people on your team who went to this destination meeting become more motivated? Would they become more productive? Which type of corporate retreat would help you get the best results? To help you decide, here’s a list of pros and cons.

01:30 – Pro 1 – Improved loyalty and retention

The first thing that is likely to happen in the plus column is that a destination meeting will improve your staff loyalty and retention because the staff really feels like they are being treated just above and beyond really, really well. They won’t be able to believe that you spent this kind of money and time to give them an event and an experience that just really could be once in a lifetime.

01:52 – Pro 2 – Team bonding

Another reason that you can put in the plus column is that this could be a great team building opportunity. If you think about it, you are all away from the office. You’re in one place together and it could be a lot of fun. It really could help you get to know each other better. If you’re doing these great activities and things that are pulling you together at a great location that has wonderful food and amenities, well, that could be a really great way to improve your overall commitment to each other, which will lead to an improvement in overall productivity.

02:20 – Pro 3 – Deepened corporate culture

The third reason that I think you can add to the plus column is that a corporate retreat can actually help you to strengthen your overall company culture. Here’s what I mean when I say this. The location that you choose could actually reflect your overall company culture and values. For example, let’s say you’ve got a sales team that does a lot of business on the golf course. Well, then, you could actually go pick one of the great golf courses from around the world, like the Old Course in Scotland and make it an exclusive event for them that really reflects the way that they do business.

02:52 – Con 1 – Destination meetings are expensive

Now that we’ve gone over a few of the pros, it’s time to talk about a few of the cons of doing a corporate retreat. I think we all know what the first one is, and that is destination meetings are expensive, especially when you start to consider things like air travel and actually paying for really unique events. Destination meetings can easily get up into the thousands and thousands per person.

03:14 – Con 2 – Locations change the meeting dynamic

The second reason not to do a corporate retreat is location, location, location, as in you have to choose a superb destination because if you don’t, the focus will be about a bad trip experience instead of what you wanted to achieve by taking people away, 

03:32 – Con 3 – Retreats take people away from family

which leads us into the third reason that you may not want to do a destination meeting. That’s because these events take people away from their families and especially parents of young families. Well, they might be super sensitive and it may not be worth it for them at all.

03:46 – Con 4 – The challenge of pleasing everyone

The final reason that you may not want to spend thousands and thousands of dollars to take people away on a retreat is that it’s really hard to pick a destination that will please the whole team. For example, some people may think the destination is too extravagant, while others may think it’s too cheap.

04:03 – Episode Recap

Now let me take a moment to recap the pros and cons of corporate retreats for your staff. Pro number one, improve loyalty and retention. Pro number two, team bonding. Pro number three, deepen corporate culture. Con number one, corporate retreats are expensive. Con number two, you have to pick a great destination or people will have a bad experience. Con number three, corporate retreats can take people away from their families and that could be a disaster. Finally, con number four, it’s hard to pick a place that will please the entire team.

04:41 – MLP:70 – https://meetingleadershipinc.com/70

If you’ve been enjoying what you learned in this episode and you’re the type of meeting leader who really likes to get ready to make sure that their team has a good experience, then you may want to check out episode 70 on the Meeting Leadership Podcast, and it’s called Three Inspiring Questions to Answer Before You Book a Meeting Room. You can get that by going to meetingleadershipinc.com/70.

05:04 – Meeting Leadership Academy – https://meetingleadershipinc.com/academy

 I also want to let you know that this episode of the Meeting Leadership Podcast is brought to you by the Meeting Leadership Academy. If you’re looking for great live training options and great online training options for your team to help them grow their leadership skills, to help them learn how to have better meetings that are way more productive and profitable then visit meetingleadershipinc.com/academy.

As always, thank you so much for listening, and we’ll see you tomorrow on the Meeting Leadership Podcast.

05:28 – Podcast Outro

Thanks for listening to the Meeting Leadership Podcast. Be sure to subscribe for more strategies to help you become an outstanding leader. Don’t forget to rate and review so we can bring you fresh content every day. We’ll see you tomorrow right here on the Meeting Leadership Podcast.