There are so many challenges facing business these days that it seems virtually impossible to slow down long enough to plan for future.

Months go by and you have held your own. You might pause momentarily to celebrate a success never taking time to reflect on what happened in order to replicate what went right. Problems are treated with a band-aid approach so that everyone involved can just get on to pressing issues at hand. You can count on problem reoccurring – possibly with a different face and in a different place – because there was no time made to get to root cause that made environment ripe for problem to surface originally.

There is a different way of managing your business…a way to capture what works making it available for future benefit and a way to mine opportunity available when problems occur to maximize your return on investment (the involuntary investment you’ve already made through experiencing problem or mistake). The retreat is a great way to prioritize, and intentionally manage, your business.

The retreat creates stage for working on your business in contrast to your day to day efforts working in your business. Retreats can be as short as an afternoon or extend for several days. They can focus on a single issue or be structured to address many concerns. Certainly, whether retreat takes place in company conference room or at a resort far from office, it can be an experience that forever alters way you approach your business.

One of primary issues of concern in any organization is ensuring that every area or department is working in alignment with vision, mission and values. Goals and objectives are more easily reached when there is a synergy amongst organization’s leadership. Participating in a well-planned retreat can help to create that synergy.

I have shared what I believe are Top 10 reasons to schedule your retreat sooner rather than later. If you’re still wondering if a retreat is worth investment, consider following reasons (and feel free to add some of your own).

1.Define your vision. Most leaders have a vision for their organization. In many cases though, its pretty fuzzy. In order to effectively communicate your vision and get “buy-in” necessary to realize it, you need to bring it into clear focus. Just scheduling retreat will guarantee that vision becomes mechanism to align activities of organization.

2.Commit to goals. With a clear vision and purpose, goals can be established that provide road map to be used when implementing plans. The organization’s goals won’t mean much unless responsibility for achieving them is filtered through to individual(s) that will be tasked with taking action. Commitment to a goal requires taking ownership and retreat provides a place for that to happen. 3.Manage your reputation. Your reputation is one of your organization’s most valuable assets. Effectively managing that reputation requires an understanding of how reputation was built and how it is best maintained or enhanced. The organization that isn’t prepared to deal with a challenging situation can have their good reputation tarnished beyond repair literally overnight.

Leadership comes from top down. Poor management skills is cause of most employee dissatisfaction and results in their poor performance.

The following article by Nathan Chanesman from My Profile is worthwhile reading:

Poor management skills lead to poor employee performance It's disheartening to read that poor management skills is cause of most business dissatisfaction. You'd think that with all training and investment that has gone into this topic that we'd learnt by now to get it right.

Employees have lost trust in companies they work for Kelly Services Survey published in October last year indicated that 47% of Australian employees believe "that companies do not have their best interests at heart".

Dissatisfaction seems to be order of day. 50% of Australia's workforce want to quit it's job and nearly 40% reported that they often "woke up in morning not willing to face day".

SEEK, online job board survey of October 2003 reported that 75% of employees questioned are not happy with their current job.

Asked what they liked most about their job 51% said "the people I work with". And what did they hate most? 60% said "the quality of management". Not surprising, dissatisfaction with management increased as people got older.

The Solutions

Get Profiled Visit www.myprofile.com.au They'll help you find right person for job, and help you understand yourself and your employees and how you can work together as a cohesive team to achieve your business vision and goals.

360 degree Pirihi Productivity Profile Discover how effective a leader you believe yourself to be and receive feedback from your people stating how they see you. This can be a real eye-opener and extremely beneficial.