Wilderness Executive Retreats
Leadership Renewal Through Wilderness Executive Retreats
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We live in challenging and indeed extraordinary times.
The success or failure of a business never rests on the shoulders of a single individual, yet the demands on CEOs and Board level executives have never been higher.
If you’re in a senior role, you will have experienced the relentless expectations of your team, your employees, customers and shareholders for you to demonstrate strong leadership. You must think wisely about the long term - and respond to immediate challenges. This all takes its toll – on your energy, judgment, health, family life, and even on your spirit.
Yet despite their external achievements, some leaders still feel they have more to contribute. They are at a crossroads where the next 5 to 10 years mark the last phase of a conventional working life – and they have a strong desire to make this time count, for themselves and their organisations.
"Leadership Renewal and time in the wilderness provided overall clarity for my future professional plans"
What can you do about it?
Leadership Renewal is a wilderness based executive retreat and coaching programme that will take you to a remarkable natural environment where you will learn new skills, challenge yourself physically and gain lasting insights. Working with Jonathan Males, an ex-international athlete, Olympic sport psychologist and experienced executive coach, you will develop fresh clarity about your purpose, renew your motivation and develop a new perspective on your business's future.
The programme has three stages:
1. Setting the Context
In the first phase, extending over 6 – 8 weeks, Jonathan will talk with you, your key team members, Board members, direct reports, customers and family. He’ll also read any existing information, such as 360-degree feedback. This leads to a fresh and shared understanding of your personal and business challenges, your important relationships and your ambitions.
Together, we’ll use this stage to define the key questions that you’d like to explore and agree the most useful outcomes for you, both personally and for your business
2. Wilderness Executive Retreat
Combining expert coaching with a challenging natural environment, our wilderness executive retreats provide a totally unique experience. We will camp for a week in a very special place, the Erongo Mountains in Namibia.
Our campsite sits nestled at the foot of a steep granite cliff, within a valley guarded on three sides by steep mountains beyond which the vast Namib Desert stretches to the horizon. Rich in wildlife, the area was inhabited by Bushmen for more than five thousand years, and their rock-art can still be found in the many caves and ravines.
Throughout the wilderness executive retreat, Jonathan will coach you through periods of dialogue, individual reflection, journal-writing, activity and rest.
We spend the first couple of days exploring the locale. Our guide Werner Pfeiffer will teach you to identify the tracks and spoor of native animals, and Ben McNutt is an outdoor expert who will teach you a range of woodcraft and survival skills.
By the end of the week our wilderness executive retreat will have prepared you for a 24-hour solo experience. This may well be the longest period of uninterrupted reflection that you’ve yet encountered, and you’ll be responsible just for yourself.
3. Integration
In the months after your wilderness executive retreat, you’ll benefit from further coaching conversations that will help you refine, integrate and apply your new insights to your personal and business life. The outcome is increased energy, passion and purpose that will take you and your business into the future.
The Results?
Here’s what the CEO of an international electronics manufacturing company said about his experience:
“I was looking for an opportunity to take myself out of my comfort zone to break my established ‘patterns of life’ and to create space and time for some deep thinking about my life, career and my future. This process was supported by input from important people in my personal and professional life.
Jonathan and I spent time thinking about and discussing various aspects of my life and career and agreeing the right programme at a detailed level that met my needs, capabilities, availability and aspirations. This was effective preparatory work that ensured we made the most of our available time during the wilderness trip.
Leadership Renewal provided overall clarity for my future professional and personal plans going forward. This has resulted in tangible actions in both spheres, which are meaningful, sustainable and very different to what has come before.
I recommend Leadership Renewal for CEOs or Board level executives who are approaching a crossroads in their lives and want a very different challenge.”
Intrigued?
We will deliver this programme for a single leader, or up to a maximum of three executives. The next window of opportunity for a wilderness executive retreat in Namibia arises in November 2012. So there’s time to act now to – call Jonathan on 07711 068874 or email him to find out more.
