Growing a small business
The mission of our small business is to support the success of people in organizations using executive coaching, leadership development, and internal coach trainings. Given our small team, how can we share Perception Coaching with more people? With an eye to innovation, we began looking for alignment with a complementary partner-someone who would add value to our clients’ experiences and support their efforts in different ways.
The beginning of an idea
We work to make our office both welcoming and productive; many clients comment that the space contributes to their mood and development. The impact of environment on reflection, learning, and growth is significant and an idea was sparked and began to evolve when a venue was described at a local networking event. We began to imagine opportunities with Minnesuing Acres -the perfect place for a retreat! We had not considered how hosts at a venue could contribute to our event, and are elated with how they share their hospitality skills to support us and retreat participants in a wonderful space!
Minnesuing Acres, Executive Retreat
Having a retreat environment in mind created a new awareness as we visited with other business consultants and service providers. Which products, services, and offerings would complement those of Perception Coaching LLC and create the most beneficial content for organizations?
A key partner
Coaching is individualized, relationship-centered development. We use Perception Coaching® to support leaders’ efforts to excel in their roles as well as effectively navigate complex and important interactions with others. However, we noticed that prioritizing, accountability, and evaluation at the organizational level are immediate and ongoing needs for most executives. With these needs in mind, we sought to partner with a firm focused on strategic planning and accountability; we are fortunate that Sascha Mansson, whose knowledge is well known in this area, was open to a conversation. Her experience with organizing retreats, presenting, and facilitating has added benefits beyond her complementary content expertise. As we talked about possibilities, we found agreement on ideas integral to partnering and our Retreat including:
- teams experience lasting benefits when they share experiences and learning
- success happens when the mission is clear
- people need support to rise to new challenges
- continuous improvement supports adaptivity, innovation, and organizational success
- intentional and productive communication improves culture and performance
The collaborative whole
The surprise of collaboration includes how much greater the whole is when compared to the sum of the parts. Staff at Minnesuing Acres are generous with support, lending us confidence for taking the ‘big swing’ to orchestrate this retreat. As experienced facilitators and potential partners we were given a tour and discussed our already evolving ideas with Jonathan and Todd at Minnesuing Acres. They have a rich history of hosting retreats and provided insights on the venue as well as opportunities to use time and space which we had not considered. Their suggestions complemented our experiences with retreats and conferences to help us create ways to increase the quality of our product and enhance the experience for all participants. The tour and meeting energized and cemented our partnership!
Authentic partnerships
Finding partners who align and complement can be challenging. The approach we find useful as we navigate this new opportunity is leading positive intent! We recognize that each stakeholder brings value and enjoy expressing mutual appreciation! We also have mutual trust; everyone is contributing their best efforts and we want our three organizations to exceed the goals they have for this venture.
Learn more about any of us individually, or the collaboration we have designed -retreats are repeatable, scheduled twice annually, in November and April- visit any of our sites linked above, or reach out!
