The senior leadership at DanBrad Ltd, the MacDonald’s franchise owners, held their first annual management retreat in Harbour Island on September 5.
The retreat, held under the theme, ‘Team Building to Lead’, saw Billie Bowe, president and chief executive of Benchmark Consulting Services, accompany the senior leadership team to Harbour Island.
DanBrad’s president, Earla J. Bethel, said: “Billie very readily embraced and engaged our team. She quickly identified gaps in our team dynamics and offered practical solutions to close the gaps and strengthen the weak links.
“She put participants at ease ‘out of the gate’ and kept every one on track. Billie diffused sidebars skillfully and effectively, while holding everyone accountable and attentive for several hours. Her sense of humour, anecdotes and personal stories kept our team hanging on to every word.”
The idea for the retreat, to combine relaxation with learning, came from DanBrad’s human resources manager, Sylvia Forbes.
The training covered a variety of topics, including identifying various team types and team member personalities; the team building trust/relationship model; effective communication among team members; problem solving; understanding roles and responsibilities; and, most importantly, establishing a clear purpose and a shared vision.
“It was amazing how quickly I was able to observe the immediate changes in the team’s dynamics after only a few hours of pre-assessments and activities. They were fully engaged and opened their minds to the information shared with them. I could never have asked for a better group of leaders to work with,” said Mrs Bowe.
One participant, Shanendon Cartwright, DanBrad’s marketing and development manager, said: “It was quite empowering and emphasised the many ways to build a strong team and transform and develop a superb work environment.”
Mrs Bethel said Mrs. Bowe was able to “very strategically and competently condense an eight-hour session into five hours”.
She added: “Billie provided practical solutions to help our team members resolve some issues in the workplace, and made excellent recommendations for our team members to execute in order to achieve our goal of being a high-performing management team. Billie left our team highly motivated and inspired to raise the bar.”
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