The Tuesday Roundup
For the second half of last week, I logged off for a personal retreat. I started this practice in high school as a meditative exercise. I took a break for a while, but my wife encouraged me to restart them when I started building my businesses. Here’s an excerpt from the message I sent my team about why my retreats are a priority for me:
“It’s a time of deep reflection and planning for me with very limited access to phone, internet, etc…It’s a time to reflect on the past, look through memos and notes and thoughts and reset my mind on my personal journey, my work, my family. I always come out of it with insights that have served me well.
This practice has served me well for many years as a leader/entrepreneur, husband and even father. If you can’t take 3 days off, start somewhere. I did, starting since high school with fits and starts but more consistent in the last say 8 years.”
Today, I want to share some resources on why a personal retreat can be so beneficial as well as some ideas for reflection activities as you prep for 2023.
The biggest benefit of taking a personal retreat is giving myself time and space to think. It can be easy to get caught up in the day-to-day chaos and lose sight of the broader strategies and goals that you’re driving out. This “Memo to the CEO” gives a great explanation of just how powerful a personal retreat can be. While the article focuses on CEO retreats with a facilitator, I actually find doing a completely solo retreat can be just as or more impactful than doing an organized retreat with a coach. Taking yourself out of your normal context gives you a chance to work on your business rather than staying in the weeds.
Above all, your personal retreat should energize you and give you clarity about what you want to accomplish as a leader. It’s an opportunity to turn your aspirations and rumination into plans to drive your success. What happens afterward is critical to delivering value for your investment in this time away.
Strategic planning is a major part of my personal retreat. It’s also been a big focus at my companies as we wrap up 2022. Strategic planning requires intentionality to be effective. This article from BetterUp will help you prepare for strategic planning, including personal strategic planning.
John Kotter, a former professor at Harvard Business School and noted expert on innovation says, “Strategy should be viewed as a dynamic force that constantly seeks opportunities, identifies initiatives that will capitalize on them, and completes those initiatives swiftly and efficiently.”
One of the frameworks we’ve used in my companies for strategic planning is a SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Performing a SWOT analysis gives insight into the company’s current position so you can identify areas for change, set performance metrics and goals, and create a plan for action to achieve foundational goals. You can also perform a personal SWOT analysis or department-level analysis. This article from Hubspot takes you through the steps of a SWOT analysis and offers some templates to get you started.
It can be difficult to prioritize taking time for yourself. However, it’s important to remember that things like personal retreats are actually equipping you to be better for your business and better to the people around you. This short reflection from Ami Vora, VP of Product at WhatsApp, is a great reminder that giving yourself the time you need is a way to serve others.
Sometimes just taking the plunge and doing what I need helps other people get what they need too. Reminding myself of that makes it easier for me to be generous to myself.
Lastly, I’m putting together an ask-me-anything roundup to finish out the year. If you have any questions for me — about starting a company, leadership, or anything else — please submit them via comment, responding directly to this email, or on social media. I’ll answer them (anonymously) in a newsletter to close out 2022.
Thanks for joining the roundup this week. How are you planning to prioritize strategic planning this year? Let me know here, on Twitter, or on Instagram.