2024 Leadership Retreat in Lake Placid
Martin Electric brought their leaders and future leaders on a 2-day retreat to High Peaks Resort in Lake Placid hosted by Adam Hoots – LEAN Construction.
Day 1: Personal Growth – A Deep Dive Into Self-Discovery
The retreat kicked off with a powerful focus on personal growth. It was a day dedicated solely to understanding ourselves better, stepping away from the pressures of professional responsibilities. The mantra for Day 1 was simple: no talk of professional growth, solely personal growth.
We started the day by setting our own rules – Conditions of Satisfaction - as a team. This level of responsibility fostered a deep sense of ownership and commitment to the process.
One of the most empowering aspects of the day was each employee creating their own Personal Clarity Documents, which helped define personal values, passions, and goals. This activity was designed to help gain clarity on where we wanted to go in life—not just in our careers, but as individuals. By visualizing and organizing these thoughts, we were able to create a roadmap for personal success and fulfillment.
As the day came to a close, the group bonded over a team dinner at White Face Lodge, followed by some friendly competition on the ice with a spirited game of ice hockey. The informal setting allowed for conversations and connections to flow naturally, strengthening relationships within the group and giving everyone a chance to unwind after a day of introspection. If you ask our team – this was a key turning moment of the trip.
Day 2: Professional Growth – “Defining, Executing, and Aligning Winning”
After a day of personal growth, the focus shifted to professional development. Day 2 was about honing in on how to be better leaders, how Martin Electric could evolve, and how we could each contribute to the Company’s growth in meaningful ways – starting with understanding the Company’s goals. Day 2 was inspired by Gemba Academy’s podcast episode featuring Billy Taylor titled, “Defining, Executing, and Aligning Winning”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAdzJ-YjgRI
The day began with key exercise The Improvement Kata — a strategic planning workshop that lays out a linear process on how to go about ‘bridging the gap’ by first focusing on where we want to be as a company and then shifting the mindset back to the current conditions. We carried into an “Ugly Baby” exercise, allowing everyone to identify the company’s tough to talk about aspects of improvement followed by establishing intermediate milestones and figuring out what experiments we will take on to drive action toward the current state.
Next, each participant created a Personal Goal Jersey, a symbolic piece of memorabilia that would serve as a constant reminder of their continual improvement. Each jersey was personalized with the leader's key professional goals, which would not only be a visual reminder in their office but also a commitment to executing these goals in the months ahead.
The final exercise of the day was the biggest challenge of the trip for most – Radical Feedback. The team was pushed to sit face-to-face with each co-worker and challenge them to address an aspect of career growth. Hearing the weak points of your career is something hard for most but overall, brings great value as most co-workers offered a helping hand following this feedback. Not only was this workshop created to address aspects of improvement for employees but more importantly, to better format how to give feedback.
Key Takeaways
The 2024 Martin Electric Leadership Retreat was a memorable and transformative experience. It provided a space for leaders to step back, reflect, and set clear intentions for their future—both personally and professionally. By focusing first on personal clarity and then on professional growth, the retreat fostered an actionable approach to leadership development.
As the participants returned to their daily roles, they did so with renewed clarity, stronger bonds, and actionable goals. The retreat was not just an opportunity for individual reflection but a reminder of the power of collaboration, honest dialogue, and collective growth.
