Leadership Ann Arbor, Day 1

What an amazing day!

We're up here at the beautiful Crystal Mountain Resort for the first day of the Leadership Ann Arbor retreat. Our goal for today was to discover what qualities go into being a successful community leader and, further, what qualities we possessed as a leader.

Our facilitator, Terry McGinn, put us through a number of exercises (and some gentle good humor) to help us understand ourselves better. In the process, of course, we got to know the people around us and to help each other along wherever possible. Oh, there was a bit of good-natured teasing and quite a bit of laughter, but, all-in-all, it was an exciting chance for self-discovery in a friendly and supportive environment (or, at least, no one actually told me that I was hopeless as a leader and should just ask for my money back). Terry really deserves serious kudos for herding us and helping us to keep focused on the goals for the day.

Despite the fun we were having, by the end of the day, a group of us decided we needed to get out to go on a short hike around the grounds of Crystal Mountain. It was a great opportunity to chat more and see the gorgeous Fall colors of northern lower Michigan. Of course, it might also have been another leadership test as we were only given one map. I think we must have succeeded as we all made it safely back to the lodge in time for dinner.

As Terry said just before we broke for the day, today we worked on leadership within our group. Tomorrow, on the other hand, we are going to work on leadership as a group. I'll let you know what happens!

So, what has been your best experience at a business conference or seminar?