Relational Leadership: Knowing Others & Being Known

Somewhere along the way, leadership got confused with distance. Stay objective. Keep it professional. Don’t get too close to the people you manage.

So we lead from across the room, through dashboards and status reports, and then wonder why the trust isn’t there, why the feedback doesn’t land, why people do the minimum and leave.

Here is the truth: you can only lead what you can get close enough to know.

This session is an invitation to lead like relationships are the actual work, because they are.

Together we will:

Activate your team: Get clear about who your first team actually is, and empower the leaders you manage instead of leading around them.

Be seen: Model the vulnerability, humility, and humanity you are asking others to bring, because people will not follow what they do not trust.

Care and challenge: Expect more of people precisely because you care about them, and leave the soft bigotry of low expectations behind.

You will leave with a more honest, more connected way of leading, and the recognition that the relationships were never a distraction from the work. They were the work.

Join us to get close enough to actually lead.

This retreat is best for leaders, managers, executives, and team leads who want to build deeper trust, stronger feedback loops, and more honest connection with the people they lead.

This experience is especially useful for those who:

• Want to lead with both care and challenge
• Are responsible for developing other leaders
• Feel distance, avoidance, or disconnection on their team
• Want to strengthen trust and accountability
• Know that relational leadership is not soft, it is strategic

A day-long, in-person leadership retreat at The Encounter.

Date: Thursday, November 12, 2026

Location: The Encounter

Format: In-person retreat with reflection, facilitated conversation, practical frameworks, and space to integrate.

Sponsor: $500
Support another leader while deepening your own leadership experience.

Supporter: $450
An intentional investment in your own leadership growth.

Rising Star: $400
A supported rate for leaders who could use a little boost.

Lead Like It Matters is a series of leadership development programs for thoughtful, values-driven leaders navigating growth, change, pressure, and uncertainty. Through immersive leadership retreats, Wisdom Circles, workshops, coaching, and community, leaders strengthen the clarity, steadiness, self-awareness, and courage required to lead well.

This is not traditional management training. It is a space to step outside the pace of daily work, examine the patterns shaping how you lead, and reconnect with what matters most. Each experience combines guided reflection, meaningful dialogue, practical leadership tools, and the wisdom already present within the room.

Designed for executives, founders, managers, and emerging leaders, Lead Like It Matters helps you build trust, navigate conflict, practice accountability, make aligned decisions, and lead through complexity without losing yourself in the process.