Under the theme "Team building to lead", President and CEO of Benchmark Consulting Services Billie Bowe accompanied the senior leadership team of DanBrad Ltd., the MacDonald's franchise owners, to their first annual management retreat on Harbour Island, Eleuthera on Saturday, September 5.
The company's president, Earla J. Bethel, felt it was a great opportunity for her hardworking management team to travel to Harbour Island to refresh and rejuvenate. Equally, it was an ideal place to host a fun-filled, yet impactful team building session.
Bethel commented, "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 everyone on track," she said. "Billie diffused sidebars skillfully and effectively, while holding everyone accountable and attentive for several hours. Her sense of humor, anecdotes and personal stories kept our team hanging on to every word."
The idea for the retreat, to combine relaxation with learning, was conceived by the company's human resources manager, Sylvia Forbes. And according to all involved, it was well deserved after countless months of hard work and long hours put in by the management team.
Billie Bowe stated that she was delighted when contacted by MacDonald's in New Providence to travel with the group to Harbour Island to the first of many annual retreats planned by the company. "It was truly an honor to have been given the opportunity to work with this fine group of leaders," she said. She noted that, as Benchmark Consulting Services is located in Freeport, Grand Bahama, she felt especially proud to have been selected.
The training covered a variety of topics including, but not limited to, identifying various team types and team member personalities, the team building trust/relationship model, effective communication amongst 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, Mr. Shanendon Cartwright, marketing and development manager, had this to say about the training: "It was quite empowering and emphasized the many ways to build a strong team and transform and develop a superb work environment."
While the training session was condensed due to the dual purpose of the retreat, Mrs. Bethel noted that Mrs. Bowe was able to "very strategically and competently condense an eight hour session into five hours".
She ended by saying, "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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