Confronting Our Freedom: Understanding Power & Agency | Sept 2027

A day-long retreat for leaders navigating questions of authority, influence, responsibility, or change. We'll explore what it means to lead from something deeper than title or control, including how we cultivate ownership and accountability, influence without formal authority, make decisions within constraints, and reduce our reliance on hierarchy. Most of us were taught that power is something you earn with the title: the corner office, the seat at the table, the line on the org chart. So we chase it, protect it, and start to believe that without it we are not powerful at all. But positional power is borrowed. It can be given and taken away, and the moment we feel it slipping, we move into self-protection and lead in ways that make everyone around us smaller. There is another kind of power, already present in you and in every person you lead. Together we will: Own your power: Recognize the personal power that is already yours, the kind that does not depend on your title, your authority, or anyone’s permission. Share power: Practice power with, not power over. Build a culture of agency where no idea is a bad idea, and it is safe to fail. Activate influence: Learn what the people around you actually care about, and invite them to express their own personal power by giving their gifts. You will leave with a deep sense of the power that no one handed you and no one can take, and a clearer picture of how to lead from it. Join us as we trade the borrowed power of position for the kind that is already yours, and learn to share power without losing anything. Who Should Join This retreat is best for leaders who are navigating authority, influence, responsibility, or change and want to lead from something deeper than title or control. This experience is especially useful for those who: • Are leading teams, projects, or change efforts • Want to build a culture of agency and shared ownership • Feel tension around power, permission, authority, or influence • Want to lead in ways that make others bigger, not smaller • Are ready to understand the difference between positional power and personal power What's Included A day-long, in-person leadership retreat at The Encounter. Date: Thursday, September 17, 2027 Location: The Encounter, Blue Ash, OH Format: In-person retreat with reflection, facilitated conversation, practical frameworks, and space to integrate. Pricing 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. About "Lead Like It Matters" 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.