This past week was super special. On Wednesday and Thursday last week, the entire Broker Buddha team participated in a company offsite. There was a lot to celebrate. New accounts, new faces, new office space. We have company gatherings every quarter, but this is the first time we had one just after doubling our headcount. Employees flew in from all over the country–some to reunite and some to meet for the first time.

Offsites serve as an excellent reminder that all of us are leaders and stewards of the company. We’re in it together and we will need to prioritize and delegate responsibilities in order to scale. We learn from each other, and listen to each other. When disagreements arise, we have productive ways to navigate them in order to bring to light positive outcomes and new ways of thinking. At Broker Buddha, we even have a dedicated offsite session about constructively navigating conflict, which we call Rumbles, introduced to us by Brené Brown in her book Dare to Lead. Being able to connect with colleagues and forge bonds over roadmaps, meditation, rumbles, and meals is special to our culture. These moments make us a more collaborative and nimble team, and spark excitement for what the future holds.

For me, as we scale the business, I've been on a journey to delegate work and support my team leaders in their areas of expertise. While I may have ideas about how things should be done, I've learned to rely on the leaders I've hired and trust to make smart decisions about their areas of responsibility. At this offsite, I delegated planning to my culture team, Matt and Adria and they crushed it, planning fun events and creating memorable swag. I trusted my new head of marketing, Susana, to allocate time for leadership headshots (I normally don't like being in the spotlight) and the photos came out great! I left open space at the event for team leads to plan team workshops and the face-time was more productive than anything I could have planned myself.

Balancing the role of leading the charge and supporting my team will be an ongoing journey for me as we continue to grow and double the team size again, and knowing that I have trusted leaders who are passionate and reliable gives me the confidence that we will be successful for years to come.

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