Ready to Level Up!? Our 2024 Summer Growth Challenge Recap

8/19/2024 - By Gabby Symons

Your Saltmarsh Family spent the summer flexing our ‘business development muscles’ during the firm’s annual Level Up competition! The entire firm split into twelve teams and went head-to-head competing for a spot on the coveted Level Up podium.

Level Up is all about embracing a growth mindset and being ‘Relentless About Improvement’, the Saltmarsh Way. Most of us participate in different development activities on a daily basis, perhaps without even realizing it. From providing our clients with excellent service to attending an industry social or having lunch with an old classmate, we are constantly representing and promoting our firm.

The month-long challenge promotes growth and professional development in all facets but also encompasses unique elements of team building, creativity and collaboration, inspiring our team to think differently about growth. In just 4 weeks, we recorded more than 8,000 growth touchpoints!

To complement the hands-on learning happening across the firm, there are plenty of firm-led trainings and events to encourage internal growth on our teams. Some of our firm favorites include:

‘Elevator Speech’ competition: 40 Saltmartians participated in the Elevator Speech Competition, a 2-day event where each participant gave their best 30-second pitch on who they are and what they do at our firm. The creativity this year was next level with special appearances from some of our biggest cheerleaders, our beloved pets and family members! Congratulations to our overall high scorers, Jeannette Bolesta and Jess Schultz, and our people’s choice winners, Connie O’Donnell and Kailey Dawe! A special thank you to this year’s judges, Jeff Philbin, Wendy Barlin, and David Toth, each of whom are leaders in their own right and volunteered their time to evaluate each performance thoroughly and offer advice, words of encouragement and feedback to every participant!

‘Client in Focus’ challenge: This year offered an optional bonus challenge called Client in Focus, a chance to choose one client and do a deep-dive on how we can continue to ‘Deliver Legendary Service’ to them. Our Client in Focus teams met weekly throughout the month and finished with presentations on their findings for each client. It was an insightful and productive challenge as well as an exciting way to collaborate with colleagues from other practices!

‘The Energy Bus Chapter Chats’: To help our Saltmarsh Family level up their positive thinking, Lisa Piotter and Monica Squires volunteered to host this year’s chapter chat book club meetings! Participants read The Energy Bus by Jon Gordon, which discusses ten ways to fuel your life, work, and team with positive energy. The book inspired honest conversations on the importance of positivity and forward-thinking when facing challenges.

Although the competitive aspect of Level Up is a great way to ‘Keep Things Fun’, the main purpose of this challenge is to encourage collaboration throughout each practice and to showcase the many ways growth and business development take shape in our firm. Growth is essential to ensure the sustainability and evolution of our firm. We are so proud of everyone who participated in this challenge and spent this summer learning, networking and growing as professionals.

Congratulations to our top three teams!