2026 Annual Leaders Retreat

Blame, Responsibility and Risk: Promoting Honest Conversations and Cross-Generational Trust in Workplaces and Families

• How does cross-generational trust get communicated in actions, not words?
• What does it take to bring more depth to an already- good relationship?
• How can touchy feedback get delivered without disrupting the relationship?
• How does entitlement show up, and what’s the best way to address it?

John and Nick Engels, a father-son team, will open an unfiltered conversation about the assumptions and blind spots that erode trust between generations—and the attitudes and commitments that build it. Through personal candor and hard-earned insight, we’ll explore how generational divides impact culture, succession, communication dynamics and authority.

Join 200+ leaders and their teams for a full-day immersion featuring powerful stories, relationship insights, and direct-response coaching.

Whether you are mentoring the next wave, or inheriting a mantle of influence, this retreat invites leaders and parents to disrupt default patterns, broaden perspective, learn new skills, and lead wisely and collaboratively across generational lines.

John Engels launched Leadership Coaching, Inc. (LCI) in 1996 with a clear mission: to help leaders strengthen families, fortify family enterprises, and shape healthy leadership teams across every sector of society.

Three decades later, LCI remains a trusted global resource for leadership rooted in self-awareness, self-responsibility, advanced relationship management skills, and actionable coaching strategies.

John’s path to this work is as distinctive as his approach. Trained as a journalist and steeped for decades in Bowen Family Systems Theory through the Georgetown Family Center (now the Bowen Center for the Study of the Family), he has worked as a consultant, teacher, and confidant to family business owners and senior leaders throughout North America, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. His direct yet deeply perceptive style travels seamlessly across cultures.

Today he mentors coaches, advises complex multigenerational enterprises, and contributes to the field’s thought leadership.

John is a Fellow of Cornell University’s Smith Family Business Initiative, where he co-authored the eCornell Family Business Leadership Certificate Program. He also serves as an Advisor to the Bowen Center for the Study of the Family and to ERG, a racial-awareness initiative in his hometown of Rochester, NY.

Nicholas V. Engels is a founder, master facilitator, and leadership strategist who helps organizations achieve impact at scale through people at depth: principled candor, clear roles, and earned connection.

For almost two decades, Nick has been a trusted guide to leaders in family enterprises, global nonprofits, professional firms, boards, and C-suites seeking to upgrade their relational operating system - where complex people challenges grow into routine opportunities for bottom line success.

Each year, Nick leads Leadership Coaching, Inc.’s Advanced Leadership Course, an intensive, 10-month program on interpersonal mastery, maturity, and high-trust leadership, now in its 26th year. Having merged the firm he founded in 2016 into his family’s company, Leadership Coaching, Inc., Nick brings firsthand experience when advising clients on succession, ownership structure, accountability, and family legacy.

Nick graduated from the National Outdoor Leadership School in Western Australia, holds degrees from Quinnipiac University and the University at Buffalo, and completed postgraduate training at the Bowen Center for the Study of the Family in Washington, DC.

He lives in upstate New York with his wife and son.

A discounted block of hotel rooms will be available onsite at the hotel venue.

Discounted nightly rate: $112.00 (+ taxes/fees)

Applicable Dates: 01/05/26 - 01/07/26

Rooms are booked directly via their . Under discounts, enter rate code: 95631.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Hyatt Regency Rochester, 125 East Main Street, Rochester, United States