Many people with New Year’s resolutions tend to give up on them on the 3rd Monday of January. To improve that trend I’m putting together my first Master Mind group. A Master Mind group meets weekly to set and accomplish goals. In our case, each member is a business owner. We’ll support and celebrate each other; we’ll be honest even if it’s hard to hear.
Below are Master Mind Group Guidelines that were put together by Barb Giamanco at Talent Builders. We’re going to use this format as our jumping off point.
Master Mind Group Guidelines and Format
The basic idea behind a mastermind group is that you can achieve more in less time by working with a team of people dedicated to supporting the success of each member of the group. People in the group will benefit from the knowledge, experience, resources or perspectives of group members. To be effective though, everyone must feel comfortable enough to be honest. There must be an agreement that everything said remains “confidential”, because without that trust the group is doomed to fail. Equally important to the success of the group is commitment made by each member to attend every meeting on time, every time.
Here is the Master Mind process suggested by Napoleon Hill in his landmark book – Think and Grow Rich. Here are the steps:
- Ask for universal guidance to kick off the meeting…not a preachy, churchy thing…just ask spirit to bring positive and productive energy to the group. The person who is dubbed the “timekeeper” for the call will handle the kick off.
- Share what’s new & good (What You Feel Like Expressing)…a positive way to kick it off. Each person gets 1 minute ONLY! An example is…”Whew, I’m glad I’m back home from my travels.” or “I’ve had a kick butt day and can’t wait to share my news.” Again, short and sweet. You spill your guts during your 15 minute time slot.
- Negotiate for time. Normal time allotment for each member is about 15 min – depending on the size of the group. During this step, anyone who thinks they will need more time needs to negotiate with the group. Once the time negotiation is settled, everyone moves on. The timekeeper is decided on at the beginning of each meeting and you rotate that responsibility around. The timekeeper’s job is exactly that…keep everyone on time. Everyone agrees to stick within their time limit or be cut off! Timekeepers MUST be willing to do their job and usually the group becomes pretty good at “self managing” anyway.
- Individual members speak while the group listens and then everyone can brainstorm solutions. DO NOT jump in with solutions until the member has shared their peace and then asks for help. If they forget to ask…the group should be prepared to ask what help is needed from them.
- Members need to be brief enough in sharing their need so that the group can brainstorm and offer solutions. Example, Mark needs to meet 5 VP’s at companies in his target client range. Who does the group know?
- Make a commitment to stretch. After the sharing/brainstorming process, the timekeeper asks each person to commit verbally to a next action that moves them forward to their goal. The commitment should be a stretch.
- End with a moment of gratitude. Could be a prayer or just going around the table to say what everyone appreciated about the meeting and the group.
- Be accountable. To kick off the next meeting, each member talks about what they did to accomplish the goal(s) they set for themselves the prior meeting. In this space, we hold each other accountable. This is not the place for excuses. If you didn’t do what you said you would…talk about it, but don’t blame the circumstances. Maybe you made a commitment, but didn’t really feel it, so it didn’t get done. It’s OK to acknowledge that. Once this piece is done, we move into steps 1-6 again.
Group Culture/Expectations
Trust. Everyone is there to support and guide each other. It is a safe environment to be totally open and honest. What is said at meetings stays at meetings!
Each member makes a 100% commitment to attend and participate in all meetings. Occasionally adjustments need to be made when emergencies arise, but everyone commits to “zero tolerance” at missing meetings.
Meetings focus on professional, business growth. Unless the group specifically agrees, Mastermind meetings are focused on business and not on dealing with personal issues of group members. If personal issues arise, the group can kindly suggest the individual seek outside guidance.
In Mastermind, members DO NOT take advantage of members of the group to get “free” services; i.e. financial assistance, coaching, writing or marketing help. It is OK for a member to ask for a referral or resource recommendation if they need help in a particular area. And it is OK to “pay” for the service of a Mastermind group member to assist you outside the meeting. The point is that you don’t ask people to give you for “free” what would normally be a paid service. That’s unfair to team members.
No triangling aka gossiping. If someone has something they need to say to another member…they say it to them and not to another member of the group.
Openly share goals and objectives.
The group holds each member accountable for what they say that wanted to accomplish, although success is ultimately up to each person in the group.
