Mastermind Your Way to Success
Mastermind Your Way to Success
• Imagine having a permanent group of five to six people who meet every week for the purpose of problem solving, brainstorming, networking, and encouraging and motivating each other.
• This process, called masterminding, is one of the most powerful tools for success presented in this book.
• Napoleon Hill first wrote about mastermind groups in 1937 in his classic, Think and Grow Rich. It’s the one concept achievers reference most when they credit any one thing helping them become a millionaire.
• A mastermind group can focus special energy on your efforts – in the form of knowledge, new ideas, a vast array of resources, and, most importantly, spiritual energy.
A Process For Accelerating Your Growth
• The basic philosophy of a mastermind group is that more can be achieved in less time when people work together. A mastermind group is made up of people who come together on a regular basis – weekly, biweekly, or monthly – to share ideas, thoughts, information, feedback, and resources. By getting the perspective, knowledge, experience, and resources of the others in the group, not only can you move beyond your own limited view of the world but you can also advance your own goals and projects more quickly.
• A mastermind group can be composed of people from your own industry or profession or people from a variety of walks of life. It can focus on business issues, personal issues, or both. But for a mastermind group to be powerfully effective, people must be comfortable enough with each other to tell the truth.
• Confidentiality is what allows this level of trust to build. In a mastermind group, participants can let their hair down, tell the truth about their personal and business life, and feel safe that what is said in the group will stay in the group.
• When you form your mastermind group, consider bringing together people from different professional arenas and people that are “above” you and who can introduce you to a network of people you normally wouldn’t have access to. When you assemble people from different industries and professions, you get lots of different perspectives on the same subject.
• How To Assemble A Mastermind Group Regardless of its purpose, the key is to choose people who are already where you’d like to be in your life – or who are at least a level above you.
• Many people at a higher level will want to become involved simply because they’ll get to play at a game they might newer take the time to organize for themselves. They’d probably be delighted to mastermind with the other people you’re going to invite – especially if some of the others are already playing at their level.
• The ideal size of a mastermind group is five to six people. If it is any smaller it loses its dynamics. If it is too much bigger, it gets unwieldy – meetings take longer, some people’s needs may go unmet, and personal sharing is minimized.
Conducting A Mastermind Meeting
• Mastermind meetings should be conducted weekly or every other week with all members of the group in attendance. They can be conducted in person or over the phone. About 1 to 2 hours is an ideal length of time.
• For the first few meetings, it’s recommended that each member get the entire hour to familiarize the others with his or her situation, opportunities, needs, and challenges, while the other members brainstorm ways they can support that person. During later meetings, participants each get a small amount of time to update the others, ask for help, and get feedback.
• Each meeting should follow the proven format below to ensure that each participant gets their needs met and therefore stays involved. Your group should also assign someone to be the timekeeper to ensure that all members adhere to their preapproved time to speak and receive attention.
o Step 1: Ask for Spiritual Guidance by Delivering an Invocation
o Step 2: Share What’s New and Good – share a success story.
o Step 3: Negotiate for Time: Although the normal weekly time allotment might be 10 to 15 minutes per person, there may be times when one participant needs extra time during that week’s session to discuss a particularly difficult situation. Once the negotiation process is complete and everyone agrees to the schedule, the meeting begins in earnest, with the timekeeper ensuring that everyone stays on time and on focus. If some members don’t get their needs met, the group will risk losing them as participants.
o Step 4: Individual Members Speak while the Group Listens and Brainstorms Solutions: After the allotted time of explanation, discussion, and brainstorming, the timekeeper says, “Time’s up!” and the group moves to the next member’s needs. Discussions can be personal or professional – it doesn’t matter. Groups tend to go through phases. They start out fairly businesslike, but as people get to know each other and begin to delve into personal challenges they take on a special personal bond.
o Step 5: Make a Commitment to Stretch Once members have had their time to present, discuss, brainstorm, and gain feedback, the timekeeper asks each member in turn to commit t verbally to an action that will move him or her forward toward the achievement of his or her goals; something that the member will agree to accomplish before the next meeting. The commitment needs to be a stretch. This commitment ensures that everyone is continually moving forward ward the completion of their goals, which is the ultimate benefit of a mastermind group.
o Step 6: End with a Moment of Gratitude
o Step 7: Be Accountable When members assemble the very next week, each member shares something related to the goal he set at the previous meeting. Did each member take action? Did they achieve their goal? You’ll find one of the real values of a mastermind group is the accountability factor – other members checking up on you to make sure you meet your stated commitments. The reality is that if you know you’re going to be asked next week about the commitment you made today, you’ll take steps to accomplish it by next week’s deadline. It’s one way to ensure you’ll accomplish a lot more.
• Accountability Partners – Instead of a mastermind group, you might choose to work with an accountability partner. The two of you agree to a set of goals that each is working toward and agree to talk regularly by phone to hold each other accountable for meeting deadlines, accomplishing goals, and making progress. Knowing that you’ll be reporting to someone provides the extra motivation to get the job done.
• An accountability partner can also provide enthusiasm when yours is waning because of obstacles, distractions, setbacks, or even better opportunities. The key to a successful accountability relationship is choosing someone who is as excited about reaching his or her goal as you are about reaching yours – someone who is committed to your success and theirs.
