Escaping Leadership Traps:  Mastermind Groups

Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success. – Henry Ford

Napoleon Hill, in his book Think and Grow Rich, gives many examples of “mastermind” groups.  This is another type of accountability and advocacy support. Regular meetings of this team will help you pool the best thinking skills of each member and the result will be greater than the sum of the parts. In fact, this is the definition of synergy that Stephen Covey uses in his writings. When you can combine skilled thinking and customize the output to solve your life challenges, then you are one step ahead of others who are just trying to keep up.

The individuals in your thinking and resource group can be people of like mind from similar professions, or people with different goals but similar leadership principles. You can also choose a variety of individuals from different professions who have different work styles. Your group must, however, be made up of people whom you trust and with whom you can share your innermost thoughts. It is essential that each member of the group be successful and continuously seeking to be more successful. Choose people whom you want to be around and would like to emulate. They must also believe that one can harness the combined spiritual force to focus spiritual energy on the prescribed goal.

It works something like this:

• Choose people whom you respect and learn from those who are successful.
• Set the size of the group. 4 to 6 is ideal so that there is time for everyone to interact.
• Meet on a regular basis, weekly or bi-monthly, but often enough to be effective.
• Set the length of the meeting. One hour works unless a meal is included.
• Set a schedule that allows time for each person to share and stick to it.
• Each person should talk and share both the good and bad.
• Each person should listen and respond to others.
• Allow time for group interaction through brainstorming, evaluating, and strategizing.
• Appoint a process person to keep time and monitor participation.
• Ensure that each member is committed to the common goal.
• Challenge each other to stretch because of this group.

Look outside of your profession to network with people who have different skills and perspectives to escape the trap of only seeing things from an insider perspective.

Widen your sphere of contacts to widen wisdom, increase skills, and impact success.

Please comment below.

Hugh Ballou
The Transformational Leadership Strategist ^{TM
Read about me on Forbes}

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