So How Do You Know if Your Mastermind Group is at the Head of the Class?
First-rate Business Mastermind Groups deliver quantifiable value for member businesses, to be sure. It is often the qualitative value that becomes life-changing for business administrators involved. That qualitative value can be gauged by the below results:
Constant Growth
By whatever metric assigned, all constituent businesses are continuously approaching the accomplishment of their purpose in the group, be it company growth in sales, developing a scalable model, or worldwide expansion. Objectives don’t have to be financial, but this is often a measurement that is easy to keep score of a common expected outcome for small business participants.
Dedication
Mastermind Group members must be absolutely committed to their purpose for joining and the aggregate purpose of the group. One characteristic of a mature, high-performing Mastermind Group is a high level of attendance at all group meetings and training functions. As we discussed in an earlier report, dedication can also be seen in the level of active involvement in the positive resolutions for the challenges encountered by other companies in the Mastermind Group. Groups that rally around one another, bringing out and resolving member problems, helping others with goal setting and achievement, celebrating victories and that don’t hesitate to take a poor performing member to task demonstrate first-class Masterminding effectiveness.
Liability
Members who aren’t growing or performing as expected are held to task by the policing that takes place within a healthy group. This helps member prosperity and, eventually, weeds out members who are not committed. Level of commitment will be obvious as defined above. Accountable Mastermind Groups expect results from other members and object when they don’t happen. They establish restorative action periods to help drifting members rebound and get on track, and when necessary, will remove members who do not show signs of the commitment demanded by the Mastermind Group.
Unity
The ideal Business Mastermind Alliances coalesce as a group and move beyond where they were upon creation; they take it to another level. That is a mix of the individual transcendence of each member as it continually obtains its objectives, AND the group itself becoming more than just a collection of individual businesses but a united entity that has an identity, voice, and makes a contribution. The United States collectively is a greater body than the sum of its individual states, and great corporations have an identity making them far better than a collection of individual divisions and departments. Group transcendence is quantifiable by the productivity of a Mastermind Group that stands alone as a value brought upon by the group en masse such as charitable foundations or group knowledge data banks that can be distributed and improve the condition of other companies that may not be a part of the Mastermind Group.
Meaningful Relationships
As the group matures, the partnerships between members grow beyond business peers to personal, trusted advisors, facilitating the sharing of more important issues for each member that bridge personal and professional life, and strengthening the group in the process. This relationship deepening is a fundamental growth that takes place in a Mastermind Group and typically occurs at a different rate among groups as determined by their individual memberships. Groups that don’t develop deeper relationships over time have a tendency to stagnate and eventually disband, as the low-lying business improvement fruit has been picked. Additional success comes from searching deeper strategically and often personally within members in order to create meaningful growth.
Measuring Your Mastermind Group Level of Greatness
If you’re in a Mastermind Group, look for the elements outlined here to gauge how effective your current group is. If individual members are continually growing, committed, held accountable, and if the deepening relationships between the members allow for a collective transcendence into something greater, you can feel positive and proud that you’re part of something special.
About the Author:
Stuck in a business rut? Need higher profits and more sales? Check out the power of Mastermind Groups in this FREE e-course, video and eBook. Groups forming today! Karl Walinskas owns Smart Company Growth and Virtual Mastermind and is a noted author and speaker on small business growth strategies and best practices. Read more at the Smart Blog for Small Business.