Harnessing the power of many minds.
Running a business comes down to you. You are the owner and the buck stops with you, literally and figuratively. When you’ve got some serious challenges to face or hurdles to leap over in your business, the fear and stress can be compounded by the fact that you are on your own. But it doesn’t have to be that way. As the old saying goes ‘two heads are better than one’, so five or six heads? That’s called forward momentum!
What if I told you that you could ensure that growth by sharing some of your time with others? You can, with a Mastermind Group.
What is a Mastermind Group?
A Mastermind Group for entrepreneurs is a group of business owners whose collective experience and ideas are mined, within the group, to support one another when facing the challenges of running a business. That’s the technical answer. Really, a Mastermind Group that runs well can be a soft pillow to land on. A safe place to share difficulties and successes and gain the insight from like-minded peers that you are looking for to move forward. It’s all about brainstorming new ideas and directions, and then being accountable to someone for your decisions and paths taken. Sound good so far?
What is Not a Mastermind Group?
Before we talk about the various benefits of a Mastermind Group, we need to look at what it is not: it is not a place to engage in networking for sales leads. While this may be an unintended side effect and, of course, sharing information is part of the process, that’s not the purpose of the group.
Nor is it a formal class, with a teacher or facilitator at its head. It’s also not business coaching by groupthink, which would necessarily mean there was a facilitator, a leader, someone who had a plan for each member individually, and not an organic group process.
Why Mastermind Groups are Beneficial to Business Owners
Most of us, introverts or extroverts alike, are still pack animals. Human nature compels us to socialize and be amongst others for our mutual benefit. Mastermind Groups are just taking that natural instinct to the next level. Allowing members to help each other gain insight into their businesses, set clear goals and have support while they move forward are the main benefits to a Mastermind Group. All members should walk away from a meeting or session feeling wiser and ready to conquer their worlds.
What are the Specific Benefits ?
Brainstorming— Call it mining for insights, collaboration or crowdsourcing, ultimately the power of many brains with significant and diverse experience is a perfect way to gain a foothold on what your business goals are and the paths to achieving them. It’s not always easy, as the owner of a company, to ask those who work for you to participate in the brainstorming effort. Sometimes, you need to look outside the box that you work in for ideas that may never have occurred to you otherwise.
Accountability and Feedback— Your group won’t let you get away with not moving forward and growing your business. It’s just part of the advantage of having other people involved in your thought processes: you can’t ignore them! There’s no bias in their opinions either: they’re not your parents, not your customers and not your competition. They are your peers and, by consequence, are in a unique position to comment on your business and your decisions with a point of view like none other. In a Mastermind Group, a huge part of accountability and feedback is support. Peers who have your back when you’re jumping onto a new path with your business, without judgement or bias.
Resources— Growth in business comes from information. If you have a strong place from which to obtain knowledge assets, you have a much greater chance of succeeding. People who are like-minded in business but come from differing perspectives and experiences can provide an unbelievable level of intelligence that you wouldn’t come by on your own or through 1:1 business coaching. Learning is an essential part of growing, whether in life or in business and a Mastermind Group can provide a platform for acquiring new skills and information, within an exclusive peer group. Additionally, while networking is not the end goal of a Mastermind Group, it is often a very useful side effect and worth exploring!
A Mastermind Group can help you think bigger and bolder when it comes to growing your business. Your productivity will soar with an investment of time that helps you and the rest of your group.
If you are interested in learning more about the transformative effects of a great Mastermind Group, click here for more information, testimonials and how to find your own group!