Do You Have A Mastermind?

Let's face it, it's lonely at the top. As an entrepreneur or CEO, you have fears and challenges that sometimes just aren't appropriate to share with your team. And when you bottle up those fears and challenges, it hurts your business. But more importantly, it could hurt your mental health, and that impacts you, your family and your company.

One great way to battle this problem is to become part of a mastermind group. A mastermind group is a small collection of like-minded individuals, typically external to your organization, who help you solve problems and challenge you to be your best. They could be other leaders in the same industry or different industries. Members use the experience and advice from other members to help solve their problems, vet new ideas, or explore options for growth or change.

A strong mastermind group will kick you in the butt when you need it, pat you on the back when you deserve it, and help unearth new ideas by sharing their own experiences. There are existing organizations that provide mastermind groups like the Entrepreneurs Organization,  the Young Presidents Organization, and Vistage. But you can also create your own mastermind group.

I belong to two different mastermind groups. One group includes three other business coaches from around the country, and we meet on a video call once a month. Although we're all coaches, we specialize in different areas and we have very different goals for our businesses. Despite these differences, we help each other by providing a sounding board. We celebrate each other's victories, I get a pat on the back when I need it or a kick in the butt if that's what will help me more. I'm also a member of a second mastermind group we call the CEO roundtable. There are 12 of us and we're all business owners trying to grow and improve our businesses, but we're all from different industries. And that's one of the biggest reasons it works so well. Each of us has different perspectives and experiences that help open our eyes to ideas we never would have thought of on our own.

For my business, these groups are incredibly important. If I have a challenge, I could ask, have you grappled with this before? How have you handled it? If I'm about to make a bad decision or I'm blind to a certain situation, the group calls me on it in a way that no one else could.

So as you build the right internal leadership team, don't overlook the value of an external mastermind group.