“Do not wait. The time will never be "Just Right".”

- Napoleon Hill

THE MASTERMIND PRINCIPLE

The last decades have been characterized by technological advancements that have provided managers with access to more data than ever before. Just think about it, Google’s latest quantum computer can process and finish 47 years of computing tasks in just 6 seconds (Nield, 2023). The influx of information can provide insights but can also be overwhelming with a lack of insights requiring managers to sift through more information to make decisions. It pulls managers and leaders closer and closer to data and systems and further and further from the people that they are meant to lead.

We have seen a gradual shift in management styles with hyperfocus on metrics and numbers, pushing the team to meet top line and bottom line. They get a reputation for meeting goals in a short period and get promoted to the next level based on their skills in managing processes to hit their numbers. The reward reinforces their resulting beliefs that success is mainly due to policies, systems, and processes, moving them further away from recognizing that any achievement comes the human potential at play. They forget about increasing their leadership abilities, learning, and applying the skills that inspire and touch the heart.

The 2019 pandemic left a void in leadership and brought organizations to the brink as it pressure tested human resource teams to fill management positions in a competitive labor market. Forced to work from home, people experienced isolation with time to question their purpose, their loyalty and whether they were on the right track to professional and personal fulfillment. Many also discovered happily that their skills are transferable.

The breakdown of the supply chain that followed only put greater strain on organizations to deliver. It introduced higher inflation. Hostile work conditions, wage stagnation, and rising cost of living were contributing factors that led to the Great Resignation, or Big Quit. More people who were not ready to lead got promoted to fill the voids. This reaffirmed the belief, in many new managers’ minds, that their ascension in corporate America was mainly due to how they successfully met numbers and metrics. Human potential, or the ability to lead from the heart, took a back seat in the promotion process.

THE DAWN OF HEART-CENTERED LEADERSHIP

When employees are engaged and inspired, it is good for them and for business. A recent Gallup poll suggests that 77% of workers worldwide are waiting for their employers to give them a reason to do more than just show up. That is food for thought when considering how to boost performance.

In a lot of cases, forward thinking companies will choose to invite their leadership team to an annual retreat. There, they will face a parade of motivational speakers to energize them. After all, you can’t motivate and inspire your team if you are not motivated yourself.

After the event, leaders go back to the office without follow-up coaching, without enabling processes to change the approach, without accountability methods to ensure a shift in leadership to a more human centered environment. The external excitement of a meeting is quickly dampened as they get bombarded by the daily demands of business and soon forget that nothing gets done unless employees commit and are engaged in delivering quality services or products.



THE PREDICTED LEADERSHIP TRANSFORMATION

We must recognize that we are entering a new era in leadership where improved heart-centered leadership will more and more become the next competitive advantage. Good employees, those who are team players, recognize the value of their transferrable skills and will seek to work with organizations that provide a sense of dignity, purpose, and personal fulfillment. They will seek to integrate an organization that has a compelling vision and mission, rooted in the value of human potential as their main ingredient for outstanding results.

We will see heart-centered leaders guide their organization or team to greater results by creating a pull as they work to align and inspire their team with their vision and mission instead of pushing on them to meet a metric. A heart-centered leader not only cares about reaching and exceeding goals but also cares about how the team reaches the goals while respecting and promoting the human potential. Trust, integrity, and respect are of utmost importance to him and to his team.

Of course, the transformation will not happen just because it is required. Much effort will need to take place to help leaders shift from over-emphasis on numbers and metrics. It will start with senior management learning to institute heart-centered leadership, then recognize and reward those who practice it, and work with HR to promote or hire candidates who have demonstrated their will and skill to lead from the heart. As with any new skill, it will require focused effort on developing vision, mission, values, and leadership skills that empower leaders to guide themselves and their team to a transformed context.

Enter the concept of the Mastermind to facilitate, enable, and empower people to become heart-centered leaders.

THE MASTERMIND PRINCIPLE

It was 1925, in his book, The Laws of Success, Napoleon Hill coined success principles used by Andrew Carnegie and other affluent people of his time as the mastermind alliance. In 1937, he would dedicate a chapter in his book “Think and Grow Rich” to the “Power of the master mind” where he defined it as the “Coordination of knowledge and effort, in a spirit of harmony, between two or more people, for the attainment of a definite purpose.” (Hill, 2016).

The mastermind principle has been applied in practice by many successful people such as Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, Luther Burbank, and Tony Robbins. At the same time, it is often overlooked and/or misunderstood as variants have been introduced over the years. Some people even market group-coaching as masterminds and the two experiences are not at all the same.

In his book “The Mastermind Effect, The Law Firm Owner’s SECRET to 10X Growth” Ken Hardison describes the application of the mastermind principle in the legal industry and shares multiple case studies that demonstrate the incredible impact of utilizing the mastermind principle in this industry (Hardison, 2022). The mastermind principle is transferable and can be used in any industry, domain, or endeavor.

The studies and evaluations of many masterminds have clearly demonstrated the power of bringing people together, aligning them on a common purpose, and working together to realize the goal of a common saying, ‘’The sum of the whole is greater than the sum of its parts’’.

RECOGNIZING A MASTERMIND VS. GROUP-COACHING

The Mastermind group provides a safe environment to share best strategies, ideas, and insights freely without the burden of everyday business needs. Each participant gets an opportunity to participate in a “Hot Seat” to air out issues and present strategies with the goal of receiving feedback from the group. Participants learn from each other with a continuous give and take; that forms a collective mind that everyone can use for their own benefit.

When it comes to Mastermind groups, less people can provide more value. Masterminds will usually have an interview process to identify common goals and curate the mastermind group to create parity between participants. The facilitator’s primary role is not to provide materials and output but rather to facilitate an event that creates an opportunity for the free flow of information within the group. Depending on the type of mastermind, an NDA may be required to achieve this goal. Among the facilitator’s responsibilities are to guide the process and make sure that every participant has time on the hot seat and that the goals of each participant are being addressed; to create a group with members having exclusivity by preventing the participation of competitors in the mastermind as it would limit the opportunity to exchange information freely and limit the experience for everyone.

While a Mastermind with many people may sound exciting, it limits the opportunities to get feedback from the group. It can also steer you away from coordinating knowledge and efforts and achieve the spirit of harmony that is required to truly benefit. A mastermind may have a theme to assemble people who are like-minded, but the agenda and discussion are mostly set by the group who chooses what is important for them. Holding the mastermind over a couple of days allows participants to get to know each other and engage in deeper conversations and explore the details of strategies.

A group coaching session is characterized by having a facilitator or “Guru” being the focal point of the event. Unlike a mastermind, the “Guru” provides the answers and while they may offer a hot seat, the feedback will be provided by the “Guru” instead of the collective group. Using this approach allows many participants without a screening process. The facilitators will usually market their service or solution and can take as much as two thirds of the time to share their process and then let participants chime in if there is time left.

Larger group-coaching events will often introduce break-out sessions. The smaller groups are not curated to create parity within the group which limits the quality of the feedback and the value of the brainstorming sessions. As a rule, the greater the group, the lower the investment to participate. Smaller group-coaching sessions may not have any hot seats and will be carried out by an expert in a specific field sharing/teaching their knowledge of a specific topic. These are usually marketed as a masterclass and address a very specific topic.

WHO SHOULD PARTICIPATE.

Masterminds are not for everyone. Unless you have the right mindset, you may not enjoy the experience of a mastermind. For example, if you believe that you already have all the answers for your situation, then you should not join a mastermind. Ideal participants have confidence in themselves but also recognize that they may not have all of the answers. While they have accepted leadership responsibilities and may be alone at the top to make decisions, they have also learned to leave their ego at the door in a desire to learn. This gesture of humility allows them to receive feedback from the group with an open mind and to give feedback without being a braggard or trying to dominate the Mastermind.

There should also be a passion and a desire for a transformation to achieve personal and professional growth that starts with you. If you believe that deciding on and applying the answer to your challenges is in the hands of other people, then you should not be a mastermind. The mastermind is meant for action takers who are willing to take the lead, will take responsibility for their position, and will not wait for the permission of others to create the outcome. They will hold themselves accountable for the end results.

BENEFITS OF A MASTERMIND GROUP.

There are many reasons to join a mastermind. Here are a few of the most important ones.

1. Access to thought leaders with unbiased feedback.

2. Access to space and time to reflect and reconnect with yourself.

3. Refocus Rejuvenate, Remotivate.

4. Mindset and Bigger Thinking.

5. Clarity of purpose.

6. New awareness of barriers to your progress.

7. Energy / Synergy.

8. High value & Positive Return on Investment.

9. Profitable Relationships.

10. Friendly Accountability.

11. Personal fulfillment.

WORKING WITH HEART-CENTERED COACHES

Learning and developing the ability and capability to be a heart-centered leader requires a breakthrough transformation. In the context of everyday employee interactions, a heart-centered leader will emphasize the importance of emotional intelligence as a foundation of all activity. Essentially, the main responsibility of the leader becomes a sustained and continuous effort to achieve excellence through peak performance, an environment where every person strives to be the strongest link in the chain of performance.

This requires a shift in mindset, where the belief that best results are achieved when everyone is engaged and committed to be the best they can be in all circumstances. SJ Performance brings that expertise to the table and is ready to guide you through that breakthrough transformation.

We are a world class partner that provides coaching and helps to co-create solutions, enabling our clients to achieve Excellence through Peak Performance™. We combine technological know-how with human potential to reach greater results. We aspire to inject excellence driven through heart-centered leadership to lead organizational transformation. Our Think-Tank and Masterminds are meant to offer a space to leaders to be by themselves to be asked the right questions so that they can find what they need to be the inspiration for their organization.

We are heart-centered coaches with experience in leading personal and organizational transformation. We partner and coach our clients to a higher state of awareness and accountability to apply the right stuff, in the right amount, at the right time.™ As heart-centered coaches we often ask, “Why are you here?”, “How do we increase engagement and create a pull towards our vision and mission?”, “How do we elevate our conversation to generate powerful results?”. ‘’Why do you do what you are doing?’’ ‘’Have you thought about another way that taps people’s mindfulness, intentionality and presence?’’ For a leader, the question becomes, ‘’Have you led by walking around?’’ Or even more important, have you thought about making your approach easy to understand, easy to apply, easy to measure?

We believe that Peak Performance™ is not the state of being better than anyone else. It is a mindset to be the best that we can be at every step of our journey to excellence. We encourage and provide opportunities for space and time to bring focus back to the human heart and be champions. We enable people to reflect and identify their signature strengths to bring them from unconscious to conscious state so that they can be unleashed in a way that inspires others into action.

Why don’t you reach out, and find out what this is about?

If you would like information on our next mastermind, we will be pleased to share insights, no obligation whatsoever

References

Hardison, K, 2022, “The Mastermind Effect, The Law Firm Owner’s SECRET to 10X Growth”

Hill, N. (2016). Think and grow rich: The Original, an Official Publication of the Napoleon Hill Foundation.

Nield, D. July 5, 2023, “Google Quantum Computer is ’47 year’ Faster Than #1 Supercomputer”, Science Alert Pty Ltd., https://www.sciencealert.com/google-quantum-computer-is-47-years-faster-than-1-supercomputer