The Success Alliance Blog

Not how long will you live.

How long will your mastermind groups live?

People often start and join a mastermind group with high energy and high expectations. Several months into it, you can find your group flagging and floundering. People show up late or don’t come at all. People don’t participate. Energy levels are low and new ideas don’t really meet the needs of the members.

Why does this happen? Four reasons:

1. You’re not meeting often enough. Too much time between meetings causes people to disconnect, both from the group and from their own goals. Consider meeting more often, or if that’s not possible, create an online message forum where people can connect with each other between meetings. Also consider short, check-in teleconferences between meetings, where people can talk about their work towards goals, challenges they’re having with those tasks, and any help they may need along the way.
2. There’s not enough interaction. Mastermind group meetings are more than just the individual Hot Seats. Creating space in each meeting for group discussion and group exercises, as well as casual networking time, allows for fuller interaction among members. Consider inviting people to come a bit early for coffee or a meal together.
3. Members are playing it safe. Mastermind groups are formed to help people create success in their personal and professional lives. Members state their goals and what actions/tasks they’ll take between meetings to accomplish those goals. Some members may state goals that are too easy, and other members may limit their participation in the Hot Seat discussions to topics that are below-par. Encourage your members to challenge themselves AND each other. Growth is the keyword.
4. People begin to self-sabotage when asked to make major changes. You’ve seen this a million times. A mastermind group member sets an important goal for himself, and just as he’s beginning to near the finish line, the whole project falls apart. It’s common for people who have set big goals for themselves to self-sabotage their own success for many reasons. As the mastermind group facilitator, your job is to remind people of the goals they set and WHY they set them. It’s also your job to encourage all the members to support each other as they set off to achieve their life’s dream.

Keeping your mastermind group strong and vibrant makes for a healthy group that members value. Maintain close watch on members’ energy and participation levels, and take care of a floundering group before it folds.

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