In Minnesota, I jokingly refer to September as "back to business month" due to our short summers – and our propensity to try and pack the schedule to take advantage.
During the summer, making the monthly peer group meeting can be challenging while trying to run your business, lead your team, and squeeze in family and recreation time.
September is an ideal time to recommit to the process and better leverage your peer group experiences. I've put together # ways to start immediately:
#1 - Make the meeting sacred on your calendar.
In the beginning, this may be hard. Many business owners and leaders are trained to respond to the perceived urgent. This is often the first and hardest habit to break when trying to build a valuable and transferable business.
Your Allied peer group should serve as a clarity break from the day-to-day. Think of it as a true test if you are working IN the business or ON it. You don't have a business if the job or business can’t exist without your constant presence. You have a job. One you can’t quit.
What makes a mastermind or peer group go is the consistent attendance of the group’s members. The more members who are present, the greater the depth and variety of experiences to add to the discussions being had. Each group member is counting on the others to be there. They need your insights and experiences and vice versa.
Furthermore, you’ll miss the opportunity to learn and develop deeper relationships with the other group members and leader.
#2 - Prepare for the meeting
We've all blown into a meeting, having not thought about it until the moments preceding your arrival. And how does that usually go? Not well. Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.
Instead, to get the most out of each meeting, simply set aside 15 minutes to prepare. How?
For starters, review and reflect on your notes from the last meeting. What was discussed? What did you share? If you led a discussion, what did you take action on? What were the results? Did you run into additional or new issues? What has happened in the business or personally since the last meeting?
Challenge yourself to identify at least one discussion topic to challenge the group with each meeting. If your organization operates on the EOS platform or something like it, take a look at the issues list you have created. What issues would be best suited to have many perspectives and ideas as part of the solution (who else around the table has dealt with “x”)? The Issues List is a great place to start.
It’s nearly impossible to lack issues or challenges in any business for 30 days. A few minutes of reflection will lead to lots of thoughts. Not only will this directly benefit you, but it’ll also benefit the other members and spark discussion and ideas.
#3 - Be open, specific, and deep
Use specifics when giving updates or context about a specific situation or current state. Instead of “revenues are solid”, give a number and share why that number is solid. If something is off, share why it is troubling and the impact it is having.
Letting your peers in on the specifics allows them to better understand, dig in harder to help, and also helps you acknowledge you need some help. Specifics also demonstrate your competence and control and further build the bond between you and your group members.
#4 - Connect with the other group members outside the meeting
Challenge yourself to periodically connect with and get to know the other members of your group outside the meeting. When I was a member, I tried to meet with someone outside our meeting at least once every 60-90 days.
The value of a network is never known until you need it and these one-to-one interactions are great opportunities to develop deeper relationships, build trust, learn, and provide each other value.
With deeper relationships in tow, when you bring a discussion to the peer group table, you can be sure that the others in the group will be ALL IN for you.
#5 - Leverage your peer group leader
The peer group leader is there to enrich your member experience, challenge you, and help you get to and ask the right questions for your benefit. Often the group leader is rich in experience and know-how and very well-connected. Get to know where their expertise lies and how and where they can help you individually.
They can see things from an outside perspective, help you do the same, and help you identify great discussion topics to share in front of the group.
The better they get to know you personally, the better they can help you connect to others in the group. There are many different peer groups within the Allied Community.
Lean on the group leader for how to best meet and leverage other members from other peer groups.
#6 - Take great notes
If it isn’t obvious, you will likely take many notes during your peer group meetings. Buy yourself, and use a specific notebook for this purpose. This will help you keep every gained thought and idea in one place and make it easy to reference when needed.
#7 - Share your takeaways with your leadership team
When you return to the office, involve other key leaders in what you learned. Share the ideas. Discuss how to implement or work through decision options together.
This is an especially great way if you are part of a partnership and only one of you is involved in the peer group to involve them in what you are being exposed to.
When doing so, be sure to respect confidentiality and not expose who you heard it from. Sharing the idea or solution, not the source, is acceptable.
#8 - Put ideas into action.
Every mastermind or peer group session should end with sharing each member's takeaways from the day’s discussion and any to-do’s coming out of the meeting.
Thirty days later, the peer group leader should prompt members to share how they moved things forward from the previous month and if any new challenges or discussions on the topic are necessary.
This soft accountability is a great side benefit of involvement in a peer group and keeps all the members moving forward. Remember, ideas without action are just that. Ideas.