By Dr. Bill Dyment

“Team Doctor” • Executive Coach • Author: Fire Your Excuses and Leaders’ Guide to Executive Coaching * I help teams grow more resilient, resolve conflicts, and deliver 5X executive coaching results.

Mastermind groups are peer-to-peer mentoring groups used to help members solve their problems with input and advice from the other group members. The concept was popularized by Napoleon Hill in his book “Think and Grow Rich,” published in 1937. Here’s a detailed exploration of the power of mastermind groups:

The Top 5 benefits of a Mastermind Group

Benefit #1: Accountability: Masterminds hold participants to their goal-setting and achievement!

Dr. Gail Matthews of Dominican University conducted research on goal setting that highlighted the significant impact of writing down goals and sharing them with others.

• Those who committed to talking about their goals with others every two week accomplishing their goals 76% of the time or were more than halfway there when the study ended.
• Those had goals but they were unwritten and not held accountable in their pursuit of them had a success rate of 43%.

  In a mastermind group, members hold each other accountable for their goals, which can significantly increase motivation and follow-through. Regular meetings ensure that members stay on track and make progress on their commitments.

Benefit #2: Shared Knowledge and Resources: Mastermind groups efficiently expose members to a diverse range of knowledge and ideas.

 Mastermind group members freely share resources, tools, and contacts that can help others achieve their goals. Many groups use the “hot seat” model where individual members are highlighted and receive invaluable 360 feedback and ideas on their goals and challenges.

Dr. K. Anders Ericsson, a renowned psychologist, studied the role of deliberate practice in achieving high levels of expertise. His research shows that regular, structured, and feedback-rich practice leads to superior performance. Mastermind groups provide a framework for this kind of practice, offering regular feedback, accountability, and knowledge-sharing that can accelerate skill development and goal achievement.

Benefit #3. Support and Encouragement: Mastermind groups deliver on facilitating goal-achievement, focus, and motivation during challenging and isolating times.

 Emotional support from peers can be incredibly empowering, especially during challenging times.

 Celebrating successes together boosts morale and motivation. Mastermind groups elevate and safeguard the critical elements needed to push to the next level: Mindset, hope and community.

Benefit #4: Networking Opportunities: Mastermind groups offer unparalleled access to other high performers and facilitate community and connection.

 Members often come from different industries or fields, expanding each member’s professional network.

 Connections made through mastermind groups can lead to business partnerships, job opportunities, and more.

Benefit #5. Increased Creativity: Mastermind groups feature a “surround-sound” environment where creative solutions follow freely.

 Brainstorming sessions with diverse minds can lead to creative solutions that one might not come up with alone. As it is said, the group’s IQ is always genius and we are often “too close” to see the solution we need to our challenges. The mastermind group’s collaborative environment encourages innovative thinking and problem-solving.

How Mastermind Groups Work

1. Structure:

  Typically, mastermind groups meet regularly, such as weekly or bi-weekly.

  Meetings can be in-person or virtual, depending on the group’s preferences and members’ locations.

2.Membership:

  Groups are often kept small (5-10 members) to ensure effective communication and participation.

  Members are usually carefully selected to ensure a good fit and complementary skills.

3. Facilitation:

Many groups have a facilitator or leader to guide discussions and keep meetings on track. A few are peer-led with rotating leadership.

4. Agenda:

Meetings generally follow a structured agenda, including updates, goal setting, problem-solving discussions, and accountability checks. Some groups use a “hot seat” format, where each meeting focuses on one member’s specific challenge or goal.

Mastermind Groups Deliver!

1. Impact on Business Success:

Studies suggest that mastermind groups can significantly impact business success, helping entrepreneurs make better decisions and grow their businesses faster.

2. Psychological Benefits:

 Research shows that belonging to a supportive group can improve mental health, reduce stress, and increase feelings of well-being.

3. Leadership Development:

Participation in mastermind groups can enhance leadership skills, as members often take on roles that require facilitation, conflict resolution, and motivational abilities.

Mastermind groups leverage the collective intelligence, support, and accountability of a community to help individuals achieve their goals and overcome challenges more effectively than they might alone.

#mastermindgroups

#executivecoaching

It’s now been months since the pandemic began. We have all entered a second phase of unknown length, most characterized by a strong sense of “COVID fatigue.” To date, Dr. Bill Dyment has delivered 220 COVID-related webinars to organizations around the world. In this short video he shares seven energizing strategies to combat the fatigue that many individuals and work teams are experiencing right now. #covid #leadership #mentalhealth

In direct response to COVID-19, Dr. Bill has delivered 175 corporate webinars since the lockdowns began in March. Here’s he speaks about the top corporate training trends he has seen and the number one corporate training request during the pandemic to date.

Have you or your organization wondered the same yourself?

Here are three sample passages:

Passage 1:

…What is Executive Coaching Exactly?

Executive coaching focuses on the leadership development needs of high-level executives and leaders.  Most are leaders within an organization, a growing number are self-referred salaried professionals.  Others work within their own businesses, as entrepreneurs or “solopreneurs.”  In many cases, the coachee (the one to be coached) is referred by his or her own boss, the CEO, or by human resources.  In other cases, the coachee reaches out to engage an executive coach privately.

Executive coaching assists the coachee in understanding his or her business strengths and weaknesses, uncovering blind spots, setting business development goals, and leading his or her own team.  By addressing the challenges of the coachee, not only is the coachee helped, his or her team and eventually the organization as a whole is improved.  Executive coaching can also address other related concerns such as personal branding, career path, obstacles to success, conflict management, accountability, communication, emotional intelligence skills and much more.  While a good executive coach has a strong background in understanding performance and positive psychology, those who are also psychologists refrain from providing therapy to those they coach.  Instead, coachees are referred for therapy if it becomes apparent that it would be helpful as well or instead of a coaching arrangement.

A good executive coach is acutely aware that for coaching to be seen as a valuable investment it must ultimately pay for itself many times over.  There needs to be a clear ROI with any coaching assignment.  While it is not difficult to measure the ROI of coaching on the leaders’ development, their team success and the wider impact on the organization, it takes skill to determine which metrics should be measured and how.   We will revisit this important “bottom line” topic in more depth below.

 

Passage 2:

…Why Companies Provide Coaching

 Hecht Harrison found the top five reasons why companies provide coaching were:

• For leadership development—70%
• For skill development or style differences—64%
• To retain top talent—40%
• As part of management succession planning—34%
• To ensure success after promotion or with a new hire—30%⁷

The Manchester Review Study reported the average ROI was 5.7 times the cost of coaching.

Among the tangible benefits to the organization listed here in descending order were:

Improved productivity, organizational strength, quality, customer service, reduced complaints, own retention, cost reductions, bottom line profitability, top line revenue, reduced turnover.⁸

The results of a global survey of coaching clients by Price Waterhouse’s underscore the ROI of coaching can be far greater:

“…The mean ROI for companies investing in coaching was seven times that of the initial investment. A quarter of the companies in the survey reported an ROI of 10 to 49 times investment.”⁹

 

Passage 3

…Coaching as Part of a Systemic Organizational Intervention

Hourly coaching rates, though, tell only part of the story.  It is not uncommon for top business consultants to include executive coaching as part of their overall intervention for a department or organization.  In such cases, the overall investment is based, not on hourly rates, but on the impact and ROI to be achieved by the project.

For example, consider a hospital which employees 100 nurses.  As reported by the 2018 National Healthcare Retention & RN Staffing Report, when the consultant’s services is requested, the annual nurse turnover rate is 30%, much higher than the national average of 18.2%.¹⁷ For each nurse that leaves it can modestly take up to $25,000 for recruiting, orientating, and training their replacement, especially when one considers inactive working hours for new nurses.  These are not the only costs involved but will serve our purposes for illustrating how coaching as part of a larger consulting project works.

If 30% of their nursing workforce leaves each year, then 30 nurses need to be replaced at a cost of $750,000. If the consultant can help the hospital address the reasons why their nurses are leaving at more than the average rate of 18.2% and a replacement cost of $455,000 instead of $750,000, the hospital would save $295,000 a year.  The consultant prices the investment of his or her intervention at a small fraction of this anticipated savings. For example, if just two fewer nurses leave the hospital each year, this small difference alone would result in a savings of $50,000 to the organization.  If the consultant can’t help the hospital achieve this very modest goal, the hospital shouldn’t definitely not hire the consultant!

 

Welcome to 2018!

Have you entered this year with hope, excitement, and motivation?

Or, is there a part of you that knows besides your enthusiasm there is some fear too?  Maybe you suspect that this year, despite all your best intentions, may turn out much like the one that just ended-beginning full of expectation but ending with a discouraging list of unrealized dreams and goals.

If so, you are not alone.

Many of us feel both excitement AND some cynicism at the start of each new year.  Some have abandoned new year’s goal planning altogether hiding behind intellectual rationalizations, for example,  “I plan all year round, etc.” Others, simply have quietly stopped setting written goals knowing, with sadness, they would be very unlikely to achieve them so why go through it all again. The truth for all is:  There is little reason to expect a different outcome this year if you do the same things you have always done. And, many of us have made the same attempts January after January and have frankly grown tired of trying so hard.

Einstein said it well:

“We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.”

A better way…

The singular passion of my career has been observing, cataloging, and learning how people make significant changes and do so permanently.  In recent years, I have written books, assessments, resources, and now a course on how to do just that.  These techniques have transformed my business and personal life and they will yours too, if you implement them.

For the first year ever, I am releasing my Leap Year Course–One Week to An Extraordinary Next Year. The course was developed with the invaluable feedback of hundreds coaching, clinical  clients and thousands audience members from 2650 audiences over the past twenty years!

Clearly and earnestly, you have told me what you need to reboot your career and personal goals and this short course contains what you have asked for to make this year extraordinarily different.  It is not a difficult journey, but it does take focus and discipline to start. Each student will develop his or her own pathway but the foundational practices described in this course will “set the stage” to make your breakthrough happen.

The course is priced reasonably–just the cost of one face-to-face coaching session-and comes with a 100% money back guarantee.  Complete the workbook in its entirety and feel as if the course was not worth the cost and we will refund your money, no questions asked.

Is Permanent Change in Mid-Life Possible?  The Story of Three Clients…(Names and minor details have been changed to protect privacy.)

George

When he came to see me, George was a highly educated, late career professional who had been laid off for two years.  He was naturally sad about his career loss and, as the months had passed, feeling hopeless about his prospects. For twenty years he excelled in his field working with top corporations.  But times had changed and the digital world had rendered a number of his skills obsolete.  Fortunately, the principles he has learned about marketing, sales and customer service had not, but the delivery system for doing his work had totally evolved.  We worked together to identify what new skills he would need to acquire to be highly marketable again in the new economy. There was a very critical list of new skills he would need, but it is was not a long list.  He had a choice to make-add to his skill set and position himself as a seasoned but cutting-edge, digitally-savvy, professional or fade out into an early retirement.  He chose the latter and has just landed a huge consulting deal which has the potential for setting up for financial security for the rest of his life.  More importantly, his new way of working can be duplicated over and over again with new clients giving him all the financial resources he needs.

Mandy

Mandy was working in a hospitality industry when she first came for help.  She enjoyed her customers and was loved by her team but she knew she was capable of much more.  We identified that she enjoyed the medical field and, together, identified a quick career change path to a job within a hospital setting.  She went back to school for a few months, got her certification, and was picked up by a prestigious hospital where she is thriving.  She is now ready to go back for another certification (and raise.)  In addition, she shared that she had always had a love for making crafts but had no idea how to market and sell them online.  Together we put together a customized curriculum of free resources she could study to learn how to create an online presence to sell her crafts.  She has now sold many online products and is excited about what she can create and sell next.

Chris

Chris always knew he had “a book in him.”  He had a number of ideas and pages of digital notes, but did not know which direction to take to get his message out to the public.  He also suffered from the deadly disease all new would-be writers and entrepreneurs have–believing their book’s message is for everyone!  (Not so!) We worked together to sort through his options and to focus in on a realistic niche of potential readers:  Should he write an ebook, a course, a webinar, a self-published book, or work to find a traditional publisher?  We identified a customized course of study that Chris could use to answer these questions and, slowly, he began to build a group of interested followers while he worked on his first product. In this way, Chris was able to sidestep the two most deadly pitfalls for new writers–spending months writing a book that is too general and not developing an audience, beforehand, to sell to when you are finished. Instead, Jim’s new following would not only be future buyers of his book and other resources, but, equally important, also give him invaluable feedback along the way about what to include in his products and books.

Each of these three individual came to us knowing that they could do and be more, but knew they needed help.  They also knew that time was passing by and they could easily spend another three or four years trying to discover what they could to change their lives to get their message or craft out into the world.  Instead, they significantly shortened the time needed to thrive and had their leap year!

What about you?  Can you relate?

If so, let’s talk.

Here are three options for jump-starting your 2018:

1. Give yourself an almost unfair advantage this year by signing up for the Leap Year (self-study) Course ($197, with a 100% money-back guarantee!)

2. Sign up for a one-hour Mastermind Session iwhat you need to start the year off quickly? (Note: These sessions can be held in our Huntington Beach offices, by phone or by video, just call or email for details.)

3; Invest in a comprehensive, five-session, Career Transition Coaching Package with five assessments.

To learn more, email us at:

drbill@drbillspeaks.com

or

Call me direct at:

949.683.4997

Best wishes for an extraordinary 2018!

Dr. Bill Dyment