#HighStakesMastermindGroups

June 4, 2019Accountability, Authenticity, Business Mastermind, Uncategorized

Stay In-bounds with Accountability

By Roger Wolkoff, All About Authenticity and Stephanie Angelo, High Stakes Mastermind Groups

People in the service industry and those who run appointment-based businesses know the value of a promise. At its simplest level, an appointment is a two-person contract. Both parties agree to arrive at a specified time to complete an agreed upon task or service. For example, when you make an appointment to see your doctor, you agree to show up at 10:00 for 30 minutes for medical treatment and advice. Your doctor also agrees to show up at 10:00 for 30 minutes to provide said treatment and advice.

Put differently, appointments are accountabilities. Both parties, service provider and service receiver, are accountable to each other and the outcomes. A service contract highlights two key areas: holding yourself accountable and holding someone else accountable.
Accountable means responsible or answerable. Do what you say you’re going to do. It makes you credible. It builds relationships. It builds trust.
One aspect of accountability we can overlook is what role boundaries play. For example, “When is my work solely my work and not open to being used by others?” More specifically, “If I create a work product or process for an organization in which I volunteer, and it makes my life easier, do I have an obligation to make that work product or process available to the organization? I fulfill my accountability to the organization when I perform my role, but beyond that, does a boundary exist to protect my proprietary process and product?”

And this is where things can get thorny. It’s necessary to set boundaries to confound any assumptions or expectations about what we presume when we enter into service (or accountability) to ourselves and others. It’s easy for emotions, personalities, and our sense of right and wrong to play into the narrative of expectations and outcomes.

At what point do others feel entitled to more than what we promise to deliver? There are situations where it’s easy for us to be taken advantage of and create unspoken accountabilities and assumed promises. In these cases, clarifying roles is essential.
Consider the other side of the coin, as well. Ask yourself, is it worth the fight or the effort to protect something on principle? Or is it easier, in the long run, to maintain a relationship, or control the conversation?

Think about a work situation. Let’s say, for example, that your job requires you to produce a project plan for your client and you agree to deliver the plan. Over time and as you learn more about the project, you don’t believe that creating a project plan is necessary or worth your client’s time. Your manager disagrees and reminds you that it’s part of the standard work products you are required to deliver, and you agreed to do the work. Six weeks later, you remain firm in your belief that doing the work is a waste of time and you still haven’t done the plan.

Did you break trust? In this case, yes. You were accountable for the work and promised to deliver it. Regardless of your belief in the necessity of the work, you made a promise and by not delivering, you broke trust. Interestingly, one antonym for “accountable” is “untrustworthy”.
The issue at hand here is the fact that this was a work-place situation. The manager had the right to request the product in question, in this case a project plan. Consider it “other duties as assigned.” However, when we’re speaking of a volunteer scenario, for example a Board of Directors, no such obligation for the volunteer exists. Not delivering may lead to disappointment, but it should never lead to discipline (that would only be possible in the case of a crime, such as theft).

Back to our doctor appointment example, Dr. Judith Ziol, a Chandler, Arizona Naturopathic physician says, “I make it a point to never, ever make a patient wait more than five minutes”.

If you want to build trust and credibility, do what you say you’re going to do. When you are in the position to request deliverables and fulfill appointments, you can set the stage by showing others that you are trustworthy by holding yourself accountable first.
There may not be easy answers. However, the simpler the social contract, the easier the accountability.

Roger Wolkoff will help you discover how emotional intelligence paired with authenticity improves communication, ups productivity, and positively influences culture. Visit https://www.rogerwolkoff.com/ to connect with Roger and work with him to help you deliver results and grow your bottom line. Roger is a keynote motivational speaker and author from Madison, Wisconsin.

Stephanie Angelo keynotes and facilitates workshops on Cultures of Learning, Strategic Thinking and Collaborative Accountability, in addition, she facilitates Mastermind Groups for entrepreneurs. Imagine what it’s like to be a business owner with a hunger for collaboration with other business owners who experience the same challenges you do. Stephanie will help you take the Silo out of Solo. Contact her at www.StephanieAngelo.com

January 21, 2019January 21, 2019Accountability Partners, Brain Storming, Business Mastermind, Focus, Goal Achievement, High Stakes Mastermind Groups, Hot Seat, Uncategorized

Fear and the Entrepreneur

By Stephanie Angelo and Adrianna Huff

Adrianna once wrote, “I had been talking with #HighStakesMastermindGroups about signing up for the mastermind groups and getting my real estate license for months, possibly years, but as my cursor hovered over the “Submit” button I was still full of fear. Thoughts like: Can I do this? Is this the right move?, What if I mess up?, ran through my head.”

According to Psychology Today,

“Fear is a vital response to physical and emotional danger — if we didn’t feel it, we couldn’t protect ourselves from legitimate threats. But often we fear situations that are far from life-or-death, and thus hang back for no good reason. Traumas or bad experiences can trigger a fear response within us that is hard to quell. Yet exposing ourselves to our personal demons is the best way to move past them.”

Fear is a normal human reaction. It originally protected us from lion attacks, but is still present in our everyday lives. I’m not exactly running from wild animals in my home in the suburbs, so why do I (did I) feel fear in this situation? In reality, it is because I was jumping into an unknown situation.

According to an article from the Harvard Business Review, “How Fear Helps (and Hurts) Entrepreneurs”, for many entrepreneurs, fear is a constant companion. Not only do you have fear of losing business, but all of your employees could also be hurt if the business is not successful. However, if entrepreneurs get stuck in this fearful mentality, they may find a more challenging climb for their business.

So, that begs the question, what should an entrepreneur do? Have a healthy level of fear. Simple enough, below are a few suggestions.

Reach out to peers in business or your fellow High Stakes Mastermind Group These individuals have either been in a situation of fear or are feeling fearful. Either way, a supportive and understanding peer advisor or colleague can talk you through possible scenarios and brainstorm situations. Sometimes the hardest part of entrepreneurship is being responsible for all of the decisions. Talking with a like minded individual can be powerful support.
If fear is gripping you – this is not the time to lash out, make knee-jerk decisions, or be dishonest. It’s the time to talk it through. Help and compromise are there to be had. Remember your reputation could be at stake.
Recognize the fear that you have and acknowledge the worst that could happen. Use this fear and understanding to propel yourself forward and push the business in a positive direction. By looking for all the potential issues in the company, you can fix these issues and greatly reduce the fear involved. Consider including steps to mitigate issues and fear in your High Stakes Mastermind Group goal plan.
Power through. Sometimes fear can lead to paralysis by analysis. When there is such a fear of failure (or success for that matter), it can be easy to analyze over and over again. Instead of getting into this loop of analysis, preventing any actual work, make a decision and move forward. It is likely that most decisions can be modified and reversed if necessary.

Fear is a double edged sword. It can propel entrepreneurs to greatness, or it can prevent them from getting any work done. How do you handle fear?

October 17, 2018Business Mastermind, Focus, High Stakes Mastermind Groups, Hot Seat, Uncategorized

Cooling Off From the Hot Seat

A friend of mine confided to me that she used to be in a mastermind group, but it simply didn’t work for her. Frustrated with the lack of dialogue and accountability, she left the group. I asked her questions about her past experience and why she thought it went wrong.

She said that the way their group worked was you had a schedule assigned for when you would be in the “hot seat”. Their group met on a monthly basis and so once a month there was someone who had the hot seat. Her hot seat assignment was four months after she began the group.

She initially joined the mastermind group because she really needed help growing her business. She had a lot of questions and concerns about the direction she was going and choices she needed to make. She wanted to test out new ideas and she wanted to feel like she had somebody that she could talk to. As a new business owner, anxious to have a strong start, she wanted to be able to “pick the brains” of the other members and gain from their insights. She was prepared for the emotional investment that she was going to make in helping each person with their business needs because she had a lot to offer as well.

By the time she got in the hot seat the issues that she had initially come with, when she became a member of the mastermind group, had either fallen by the wayside because she simply was too overwhelmed to address them, or they had become bigger problems, or were initiatives she decided not to try because she was afraid she would fail.

When she finally did get her scheduled chance to be in the hot seat it was of minimum value. Certainly, it had some, but it had significantly diminished from the reason she got into the mastermind group to begin with. Yet she felt like she had spent the last four months helping everybody else with their businesses – one person at a time. Having to wait to be in the hot seat sounds a little bit scary. It doesn’t hold conversational value.

There are a lot of mastermind groups that operate that way. In High Stakes Masterminds we just find that we succeed better doing it differently.

It was my members that decided that they prefer to meet every three weeks on a rotational basis. It has worked extremely well for us. It’s not too frequent contact, like every two weeks, and it’s not big gaps of time in between, like once a month. Monthly meetings also require that the meetings go really long. Having a meeting every three weeks works really well because of the frequency and having only six members per group we are able to keep our meetings moving along at an efficient 90 minutes each meeting. Listening to my clients offered a solution to this particular problem.

In our valuable 90 minutes everybody talks every meeting. I don’t call it the hot seat. I don’t personally like that term. But I do call it the “focus seat” and everybody gets a chance to be in the focus seat. In addition, everyone in the group also has time to give them feedback, thoughts, and ideas We have robust conversation around each person’s accountabilities and goals.

You have to shop groups and determine what works well for you. I know that my first group was a disaster for me because we met once a month. Everyone did have a hot seat opportunity, but the facilitator was also a member, and to be quite honest with you she failed in every way imaginable. That experience was a painful disaster. But it did propel me to a training program to become a mastermind facilitator. I’m doing it in what I feel is the right way for my avatar type clients.

How do you know if you’re an avatar type client for High Stakes Mastermind Groups? All it takes is a conversation, and I love having those with prospective members. If you’re cooling off from the hot seat idea learn if High Stakes is right for you.

I look forward to you being in the focus seat.

June 19, 2018Business Mastermind, High Stakes Mastermind Groups, Uncategorized

What Can Skillshare do for You?

Guest Post by Adrianna Huff

Disclaimer: I have paid for my own Skillshare membership, and this post is not sponsored by Skillshare. (#NotAnAd)

Lifelong learner

I call myself a lifelong learner, and when I find a great learning resource (at an affordable price), I have to share it. I’ve heard about Skillshare for a while now in various articles and blog posts over the years, but it wasn’t until our CFO (Chief Focus Officer) Stephanie Angelo from the High Stakes Mastermind Group started presenting Skillshare videos that I picked up a membership and started watching.

Skillshare is an online learning platform where teachers post videos that students can watch. Typically there are also projects that can be completed. What is great about Skillshare, is that anyone with a membership can watch videos that are of interest. Learners do not have to enroll in classes, and there is feedback from instructors. New videos are posted constantly, and as of this blog post there are over 21,000 classes.

Videos on all topics

There are videos on all topics, from Photography to Productivity, and I found myself being drawn to and watching videos relating to Entrepreneurship, Passive Income, Productivity and Efficiency Measures, and Developing a Great Workplace.

Stephanie currently has two classes live on Skillshare, “How to Make Workplace Accountability Cooler Than Your Competitors Do” and “Mastering Strategic Thinking Skills for Maximum Impact in Your Organization”. I watched both lessons (they were about 45 minutes each), which provided me with good information without leaving me committed for hours.

As a finance person, I found the workplace accountability lesson to be valuable in that Stephanie explained how workplace accountability can hurt companies in both productivity, but also the bottom line. For entrepreneurs especially, workers without accountability can de-rail a really successful company and make the already difficult entrepreneurial journey more challenging.

Strategic thinking

Additionally, the strategic thinking lesson was a great reminder to me to do two things in my own life and career work: think proactively and spend some time just thinking. I can sometimes get mired into the small details making my life very reactionary. By remembering to actually look at my goals and my entrepreneurial horizon I can develop new opportunities. As well, instead of just jumping (sometimes without thinking) I should take a step back and actually look at the whole picture.

What Stephanie teaches in her videos, is the same way she approaches our High Stakes Mastermind Group meetings. We have accountability from her to meet our goals as well as proactive work to keep our businesses moving forward. I would highly recommend both of her videos and to start taking Skillshare classes.

Have you heard of Skillshare? What are your favorite learning resources?

Stephanie Angelo creates #businessmastermind teams that make more money, blow away the competition and have better businesses as a result. Talk to Stephanie about #HighStakesMastermindGroups either by phone (480) 646-2400 or email at Stephanie@StephanieAngelo.com .