When it comes to achieving success, whether personal or professional, commitment is one of the top must-have factors. In order to have a successful mastermind group that truly supports each member's vision and goals, I'm sure you'd agree that having each member's full commitment to the mastermind group and to the group process is critical.

It sounds simple and totally logical, right? Why wouldn't you be committed to your own mastermind group? In reality, however, I've found that not everyone is on the same page about this one.

For example, one of the mastermind groups I belong to recently had a heated discussion on the issue of commitment, and we almost decided to break up the group as a result.

We've had this group for about two years and it was going strong. All of the members are entrepreneurs & service professionals, and we meet once a month in person. We are committed to honing our professional skills, always have a lot of great ideas and cheer each other on as we all make progress in our businesses. It was going very well, until recently.

Some of the members started to miss quite a few meetings, due to other activities and commitments. Others started to question whether they are committed to our mastermind group and see it as a priority. Overall, we were unhappy that some members kept missing our meetings, and it's a sign of lack of commitment and respect. Of course, sometimes people have to miss a meeting because of emergencies, or important business commitments that they cannot re-arrange. That's totally understandable. But when you knew the meeting time ahead of time, and repeatedly choose to attend other activities instead, that does raise the question about commitment. It finally got to the point where we had to sit down and put this on agenda, so we could all voice our opinions. We were seriously considering "un-inviting" some members, or breaking up the group into two groups in order to accommodate everyone's schedule better, and/or opening up our closed group to new members. On the other hand, we do love our mastermind group and everyone in it, and everyone prefers to keep our group intact, if at all possible.

So, after some lengthy discussions and flushing out a lot of emotions and ideas, we finally decided to keep the group together as is. We are in this together, and we are willing to work at it. Everyone asserted their commitment to the group, and we moved on to discuss possible new directions and project ideas for our mastermind group. We've got a new lease of life for our mastermind group, and new level of appreciation, commitment and respect.

If you are starting a mastermind group, it's important to have everyone agree on the level of commitment that's expected. If you're experiencing a similar challenge in your current mastermind group, or any professional group, you might want to address the issue promptly, before it errodes the morale of the entire group and causes bigger problems down the road. Since everyone and every group naturally grow and evole over time, it's also a good idea to review the ground rules from time to time, and see if you need to make any revisions to better suit your group's needs.

Labels: commitment, getting support, making changes, mastermind, personal development, success