I'm up here as my Chesapeake Bay hideaway - as I am most weekends, but this is a very special weekend for me because I'm up here preparing for the Predictable Success Mastermind Group members who arrive here later this week for our quarterly retreat.
We meet somewhere different every quarter. but this is my favorite place to come to this time of year. You know, it doesn't matter whether the wind is blowing or the rain's lashing against the windows. We've got log fires in every room and home-cooked food. It's just a wonderful place to come and spend time together.
And you know, putting the prep together for our time later this week has got me thinking about something - something that I really have been mulling over for decades now, but in writing Do Lead and Do Scale over the last three to four years, it's very much been at the forefront of my mind. And it's this:
It's the distinction between leaders who seem to implement good ideas, but then get struck with self-doubt and end up pulling the newly planted seeds up by the roots to see whether they've taken or not, then changing horse, jumping, you know, from one initiative to another.
Contrasted to those leaders, who, you know, they think things through. They really do struggle to make sure they make the right decision. They have moments of self doubt - but once they implement, they see it through, they get it done.
[These leaders] don't subject themselves and others to whiplash. They just, you know, make it happen. And they don't seem to have the same degree of self doubt that perhaps others amongst us do.
And you know, I put it down to one thing more than anything else. It's that the second group of people - those leaders who implement and then stick with it, stay the course and get results - they typically have a trusted group of advisors, friends, colleagues that they meet with who provide them a challenge function. They push back, they give them feedback and then they hold them accountable for implementation and encouragement along the way, and to stay the course.
Now, I just want to encourage you to think about whether you have that sort of an accountability group. It doesn't have to be something highly structured, like our Predictable Success Mastermind group meeting here. Just go join your local Chamber of Commerce, or go find a Vistage chapter or EO or YPO. Now those types of organizations, you know, they're variable, depending on the local chapter. Some of them are great, some of them, you know, just maybe not so good.
And if you don't find one that feels like home, then just reach out to a few other folks in similar situations to you. You'll have met people over time - either other business people, or faith-based or not for profit or church leaders - who you respect and admire.
And you don't have to, you know, hire out an entire building like this every quarter. You can just get on a Zoom session for 90 minutes. You know, you can do it once a month for an hour. Give people a hot seat - 45 minutes to just talk about the specific challenges that they're facing at the moment. And have two, three, four, five, six other folks just probing, giving good quality feedback, and more than anything encouraging you once you've made a decision to stick with it, to implement and to get the execution side of things done, and to give you encouragement along the way and hold you accountable.
So I'm sort of stuck in this theme a little bit, and I'm going to do a couple more videos on the whole role of outside influence in helping us as leaders. You know, what's the role of books and conferences and other activities, but for today, I just want you to think about this. Do you have that type of valued accountability partners who will help you implement the great ideas that you've come up with?
