Mastermind Groups

[00:01] SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to Principal Center Radio, bringing you the best in professional practice.

[00:06] Announcer:

Here's your host, Director of the Principal Center and Champion of High Performance Instructional Leadership, Dustin Bader. Welcome everyone to Principal Center Radio.

[00:15] SPEAKER_02:

I'm your host, Justin Bader, and I'm honored to be joined once again by my friend Daniel Bauer. Daniel is founder of Better Leaders, Better Schools, where he helps school leaders create a winning culture, focus on the essentials, and lead with courage and integrity. Daniel is also the creator of the Leadership Sprint, an online program for school leaders, and he's the founder of the Better Mastermind, a hybrid group coaching program and leadership development community for school leaders, which we're here to talk about today.

[00:43] Announcer:

And now, our feature presentation.

[00:45] SPEAKER_02:

Daniel, welcome back to Principal Center Radio.

[00:47] SPEAKER_01:

Hey, Justin. Thanks for inviting me. It's an honor to speak with your community and try to serve them and talk about education and leadership.

[00:56] SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, well, I'm excited to talk with you today because I can't not keep hearing about your mastermind group. I think it's just kind of on fire today. these past few months and glad to hear that that's continuing to grow. I forwarded an email to some people about that and several people got back to me immediately and said, oh yeah, I'm in it. I'm in the mastermind and they had just great things to say. So I knew we needed to talk more about this and I wonder if we could start just by saying what is A, mastermind group, how does it work?

[01:27]

Because I know it's something that I hear a lot about in the entrepreneurship and business community, but not so much in the school leadership community. And I think you're solving a really big and unmet need that's out there in the profession. So tell us what that is and how that works.

[01:42] SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I like to call the Better Mastermind a hybrid group coaching and leadership development community. I learned about masterminds, like you said, in the entrepreneurial business realm. I'm a participant as well as a facilitator. And the guy who taught me, his name is Aaron Walker, and he's over at viewfromthetop.com. But I got so much value in my own personal life, you know, participating in the mastermind.

[02:09]

A lot of the stuff that I do, I think, why not me? You know, and why not for school leaders? That's how the podcast was born and essentially the mastermind as well. In Chicago, where I started Better Leaders, Better Schools, I'm in Houston now. I've found myself bumping my head against a brick wall because I couldn't get together with other leaders frequently enough in a setting where we could honestly, authentically, and vulnerably talk about leadership, the strengths that we were having, the successes, but also the challenges, the mistakes we made and what we learned. And so that's why the podcast was worn and essentially the masterminds as well.

[02:54]

Aaron likes to say that the enemy of excellence is isolation. And I agree with that. As a principal, I've learned that that role is very lonely. And operating alone, I could sometimes make some poor choices. And I need to get people that care about me, that are rooting for my success, people that are smarter than me, that have more experience. I need them around me so that I can ask questions, run ideas by them, and essentially just come up with a better plan to serve in the community in which I work.

[03:28]

So you're meeting every week online, and you guys do a video chat.

[03:32] SPEAKER_02:

You have a group video chat room.

[03:34] SPEAKER_01:

That's kind of irony going back a little bit in Chicago and trying to locally get leaders together. It was just very frustrating. I don't know if it's because of the traffic, if it's because people have families, work hours, or whatever. But locally, it was not working, and I wasn't connecting with other leaders. So the crazy part, I don't know if it's ironic or not, but when I went global with it, it actually became much easier to meet with people and have these type of discussions. So yeah, we meet virtually, and it is a global community.

[04:05]

I have two coaching clients in Canada. I have one in Australia. And people, you know, contact me from around the world all the time. The rest of the folks are in the U.S. right now, 19 clients.

[04:17]

But yeah, we meet on Zoom. It's kind of a beefed up version of Skype. If you think of the Brady Bunch introduction, everybody has a little square so we can see everybody chatting. So that, yeah, that's weekly for one hour. There's a little chat box too where people share links and, you know, ask questions and that kind of thing. And the structure is basically a very brief 10 minute or so check-in, wins of the week, or just updates on things you want to be held accountable for.

[04:45]

Then we have a structured time around a book study. So currently we are reading a book called The Go-Giver Leader, which is sort of like a business fable. This guy, Ben, is a part of a business that runs mergers and acquisitions. And he's set to acquire a boutique furniture store. And he goes in there thinking he knows all about it, that he has the skills and he's just going to bulldoze these guys into believing that they should give up the company. And he learned so much more about leadership.

[05:19]

And it's really a fantastic book. So we're reading that. We've read Search Inside Yourself, which kind of has to do with mindfulness, which is really hot right now. The Miracle Morning on how you can accomplish more by like, I don't know, 5, 6 a.m. than most people do in their entire day.

[05:36]

We're going to read Deep Work, which is a hot book out there right now, too. So we have that book study. And then the power, Justin, or the mastermind is the hot seat. And that's if you were in the hot seat, you would share with the group. whatever challenges and obstacles you're currently facing. And then by leveraging the power of the community and the mastermind, they're going to ask you hard-hitting questions.

[05:59]

They're going to share personal anecdotes and experiences that they've had to help sharpen your leadership saw. And that will help you develop a better plan in attacking those questions, challenges, and obstacles. And the interesting thing is, even if you're not in the hot seat, By being a participant, the value is there, too, just by giving back to the community. But you also hear about problems and obstacles you might not even have faced in your school experience yet. And now you have the tools and the understanding of things that are out there. before you even have to experience it.

[06:37] SPEAKER_02:

And if we kind of contrast that to what most of us have locally, which is some type of peer group. When I was a principal in Seattle Public Schools, we met regionally. So I would get together with other principals from my part of town, and we would visit each other's schools and kind of have PD days within the schools and visit classrooms and things. And there was certainly...

[06:57]

you know, a little bit of movement in the direction that you described, but often we're talking about, you know, implementing district initiatives. We're talking about, you know, our strategic plans and things that are very organizationally specific and shared. And there's a bit of a, you know, with a face-to-face peer group, there's a bit of a need to represent your school well, I'll say it that way. And not necessarily that same focus on, as you said, vulnerability and really just, you know, being in the hot seat, getting advice from other people who are, you know, not just down the road necessarily, but who are really there for a common purpose. I wonder if you could share with us, what are some of the reasons that people give? I mean, obviously you have your reasons in mind that that people should join one of your masterminds.

[07:44]

But what are some of the reasons that people are kind of self-reporting after they sign up or they say was their reason for joining?

[07:50] SPEAKER_01:

That's a great question, too. Thank you, Justin. The most popular reason is people feel like they're very, very hungry to develop their leadership capacity and accelerate that capacity to lead. And they just want to be around other people like that, you know, extremely driven. You know, that's obviously probably why they are in that principal role and they just want to be pushed. They want to be challenged.

[08:16]

So people that are hungry is how I describe them. Other folks, there's a guy, Robert, who just joined. He comes from a smaller district. There's three principals actually in the district and the other two, he just doesn't feel like they get it. So he joined because he wants to be pushed in his thinking and his perspectives and have that diversity of thought that the mastermind offers. Samantha just joined and she is transitioning from an AP role to a principal role next year.

[08:49]

So she just earned the position and she wants that extra support. She's in grad school. So again, that hungry type of leader that wants to learn more and also that leadership support. Other folks that are already in it, I could think of Jason and Nancy. Both of those guys also just earned their principal roles. Nancy will be a principal next fall.

[09:13]

But Jason, he became a principal in the next two weeks. So he was just happy to be there, you know, to have that support because he said, man, I really need this. And not to get too deep into one of his stories, but it was tragic. It was absolutely tragic. But in his community, one of his students had a devastating loss. And, you know, like I said, I can't share all the details, but it ends with the student actually having to cradle her father in her arms as he passed away.

[09:47]

And, you know, there's a reason that happened and I'm not going to, like I said, not share the details, but we were there to support him through that. Emotionally, like what does it take and how do you stand up in front of your staff and your community? But we also talked about the communication piece too and how to really nail that down to serve the community well, to communicate effectively. and with a lot of compassion and empathy. So there's a variety of reasons, but I think the most popular one is that people are hungry, and they know that an investment in themselves will only multiply by joining a mastermind.

[10:23] SPEAKER_02:

Well, let's talk a little bit about the books. You mentioned there's a hot seat, there's kind of a check-in, but you're doing something that a lot of us wish we made more time for, and it's something that I've been making a lot more time for in the past year as well. but did not do a good job of making time for as a principal. And that is reading. So you mentioned a number of the books that you've brought to the group. What has come out of that shared reading?

[10:46]

When you pick a book, everybody reads part of it, and then you talk about it. What are some of the takeaways that you're seeing from that kind of structured experience of reading a book together?

[10:56] SPEAKER_01:

Like you said, I mean, it's really hard when you're a principal to find that time and hold yourself accountable to continue to grow and within the principal role in terms of leadership. And what I like about The Mastermind too is that we're not reading books about education. We're reading books about how to develop leadership capacity, how to challenge our own mindsets. So one of the outcomes that we had for the Miracle Morning was just a focus on taking care of ourselves. And if you have heard about the Miracle Morning, Hal Elrod wrote this. It's a very short read.

[11:30]

I mean, you could finish it easily within a day in just a few hours. But he has an acronym. And the whole idea is to do a few different habits every single morning and take care of yourself. So there's There's time for, you know, some type of affirming reading. You know, it might be spiritual. So like, you know, you might read the Bible or something like that.

[11:51]

Or maybe you're just doing some type of meditation. There's affirmations. There's exercise. There's visualization. There's journaling. And what my people have seen is just by taking that hour a day, they are going into work with a lot more energy, a lot more focus, a lot more passion and drive.

[12:12]

than they were prior to implementing the Miracle Morning. So that's an easy outcome. Then we have a book like The 12 Week Year by Brian Moran. Oh, yeah. Have you read that one? Just read that a couple months ago.

[12:25]

Yeah. Oh, man. So that one, you know, that one rings your leadership bell for sure. And I'm actually developing a new workshop, taking some of those ideas. That'll be available in July. But, you know, the concept of the ideal week.

[12:39]

So if you blocked off your time, Of course, emergencies come up and you have to move things around. How do you want to spend those blocks of time Monday through Friday professionally or even Monday through Sunday and add in the personal component too and then being very intentional about – using that time only for what you say it is. So for example, you might block out 30 minutes a day for that professional reading. And even though you know that emails are coming in or I don't know, whatever comes up every single day, you really stick to that schedule. And then the 12-week year has been great too because my people have been using this spreadsheet that I developed with a friend. And essentially, you write down that one major goal you want to accomplish, And each tab of the spreadsheet has the tactics that you're going to complete Monday through Friday to accomplish that goal.

[13:35]

And there's a way that we have it where you just put an X if you did it or leave a blank if you did not. And it calculates a percentage. I believe Moran says if you accomplish about 80 percent of those tactics in a given week, you're on progress to really accomplish it more in 12 weeks than most people do in a year. So that's been that's been a great outcome. And, you know, the mastermind, they've already experienced it. And that's why I'm going to do a workshop for those in the tribe that aren't a part of the mastermind yet.

[14:03]

So, yeah, it's like it's mindset stuff. It's tactical stuff. The search inside yourself. That was just all about mindfulness. So. People really actually loved that one.

[14:12]

And it really was about growing a connection to ourselves and growing empathy. So when we connect with others, just to be more available, more understanding, more empathetic leader.

[14:24] SPEAKER_02:

And so the 12-week year will be your second workshop. Is that right? And you have the leadership sprint that you've done previously?

[14:31] SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, the leadership sprint. I did that last year and that was a hit. uh, people really love that one. And then I, you know, I moved to a new school and I'm principal there and man, this year's just, uh, kicked my butt. I've been very, very busy. So I haven't done, uh, the sprint at all, but I'm going to have that one available, uh, April 22nd, I think.

[14:53]

And that one, uh, it comes, it's two and a half hours. It's on a Saturday from 10 to 1230 central standard time. And essentially you get, uh, eight modules and a few bonus videos where I might tell a story two to three minutes about a leadership perspective. And it takes place virtually over Slack. So people are in different rooms. We'll put about 10 people, maybe eight to 10 people per room.

[15:21]

The video will get dropped in the Slack. Everyone will watch it two to three minutes. And it's called a sprint because I'm I haven't lost anybody in a sprint yet due to a heart attack, but it's two to three minutes. Then you have a solo riding or a group riding activity. You're responding to each other, asking questions. And in 10 to 15 minutes, we're on to the next video because there's a ton of content and we only devote two and a half hours.

[15:47]

You know, I push people that way. So you think deeply but quickly about it so that you don't second guess yourself. You just got to get to work, put it out there. And get some type of feedback, make connections, grow personal and professional network. But it's a ton of fun. And the neat thing about the Sprint, too, for your listeners, if they put in the code PRINCIPALCENTER, all one word, PRINCIPALCENTER, the first 10 listeners of the podcast, they'll get it for free.

[16:17]

And if you miss out on those 10 free, put in the code JUSTIN for your wonderful host. And you'll get $30 off the Leadership Sprint.

[16:26] SPEAKER_02:

Awesome. We'll put the link in the show notes. And again, the Leadership Sprint is available at betterleadersbetterschools.com slash sprint with the code PRINCIPALCENTER, capital P, capital C, to get that free for the first 10 people. Thanks very much, Daniel, for doing that. I know that was a very exciting event.

[16:45]

Absolutely. Last time you ran that and heard a lot of great things. about that. And what I love is just the intensity and the intentionality. You know, like our work is inevitably intense, but often that intensity happens kind of outside of our control. You know, we feel like we're just watching it happen around us.

[17:04]

But I love how consistently you are helping people tackle that intensity with their own intentionality and really just kind of take the bull by the horns and decide, you know, what is my day going to look like What do I want to get done this quarter? You know, how can I get more done this quarter than most people get done in a year? I see that kind of running through everything that you do. And I think that's why we've had so much fun talking together. And I wonder if people want to learn more about the mastermind group. I know you have a couple of groups that are full.

[17:33]

Like there's a hard limit on how many people can be in those groups. But you've got a new group opening up. Where can people go online if they want to find out more about joining your mastermind?

[17:42] SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so you can go... To betterleadersbetterschools.com forward slash MM for mastermind. And that will really break down the whole experience.

[17:53]

It makes it pretty clear like what you're going to get. There's 19 folks in the mastermind. So we did just open a third group Thursday night, 630 to 730 Central Standard Time. And as the demand, you know, grows, we're definitely going to open up more groups, too. I have the capacity in my schedule to probably run six. So, you know, mostly Tuesday, Thursday nights.

[18:19]

I'm thinking if I have to bump into Wednesday, we will. But, you know, if you find that, you know, you feel leadership is isolated and you could use that community if you're hungry and you want to get pushed in your leadership perspective. There's always that very famous Jim Rohn quote that, You're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. That's the thing. Getting around other hungry, driven school leaders is only going to improve what you offer your school. And my old pastor, too, from Chicago, Bill Hybels, is famous for saying that everybody wins when a leader gets better.

[18:54]

So I think the converse is true as well. If you're not growing, you're hurting your community and everybody loses when you stay stagnant. So If you can find the time, if you want to invest in yourself, I think a mastermind is really a great way to accelerate your leadership capacity. So we'll be reading the books. We'll be checking in. We have the hot seats.

[19:14]

There's weekly personal evaluations, growing your professional network, discounts on different types of things that I develop, like the leadership sprint. We're actually going to have a monthly jam session where all the masterminds come together on one day. you know, and just kind of, you know, just see how we can help each other and answer questions that way. And all the groups have a private Facebook or, you know, Voxer group where they can connect offline after the mastermind. So yeah, that's betterleadersbetterschools.com forward slash mm.

[19:50]

There's a number of clients that have testimonies on there. So you can see you know, what they say. And I'm happy to put people in touch with them as well so they can they can, you know, connect and just ask questions. And there's a there's a spot where you can schedule a call with me, too, if you have a few more questions or if you're ready, you know, by now, just to jump in, go to that page and you can reserve your spot and we can get going as soon as you click yes. So yeah, that's great. We love to work with the number of people that listen to your show.

[20:20]

Fabulous.

[20:21] SPEAKER_02:

So betterleadersbetterschools.com. And I know on your website, you've got the podcast, you've got the blog also. So tons for people to check out there. Well, Daniel, thanks so much for joining me on Principal Center Radio. It's been a blast.

[20:33] SPEAKER_01:

It was a pleasure, Justin. And just thank you so much for the opportunity to talk to folks that listen to Principal Center. radio, and just happy to connect with folks again. So we'll see them in the future, and thanks for the opportunity.

[20:48] SPEAKER_00:

And now, Justin Bader on high-performance instructional leadership.

[20:52] SPEAKER_02:

So high-performance instructional leaders, what did you take away from my conversation about masterminds with Daniel Bauer? One thing I think is really critical for us as people who tend to be in an isolating role, when you are the leader of an organization, Often you don't have a peer relationship with anybody that you see on a regular basis. You're a supervisor, you're the boss, and I think we all need peers that we can turn to for advice, for consolation, for encouragement, and to be able to give back as well. And that's what I love about the structure that Daniel has created, is that it gives you the opportunity to be a peer in a safe environment where confidentiality is respected and there's an environment of support And I want to challenge you to step up from kind of collaboration light into something a little bit more intensive.

[21:48]

And here's what I mean by that. I see a lot of people extolling the virtues of Twitter chats and of quote unquote PLNs that happen online that take a lot of time. And personally, I've had to step back from Twitter chats and say, you know, I've got kids this particular time. Each day is going to be for my kids and I'm not going to participate in Twitter chats because I realized...

[22:08]

that a lot of what was taking place during those Twitter chats was occurring at a very, very shallow level. People are sharing links and they're sharing kind of one-line thoughts, but there's not the depth and there's not the support that you get in a true professional community. So if you are currently investing time regularly in Twitter chats, I wanna encourage you to take a hard look at what you're getting out of that and what the depth and the substance is and consider if you could get vastly more out of that time through a different format such as a mastermind. And Daniels are the best that I'm aware of that are out there for school leaders. I think he's got a fabulous thing going. And I wanna encourage you to check that out and see if that's right for you.

[22:52]

Just go to betterleadersbetterschools.com slash mm to learn more about a mastermind. But whatever you do, Look for ways to connect at a deep level with people who are in a peer role. I think that is so powerful. It's something that I do every day because we need that support. Whenever you're in an isolating role, you've got tough decisions to make.

[23:12]

You've got tough situations to handle. And reaching out to peers, providing support to other people can just be an incredible source of energy and renewal.

[23:22] Announcer:

Thanks for listening to Principal Center Radio. For more great episodes, subscribe on our website at principalcenter.com slash radio.