How to Deal With Loose Cannons in Your Mastermind Group?

It’s the age of cancel culture and hair-trigger offense. Depending on the type of group you want to assemble for your mastermind business, that may be a big deal.

 

One thing the last few months has taught me is that even if you go to great lengths to curate a group of people who demonstrate great self-control, controversy will find them. Late last year, long before COVID-19 or the George Floyd incident, one of our members took fire from an online social justice mob.

 

We learned of the matter and quickly advised him not to retaliate, but as the weeks continued, the attacks mounted. This is heartbreaking to hear as the leader of an online mastermind group. I felt powerless to help him, but I also have enough experience and insight from years of dealing with situations like this to know - it would eat itself.

 

So let me tell you right now, you can have the most harmless mastermind group on the planet. It’s an age of being guilty by association, and requires us to be even more vigilant than ever about who we saddle up with.

 

The Fire Starters

 

It’s something different, however, when you have a member or employee who is outspoken on controversial issues. I say this especially because a majority - though by no means, all - of our members, are Christ-following men and women who believe in conservative principles like lower taxes, less government and personal responsibility.

 

If you have a member who is highly active on social media, posting controversial headlines and engaging in thread debates … you may have some difficult conversations ahead. You have a responsibility, as the leader of your mastermind groups online, to protect the integrity of the group.

 

Not to inject any controversy here, but this reminds me of a Bible verse that influences my decision-making. James 1:26 says, “If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue, he deceives himself, and his religion is useless.” During an emotionally volatile time, no matter how strongly you feel about politics, your job as the leader of your mastermind hasn’t changed.

 

You may want to build out a process to follow when this happens. To facilitate your thinking and execution, we offer a product like The Mastermind Playbook.

 

The Danger of Taking Sides

 

Without willingness to listen like a good coach or mentor, “right or wrong” is useless. One thing I learned from one member of our Emerging Men’s group is that participating in a discussion is different for a leader than a member.

 

“In a situation where someone puts forward a controversial point of view, if you quickly say, ‘I agree,’ that tells other members in the group who disagree that they’re outnumbered,” he told me. “It doesn’t mean you need to be neutral; it means you need to ask questions and reserve judgment or automatically taking sides.”

 

This young man saw to the heart of the matter; people’s hearts are much more important than their minds. If you believe, like we do, that spiritual connection outranks cultural correctness … you have to put the brakes on your “rapid response” opinions.

 

Christmas in July

 

If you live near where I live, you hear a lot about hurricanes. They don’t usually strike this far inland, but the deep Southern states take turns getting hit by them nearly every summer. There’s always a calm before the storm, a moment when you’re in the “eye” of it, and then the aftermath, when it’s broken up.

 

There are people every year who refuse to leave their homes when hurricanes come through. Other people hop a flight or a bus to get out of Dodge. But one thing’s for sure, once that bad boy makes landfall, there’s never a dull moment if you are still in the kill zone. The most you can do is sit and wait it out in your underground shelter.

 

Maybe you’re starting to sense why I’m writing this in July, rather than at the beginning of June. I had my own emotional response to it, followed by a more thoughtful one. But emotional storms like the one we’ve lived through this year have beginnings and ends. We’re wiser if we speak when people have more hindsight, and they’re more open to acknowledging error.

 

Don’t Play Defense

 

I would defend any member of my masterminds online for being unfairly attacked. But let’s tell the truth here and say that if you provoke people online, you have to be personally responsible for it. There’s no such thing as making incendiary comments and then blaming the mob for retaliating.

 

So, if you have an unruly member who creates problems for you, there’s no sense in defending or protecting them from natural consequences. In fact, as with our member who got attacked by an online mob, we still discouraged him from filing suit or fighting back. Especially in a business mastermind, the purpose is to help each other grow personally and professionally.

 

Thanks for being with us through some of the thornier issues we’ve discovered in a decade of starting, growing and scaling masterminds. For all of the much less controversial parts of the business, I want to invite you to consider The Mastermind Playbook to help you do the same with your group.