This one is a unique one. Peers can help. Peers can hurt. It’s how you internalize your peer situations, what you take away from it, and how you learn and grow from and with your peers.
I am a big believer in growth with peers. Really, by peers we mean teams. You have lots of teams in your life. Family team, business team, friends team, sports team and many others.
Even within your business team, you have teams. You have sub groups of people (peers) that GSD (get stuff done).
For example, I have teams within teams.
- Development Team(s) and their sub teams (pods and specialists)
- Marketing Teams (social media marketing teams, print marketing teams, event marketing teams)
- Sales Teams (business development reps, demo reps, account managers)
- Executive Leadership (…well leadership teams that lead the teams already mentioned)
- Founders and Co-Founders (visionary and inspiration team)
- Board Members (guidance and governance team)
You get the idea, you have lots of teams. Those teams are your peers. Within those teams are a select few who inspire, motivate and challenge you. Those are the peers we are really talking about. Those are the peers you want in your group. The peers you want to beat and when you do, you feel just a little extra special satisfaction. They are also the peers you lean on to take things to a whole new level. These peers are the ones you want to spend more time with. As they say “Iron sharpens iron” and the same goes for excellence.
Peer Groups are very similar. However, they don’t always have to be someone you know. In fact sometimes being part of a peer group you are not too familiar with allows you to open up. Being part of a unfamiliar peer group gains you access to different mindsets and strategies that truly elevate your game.
There is something to the psychology of being in the same peer group of familiar friends versus an uncomfortable, unfamiliar peer group.
With your peer friends, you may be comfortable, but you may be the leader of the pack, the one that everyone is looking to for everything, for their motivation and inspiration. This means you might be giving more than you get. In retrospect, you also may not be giving enough. You might be the vampire in the group, holding everyone back and not contributing to take the group to another level.
Unfamiliar Peers. Well this may take a while to warm up to. But in the end, you are all there for the same reason. To elevate each other and yourself. Each comes with a dynamic history, experiences, ways of doing things and a very different network. This may at first be awkward… like we are talking grade 9 school dance standing on the wall scared to ask someone to dance awkard… but who cares. Get over it. If we all feel that way, then its mutual and its time to come out of your shell. In this situation, I like to say whoever shares first wins. It’s true, you establish yourself as a thought leader or someone who isn’t afraid to speak up. You break the ice and everyone jumps in. Then your group can start to grow and help each other.
The best Peer Groups are the ones with a strong connector and moderator. I personally participate and moderate all my peer groups. Each group is unique in its theme and each group has a different focus, as much as each group session has a theme. But no matter what, I am always there as a moderator to help break the ice the first time and every time after that. It’s also good because in most of my peer groups I am also the connector. I am the reason many of my clients and colleagues are in the group in the first place. Often times, I move my clients, from the client to friends in business team. That usually leads to my awkward grade 9 geek emotions trying to ask them to pay me my consulting fee. So it makes it easy to invite them to one of my peer groups… for a lot less money too.
Crazy thing is even though I move my clients from high paying client status to lower cost peer groups, I still provide strategy sessions and personal one-on-one services.
The other thing I LOVE about peer groups. It means you get 10 people working on your problems. 10 brains x 1 problem. BOOM! Solutions!
Einstein said…
You can’t solve your current problem with your current way of thinking… or something like that.
Alfred Einstein
Getting 10 brains on your challenges monthly = AWESOME!
Having a peer group to call on, message, or slack (we use that too) between sessions is powerful. having a moderator that also offers some open office hours or strategy sessions when needed between group calls is super powerful.
Let’s get back to solving challenges and challenging each other.
Say you have a problem. You’re the CEO or COO of a growing tech company. You set some expectations and projections for yourself and your executive team. Even more challenging is that you set expectations for your entire sales and marketing team, and everyone is falling behind on their targets. What do you do? As the CEO, it’s up to you, everyone looks to you. The stress is mounting. It’s not additive, is compounding and cumulative. It’s downright debilitating. Who do you turn to for advice, motivation and inspiration? Who do you know that has gone through this before? Who can you ask for help to navigate these deep shark infested waters to ensure your company thrives in a blue ocean, and not get swallowed up in the blood filled waters of sharks and competition?
This is where a safe comfortable yet unfamiliar peer group comes in. Odds are you haven’t experienced every good and bad situation. You most likely are not the most experienced person (peer) in the group. This is exactly the place you want to be. This is the group you want to reach out to and ask for help. Learn from their experiences. Thrive in their wisdom.
“I stand on the shoulders of giants that go before me.”
Albert Einstein
What he was referring to was their minds. Giant minds. Giants that took the leap of faith, who went before him and experienced all the problems, so that he could solve those problems at a new level of thinking.
Your peer group are those giants. They are your giants. They have had the same challenges and they are here to help you and help each other.
Are you a giant?
Want to find out? Join me for a free discovery call. Get invited to a free strategy session and a free peer group session. If you like it, join the peer group and grow like a giant of industry.
Looking for a Sales Focused Peer Group? Join me for a free webinar.
