Transformative Benefits Moderating Self-Audits

Hello and welcome to Mastermind Mastery, the podcast for professionals who want to create and run successful peer advisory councils, or as we call them, PACs for short, or they're also known as peer groups or business mastermind groups. I'm your host, Tina Corner Stolz, founder of Elix Council, where I've been in the industry running groups since 2005 and now help those like you with education, certification, and support wanting to do the same. At one time, I ran 10 groups, nearly 100 members, and sold my groups For a Good Multiple and recently released my second book, Your Seat at the Table: How to Create and Run Your Own Peer Advisory Councils, published by Forbes, and grateful to you that it's an Amazon bestseller. I invite you to join each week where we share strategies and techniques to successfully launch and become a master of running your PACs. You'll hear insights, perspectives, do's and don'ts, learn from my and my guests' mistakes, successes, and get the inside track to key takeaways. Each time we have guest. We'll be having a bit of fun.

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Hello everyone, this is Tina Corner Stolz, your host today on the podcast Mastermind Mastery. I'm excited about today's episode because I'm going to share with you something I'm pretty sure most of you don't do, but the benefits are enormous, and that is doing a self-audit on your meetings. Now, typically, most all of us actually run our peer groups by ourselves. We are the sole moderator of those groups. So rarely do you do one in tandem with someone else. And if you do, you have the benefit that you can give critical thinking and feedback to each other. But when you're out there on your own, you don't have that benefit. So in today's episode, I'm going to share with you what we've used as the moderator self-audit and what the benefits are of doing it. And so at the end of the episode, you can also download this form for yourself. So that's our resource, our tool for you today. So first of all, how did this even come about? Well, number one, I was having lots of different moderate— moderators run groups underneath my umbrella, and I couldn't attend those meetings, and I wanted a way for them to determine how well did their meeting go other than just, eh, it felt good, it seemed like it went well. I wanted a more formal approach to self-reflection. And an evaluation. And so it created this form in order to do that. So what and why to do—

even do it?

So first of all, just some thoughts as to the benefits that you might not intuitively think about. One, it can actually increase your productivity. And you may be thinking, how is that? Self-auditing actually allows you to identify time-wasting unproductive elements in your meeting and find ways to streamline the process, making them more efficient, because you've realized kind of what's working, what's not working, and maybe you find a trend of what's consistently not working and that maybe you just need to eliminate it, which in turn gives you improved time management. Time management in that you gain a better understanding of kind of how, how to allocate your time during meetings. Like what works well as far as what went well effectively, and how long did it take for some pieces of your agenda versus others, and to determine where you're losing time. In some cases, where can you gain time, which in turn helps you, number 3, better preparation. So by reviewing your meetings, you can assess whether, you know what, were you adequately prepared? Did it run well? Did you have the right strategy for your agenda? And what can you do better to have more focused discussions, which leads to enhanced communication. Analyzing your meetings helps you identify communication gaps or issues in regards to how did you facilitate the discussions that happened. And it can also help you have clearer objectives. So what was the objective of the particular, you know, meeting that you had? It could have been that you had a speaker and you were looking for certain types of information to get, you know, communicated. How well did that go? How well did everybody receive that, etc.? Which adds to increased engagement. You know, basically when you analyze how did everybody, your members, interact with each other, where were their gaps, who maybe didn't talk as much as you would have liked, who talked too much, et cetera, and how can you keep participants, your members, engaged and focused? So if there were times in the meeting that you felt that that lacked, what do you think caused it? Should you have taken a break? Should you have maybe called on a member or something more so than what you did or didn't do? So what techniques could you come up with to increase better facilitation? The other thing is it can help you in regards to the most obvious, which is personal growth. So when else do you get feedback about how things are going? It's rare, right? And doing self-reflection after a meeting will help you grow. Both in your facilitation skills, the strategies, the agenda, how you communicate, you know, where there's weaknesses. Did you start the meeting on time? And we're going to get into all of that in a moment. But it will help you as another benefit make better decisions. Okay. And the other thing is it's kind of self-accountability because if you have the mindset of continuous improvement, you will want to do this. And this is really for not just the benefit of you, it's for the benefit of retaining your members. Because one of the things that I always say is the number one reason a member leaves a group is the moderation. If you're not moderating well, they will be frustrated and they will leave the group. They stay because of the other members and about how well you have put together their peers. So your moderating skill matters in regards to retaining your members and having them feel like the time they just invested in you was worth it. So the return on their involvement, their ORI, they use as a tool to think about Was that worth it this month? And am I coming back next month, or am I coming back next year, etc.? And so that accountability is self-auditing. It's accountability from a standpoint of you yourself. And it can also then enhance your professional reputation. So as you can tell, there's all kinds of reasons to do a self-audit. And the first question you may ask is, aside from, well, what do I do a self-audit on, is when do I do a self-audit? And so what you're going to do is you're going to do it always immediately after the meeting. And of course, the obvious is, is because that's when everything is fresh in your mind. And so one of the reasons we developed like this checklist, it was we wanted to make it very simple. In regards to what you think about, about how well the meeting went, where your opportunities are to improve upon the next meetings. So first of all, we put it into categories. The first category is preparation. So in this category, you're looking at things like how well were you prepared? Did you know who was going to be absent, late? Or have to leave early? Did you do an email in advance as a reminder? Did you have the agenda completed ahead of time and you were able to send it out? Was the strategy for an effective meeting determined? Was the meeting agenda, like the whole layout if you're in person, with tent cards or seating, easel markers, AV, whatever it might be, was that all properly and done well? And if you have a speaker, were they present? Were they prepared? Did you review their presentation? If you had a member that's doing their perspective report, deep dive, strat plan, etc., did you see it? Are you— were you positive they were prepared, that they were ready to go? So it's everything in regards to preparation. Now, in speaking about this right now, it made me think also, were you prepared from a positive mindset standpoint? You know, as you go into a meeting, it never fails. There's chaos 30 minutes before the meeting starts. Something doesn't work right. Technology. If you're in person, if you're virtual, the same thing can happen. You're starting to get text in regards to I'm running late. Uh-oh, I need to leave early for some reason. Or, you know, if you have a meeting in a new location, let's say, I can't remember where it is. Can you tell me where it is? You just get all of this stuff. And so you can't even concentrate on you mentally being prepared and on your game moments before the meeting starts because you're dealing with all of this chaos from your members. And if you don't have that, then it's a lucky day, right? Because you cannot, right, plan for it. It's just the norm. It's what's going to happen. So there's the preparation. How well did you do? Because if you happen to know that someone wasn't absent and they are absent, then you know that you got to put in place a better process for them to let you know and to make sure they understand the importance of why it is they need to let you know that they're going to be absent. So now we get into the meat and potatoes, the meeting structure. And so some of the key points here, which are the majority of the self-audit, have to do with logistics as well as objective and subjective. So you have, did the meeting start on time? If not, why not? If you have food refreshments, you know, coffee, tea, you might be having breakfast, you might be having lunch, whatever it is, was that food present? Was it good, right? Was it adequate? Was there enough, etc.? Did you know and have knowledge of where the members are if they were not on time, right? Did you text or call prior to the meeting starting and allow yourself enough time to find out if they were just a few minutes away or not? Did you let the members know, the ones that were absent, as well, and why? Because they do want to know. So why isn't John here today? Well, John's on vacation. Oh, that's right. You know, why isn't Sally here? Well, Sally's not feeling well. Oh, well, why, why? I hope she's fine. Is it major or anything like that? So the members do care why the other members are not there. And of course, you're hoping that if a member misses, it's for a darn good reason. Okay. And you're controlling perception when that's the case, right? You wanna make sure that the other members, if a member is missing, that the other members that are present don't feel it's because they just didn't prioritize it. And if they didn't prioritize it, then you know you're going to have a conversation about how they can get back on board with prioritizing their meetings. Right now, what else? Announcements. Were there announcements? Did you make announcements? Were they necessary to make? And if you had a speaker, were they prepared? Right. Did it go well? Did they follow your instruction? Was there good Q&A? What was the feedback from everyone about that? Right. And then we start from the beginning of your agenda. How was it in regards to your opening? You know, we call the opening My Transition. So did you ask a very thoughtful question? In addition to starting on time, did you follow up with their commitments? Did you find out who has a COP, a challenge, an opportunity, a problem, or idea that day? Did you rank it? So whatever is important to you about the opening, you want to take each of those points and and call them out and rank yourself on those. Then, did you run it tightly and efficiently, that opening? Meaning, was it kept tight? Was it within your time frame? Did all the members speak on each section versus not one member going through everything rambling, etc.? And if you didn't, why? What happened? Because sometimes Legitimate things happen and you have to not keep exactly to the agenda because you have to read the room, obviously. And then if a member presented, okay, how did that go? Did you keep them within their time? Were they prepared? Was— were all the other members engaged? Did that member get great feedback and insights from everyone else? Okay. And did you— they— were they properly in regards to have handouts? If that was part of the deal. So that is another aspect of your agenda. You've got your opening, you've got— if you have a speaker, you've got— if somebody did their deep dive, and then you've got those questions, those challenges, opportunities, problems, or ideas. Did you follow the process? Do you have members that didn't follow the process? How did it go? Did you have enough time? Were you able to dive deep into it? Were you able for that member to get very, um, meaningful insights, right, from the other members? And did you process enough of them, or were you not able to get to some of them because why? X, Y, and Z. Okay, so now you're analyzing— the point is each aspect of the meeting And you're talking about now towards the end in the wrap-up. So did you end up on time? Did you, did you not, and why? Did you get commitments between now and the next month, if that's something that you do? Did you specifically ask the value they received from the time they spent that day, their value, their takeaways, their aha moments, whatever it is that you want to call it Did you get them, and were they relevant, right? So that's the second part. That's the, the foundation of your meeting structure and how did it go. And now I encourage you to rank the culture of the group. So how were the members' rapport with each other, their level of trust, their responsiveness, their engagement and being present? What was their level of transparency, their level of commitment to each other? And did they follow, like, your guidelines? Whatever guidelines you have for the group, did they respect those? So you might also put in there, did the members participate? Meaning, did you have a member that possibly wasn't engaged and too quiet? Did you have a member that actually talked too much? You know, and how is that perceived in, in the group? If you had a guest that attended, whether you do or don't do that, again, that is another episode. But if you did, how was that received? And then you reflect upon, was that guest prepared? You know, did they participate well or not? That would give you insight as to whether they'd be a good member, that kind of thing. Moving on. The next section is moderating. So how did you do moderating the meeting? Did you do well in regards to time management? Did you take breaks when needed? Did you wrap up and transition between sections of your agenda in a very efficient way? But just period, did you do it versus abruptly stopping and starting something new without a transition. Do your members understand the process as far as that you've outlined that all the meetings have? Process can mean everything from— you might say that when members have questions that they kind of raise their hand so you know who has a question and they go next versus talking over each other, right? You may have where you say break is 10 minutes and did everybody come back in 10 minutes? For good reason, or do they not pay attention to that and you have to go round them up, right? And the other thing with moderating, did you ask open-ended questions? Did you keep opinions to yourself? Did you offer insights last? Because insights are always offered last, not insights before your members give their insights, right? So did you minimize any of consulting role you might fall into versus a facilitating moderator role, right? And this is what I always call member expertise exploited. So member first. So when something came up and the members need something, you may have the answer, but do you hold back and encourage that the member or members that can answer or have that expertise are front and center? Do you make your members look good as priority, not you looking good, right? So this is part of having kind of what I call quiet control over member interactions and maneuvering them in a way that they don't even know that you're doing that, but that you are moderating. It's just when you moderate well, it actually feels like you're not. Right? Did you assess the needs of the members and adjust accordingly? So assessing the needs of the members are maybe you need to take a break. You could tell. Maybe you need to have a conversation that goes longer because maybe there's a member that's upset or has an urgent situation and you have to, you know, the right thing to do is to address that and spend the appropriate time on it. So you might forfeit something else in the agenda because that's the right thing to do? Did all the members give input into solutions in the discussion? Like, you— did you call on every member, make sure they gave their perspective? And if you have a new member, how did that introduction go? So how did the new member introduction go, and how did the introduction of the existing members go? And the other thing is, did you receive The very last thing to the end of the meeting, what value did you receive? Did you moderate and ask that but get good answers? Okay, so whatever it is that you really— let's say you have a skill that you're working on to be better at moderating, you want to have that question in this audit so you can assess yourself. Okay, each and every time, if you feel like you're improving Now, one of the things you're gonna find with our audit is it's kind of a yes or a no and not a ranking. But you can also do a ranking if that's more relevant to you about, you know, this time I did it, I just didn't do it as good as I could have. Right? And so what you're doing is you're looking for continuous improvement and moving up the scale more consistently. And so that's another thing you can do. Now, another section of the self-moderating audit is your members. So how was attendance? What was the attendance percentage? How well did they participate? And do you feel, in your opinion, that they each walked away with value? So it's your opinion, but what you're looking for is that if you felt member XYZ just, you know, seemed disengaged and didn't seem like they got a lot of value. They had trouble answering that question at the end of the meeting. You might kind of put pause at that and know to follow up and just ask, just checking in with you, how did you think the meeting went? You know, kind of wanted to just, you know, felt like maybe there were some challenging moments there, but I might be reading into it. You know, whatever, however you think, but it's good to take a mental stock of that. And so then last and not least is just anything else. You know, what went well, what didn't, what would you change? So I guarantee if you do this after every meeting, you will find opportunities and enlightened insights as to what to do better the next meeting, the next meeting, the next meeting. It literally takes just minutes to do this. But again, just keep some open time in your schedule after the meeting to do this audit. And if you are someone that has others that run groups for you, I cannot stress enough to have them do this and turn it in every time they run a meeting. So you can see where maybe there's opportunities that you can help coach them on how to be a better moderator, or it'll identify red flags in the group that you can see at a 30,000-foot level that they may not be able to see at a 30,000-foot level. So moderating has self-auditing your meetings has so many benefits. That help you increase retention. Okay, because it ensures your member satisfaction and a wonderful member experience because you have taken the time, because you care, in order to see what went well and what did not go as well as you would like, and what is the strategy next time so it's either minimized or doesn't even happen. At all. So today, this is a wonderful resource that is available to you, a moderator self-audit form, and happy to answer any questions. If you look at it and think, what about this or that, please reach out to me. Happy to chat with you about it. And if you use it and you have some great ideas and some things you— that you have added, I would love to hear that too. So again, thank you everyone for listening for today's episode about the moderating audit. And until next time, next week's episode, then go make it happen.

Hey, moderators of groups, thank you so much for listening to today's podcast. To get access to today's show notes and exclusive content and resources, visit tinacornerstolz.com/podcast or lxcounsel.com, where you can also become part of an exclusive online community, attend our academy, or get free resources, templates, checklists, and more. And you can even contact me there as well. So if this episode resonated with you and you know someone who can also benefit from listening, please share with them by taking a screenshot and even posting on your social media. I also love reviews and appreciate hearing from each of you, those actually doing this wonderful work. Please tune in next week for another episode of Mastermind Mastery, and I'll close by sharing something my mentor did after every learning moment. He shared a shiny pebble from his pocket with anyone he passed knowledge to and asked them to forward that pebble knowledge on. So now I encourage you to go pass on a pebble, the takeaways you learned today, to either your existing groups or fellow peers. Now go make it a great one.