Forming a mastermind group of like-minded professionals offers a unique opportunity for financial advisors to improve their businesses, according to Deborah Richardson, an executive business coach and founder of ThinkPartner Coaching Ltd. in Vancouver.

The success of such a group requires that members be open and willing to help each other improve their business practices through honest feedback. When these ideas come from trusted peers, Richardson says, it is often the kind input advisors would not normally hear.

However, in order to be successful, your mastermind sessions should have a formal structure that ensures serious and productive conversations will occur.

While your structure can vary depending on your members’ preferences, Richardson offers three suggestions to plan effective meetings:

1. Start with a two-minute check-in
The first part of the meeting is an opportunity for each person to state the business areas he or she has wanted to improve, and subsequent actions taken since the last meeting. Members can also tell of anything significant that has occurred within their business and what goals they want to accomplish prior to the next meeting.

For example, if you are looking to improve your online presence, you can let your mastermind peers know that you have hired a website design company to help you, and that your next step is coming up with possible blog topics so you can produce your own content.

2. Have a few members on the “hot seat”
While everyone will provide brief updates at every mastermind session, the focus of each meeting will be the goals and actions of a few members, who will be placed on the “hot seat.” Richardson suggests taking approximately 15-20 minutes for each hot-seat participant.

The length of your meetings will depend on the number of professionals in your group, Richardson says. For example, if you’re willing to have 90-minute meetings, you can have six to eight people in your group. That way, three or four people can be in the hot seat in each meeting. Smaller groups would require shorter meetings.

There will be more interaction during the hot-seat portion of the meeting, as members can respond to each participant’s update. This is a time for brainstorming, recommendations and observations. It is also the time when the participant can be challenged regarding those goals. More specifically, the participant will be asked to get more specific when discussing their action plans.

If you have shared your blogging plans while on the hot seat, other group members might ask you questions such as: how often do you plan on blogging?; where you will find ideas?; how will you ensure your content creation becomes routine?

3. Be prepared to meet twice a month
Although it may be easier to meet monthly or even less frequently, the process is more effective if everyone is expected to produce results within a shorter period.

“When you’re working on something intently,” Richardson says, “it’s kind of like boot camp.”

If you let a month or more go by between meetings, you’ll spend the majority of those sessions merely updating each other on what has occurred, as opposed to brainstorming on ways to make progress with your business.

This is the second part in a two-part series on working with a mastermind group.

Read part one: Setting up a mastermind group