Documenting Your Leadership Journey

I recently had a question from one of my MasterMind participants about how to present the experience on her resume, and as I asked my peer network for their recommendations I received the overwhelming chorus of crickets in response.  Since I am apparently not reinventing the wheel, I will share my answer here.

First, what is a MasterMind group?  While MasterMind groups have been around for a long time (Benjamin Franklin’s was called a Junto), I am partial to Napoleon Hill’s description in his book Think and Grow Rich.  He described a MasterMind as the “coordination of knowledge and effort of two or more people, who work toward a definite purpose, in the spirit of harmony.”  The MasterMind is powerful because “no two minds ever come together without thereby creating a third, invisible intangible force, which may be likened to a third mind [the master mind].”

This particular MasterMind used John Maxwell’s The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership as the basis for our discussion on improving our leadership abilities and implementing those improvements.  While the basic question was about presenting the new experience on a resume, I think this is an opportunity to tell future employers that you are on a never-ending journey to better learn how to add value to others.  Companies should want to find people who are not satisfied with their current state of leadership and continuously want to improve.  If a company doesn’t get it, you will outgrow the position to which you are applying, and eventually be looking again.

So, to the particular question, every resume is different and ALWAYS tailored to the employer you want to speak with (get the interview), so there is no one answer.  If you include a Professional Experience Summary, I might include a statement like:

I believe strongly that a leader must continually improve herself, so she always has more to give to help her team.  Most recently, my leadership journey has included an in-depth study of The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, including how to implement those laws to add value to my team.

In other cases, you may choose to include the MasterMind as a line item in an Education and Training Summary.  Personally, I also include a list at the end of my resume of Formal Military Education, Acquisition, and Program Management Education.  Including the MasterMind experience as a single line in a section like this is also a possibility which may give you an opening to discuss the potential employer’s view of continual improvement during the interview.

I conduct MasterMind groups in the Denver, Colorado area, or remotely for those outside the Denver area.  Do you want to know more about my MasterMind groups?  Click here for more info.

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