5 key players to include when creating your own success circle

“Surround yourself with people who are going to take you higher”~ Oprah Winfrey

As a visionary leader on a mission, your environment and who you surround yourself with are keys to your success.

More specifically, who you bring into your sacred inner circle is critical. You can think of this special group of people as part of your “secret weapon” to take you and your success higher. They each play an important role in your growth and spiritual path.

In my own experience with creating my own inner success circle, I believe that Oprah Winfrey’s quote at the beginning of this article is spot on. After all, as entrepreneur and author Jim Rohn once said: “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”

The other wisdom that I have come to embrace is an old African proverb…”If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

This beautifully captures the importance of our journey as leaders and entrepreneurs in creating a ripple effect of good and impact through our collective efforts. It also captures beautifully the importance of the cycle of giving and receiving.

So, who do you have in your inner success circle? If you do not have one yet, the good news is that you can begin creating your circle today. If you already have one, perhaps it’s a good time to reassess who else you may need in your circle.

Successful leaders take the time to nurture and create various types of strong relationships with different key players who can then be part of their inner success circle.

Here are five key players that you will want to include when creating your own inner success circle:

Mentor — a mentor is the person who is the inspirational “torch bearer” and has successfully walked the path that you are on.

This person can guide your vision and light the path to help you expand your horizon and possibilities. A mentor can be someone you admire from afar and not necessarily in the same industry. Better yet, working with someone you know who has achieved exactly what you want to achieve, is the ideal scenario.

Coach — as a professional coach myself, I know the incredible benefits of working with a coach. In fact, the most successful coaches also have coaches because we know that each of us has our own blind spots and can get in our own way.

Your coach has the role of accompanying you on your journey. Your coach works with you to chart your path and can help get you from where you are to where you want to be in a more efficient way with accountability. A coach can act as a guiding “compass” and champion. Depending on where you are at, you will need different types of coaches at different points on your entrepreneurial journey.

Catalysts — this key group of catalysts are your peers and colleagues. They are on the same journey as you are. As such, they know exactly what you are going through and can help provide perspective, reframe, motivation and be a great sounding board when needed. They get the highs and lows of being a leader.

I have been fortunate to be in high-level masterminds where I’ve met life-long friends and soul sisters. You can also intentionally create your own group of 5 people. You do not need to wait to be in a mastermind to do so. The important thing is that you meet regularly and help and push each other forward.

Cheerleaders — we all need unconditional support from people who believe in us even, if at times, we don’t believe in ourselves. These are the people I affectionately refer to as “cheerleaders”.

As a leader you can expect to have some tough days. And having a cheerleader on your side is a blessing as they can snap you out of your moments of gloom and doom. My husband is my biggest cheerleader. He has been there every step of the way with every reinvention I have maneuvered. His support is always constant and steadfast. The second would be my parents and very close friends.

You can choose anyone for this role. The point here is that it’s very important to have cheerleaders on your side.

Right hand — of course having an effective, high-achieving dream team is very important to your success. While we’re not focusing specifically on the various people on your team, there is one person who is key. This person is your right hand or executive assistant or whichever role you’ve identified.

This person is key to executing and implementing your vision, is aligned with you and your mission and can operationalize it. They are also loyal, always “has your back” and knows how to endorse you and your company in the best way. This person is definitely a gem and one of your “stars”.

So dear reader, what about you? Are you ready to build your inner success circle? If so, what one specific action can you take in the next 24-hours to get started?


Originally published at powerwithsoul.com on June 22, 2016.

Originally published at medium.com