BNI Getting from Good to Brilliant

Just send me the manual

Whenever an individual or a business decides that success has been attained, progress stops.
- Thomas J. Watson of IBM

Being appointed to the Leadership team is a wonderful way to make a difference but in my view it is a two edged sword.

On one hand you get to raise both your visibility and your credibility. On the other hand you get to raise your visibility and lack of credibility. Being part of the leadership team and underperforming erodes your credibility in the eyes of your colleagues.

Good leadership contribution maintains the status quo but it takes Great Leadership to really make a difference to the positive energy created in the chapter. Good leaders inspire, encourage and support their colleagues to raise their game and you can't raise your game if you don't know what the game is.

Attending Leadership Team Briefing is essential if you are to first understand and then raise the game of the chapter. You can't assume that you understand the game simply by observing the present team or reading the manual.

How do you know the present team are on top of their game? On what basis do you form that opinion?

Good is the enemy of great. And that is one of the reasons that we have so little that becomes great. We don't have great schools, principally because we have good schools. We don't have great government, principally because we have good government. Few people attain great lives, precisely because it is easy to settle for a good life. The vast majority of companies never become great precisely because they become quite good. - and that is their main problem.

Developing meaningful business does not look like a straight line on a graph. Business has ups and downs, just as life has ups and downs. Chapters are no different and one of the key benefits of attending leadership briefing is to discuss the state of chapter and how one could take it from good to great.

Our biggest enemy is that we think we have arrived and that it's all in the manual.

Read Dr Ivan Misner's views on Leadership Team Training.

Secret Elements That Turn Visitors Into Members

Years of attending BNI meetings, especially when visitors are present have led me to conclude that just three factors determine if a qualified visitor will put in an application.

Firstly, the energy created within the chapter meeting.  It starts from the moment the visitor walks through the door.  What do they see, especially when visitors often turn up at 6.30 on visitor days or 6.45 at any other time.  Do they feel like an outsider, an outcast, as members chat with each other or do people show a genuine energy and enthusiasm for welcoming them and introducing them to others.  What energy is there in the way people are introduced and the way members respond?  What energy does everyone contribute when they are 'on their feet' in the meeting?

Secondly, what is the focus of the meeting.  On a professionally run, disciplined meeting focused on outside third party referrals.  That does not mean it has to lack humour, but is the focus of the meeting relevant to the visitor getting business.  Nothing supports this element more than when members are very specific about the referrals they want.  Positive contributions endorse this element at the 'I have' section for it adds both energy and focus.

Finally, we have no control over the third element ... timing.  is the timing right for the visitor to commit?  Timing is everything and we have little influence of someone else's timing.  However, we do have control over follow up.  Our job is to 'catch people when the timing is right for them' and in this respect, follow up is everything.  More business and new members are lost through lack of effective follow up than anything else.

I have been asked to present this concept at the Thistle Hotel, Bristol Regional on Friday, 8th June. Tickets still available. Download MemberDay2007.pdf

Time to Prune the Roses?

Dr Ivan Misner recently chatted with a member of a local chapter and asked how things were going. "Great!" she exclaimed. "We're up to 35 members! However, only 25 come each week."

Warning. Warning!! It is important to know that things are not "great" if a group has over 25% of the members missing the meetings every week! Believe it or not, it is time for some pruning.

Pruning is my chance to reshape the rose bush, cutting those that have served their purpose and are ready to go. If the plant needs to be opened up in the middle, so sunlight can reach the other leaves, or if there are canes that have begun to cross one another, this is the time to rectify that situation in order to make a huge difference for next year's yield.

In the management book Design, business guru Tom Peters writes about entrepreneur Charles Wang who says, "If a project team is behind schedule, what do you do - double assets (people)? No, no, no. You do the opposite. You identify the least productive 25% of the folks on that team... and eliminate them! Wang Rule: No job being done sloppily and slowly by 30 people can't be done better by the best 23 of those people."

OK, the Wang Rule sounds pretty blunt. But consider the potential of the idea. This is why addition by subtraction works when developing a strong and healthy BNI chapter. The members who are not fully behind the success of the chapter make a positive impact on the chapter by leaving.

But this seems hard to do for most groups. Why is that? TO FIND OUT CLICK HERE