Sunday, July 7, 2019

Do You Consider Yourself a Stakeholder?

From May 2015

or just a Member?



What happens when you consider yourself a stakeholder-not just a member.
By Dan Kelly, Area Director - BNI United Kingdom

Fortune 500 companies understand this truth: When analyzing the health and future health of an organization, it is always prudent to consider all stakeholders. This is called a stakeholder analysis.

A stakeholder is a person, group, or organization that has direct or indirect stake in an organization because it can affect or be affected by the organization's actions, objectives, and policies.

Key stakeholders include creditors, customers, directors, employees, government (and its agencies), owners (shareholders), suppliers, unions, and the community from which the business draws its resources. Though their interest in the organization varies, they generally all want it to perform well.

It would be useful as a BNI chapter member to consider the key stakeholders in your chapter--an organization to which you belong: members, BNI, venue, referrals, local community (economy) and visitors. All of these stakeholders to a greater or lesser extent have an interest in the chapter performing well. Consider yourself as not just a member but an active stakeholder. You will start to realize that the better the organization performs the more valuable your stake becomes.

As a stakeholder, you have a much wider vested interest than perhaps you previously appreciated. It becomes as important to you as any other business in which you are invested. Like your own business, you want all departments working together and adding value.

Consider these questions as you assess the value of your chapter:

  • Are all the members representing both themselves and the chapter well?

  • Are the officers (leadership team) carrying out their roles well?

  • Are the visitor hosts looking after the highly important visitors well, and are they conducting visitor orientation in a businesslike manner?

  • Is the chapter growing?

  • Is there a proper and clearly defined business plan agreed upon by all members?

  • Are issues (absenteeism, poor performance, etc) dealt with swiftly and in a businesslike manner conducive to the interests of all stakeholders?
No matter where we are in our journey as a BNI chapter member, we need to grab hold of this perspective: We are BNI stakeholders. With a chapter full of not just members but fully congruent stakeholders, can you imagine how your chapter might soar?

Robin Sharma has written a best seller entitled The Leader Who Had No Title. A terrific book encouraging us to do just what the title says, lead without title. As a member of a chapter that is exactly what we are, a leader without a title, we do not need to be a leader necessarily (chapter director, membership coordinator) to effect positive change. As a stakeholder we have vested interests in ensuring every aspect of our chapters performance is top notch.

So from now on consider yourself totally as a stakeholder in your chapter. Consider all aspects of performance, including your own, how can they improve, what resources do we have that can be used to enhance performance.

  • Traffic Lights

  • Training

  • Ambassadors

  • Director Consultants

  • BNI

  • Online resources - Ivan Misner etc
Having a chapter full of stakeholders seeking the interests of all other stakeholders - Givers Gain in action, the chapter will undoubtedly perform at levels previously unattained giving all stakeholders a return that will no doubt ensure top performance month in month out.

Dan Kelly is passionate about business and personal development and determined that his BNI members gain the most value from their membership as possible. He has been a BNI member for twelve years. November 2011 he took over the Norfolk UK region as managing area director. Follow Dan at both @danwkelly and @BNINorfolkUK.

Show UP - Step UP - Get Involved!

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