Leadership Are You Ready for This?

From September 2015

 

 

We've all heard that the speed and tone of the Leadership Team sets the speed and tone of the chapter. Leadership Team alignment is crucial to chapter success. At the Fall Leadership Training the Leadership Team will be asked to set their goals for the Chapter for the upcoming year. The Leadership Team decides what they want the chapter to achieve during their term and exactly HOW they plan to achieve it. The critical functions of chapter leadership is creating a consistent culture, setting the emotional tone, having goals, and a strategy to achieve them, making accountability an everyday conversation, and recognizing and celebrating success. The Leadership team has a whole year to get great results for your BNI Chapter.

So how does the LT help their chapter achieve positive results? It's been discovered that when chapters learn and train together, rather than simply getting the information on their own, the chapter thrives in new ways.  It's critical to gather the same information at the same time. Consider the great sports teams; they practice together before they win. Perhaps now is the time to ask your Chapter members what they what to achieve over the next year. With their input and buy in, develop the Chapter goals and steps to achieve those goals for the upcoming year.

There are five essential elements to any leadership team to take their chapter to the next level.  They are easy once you know them and consistently apply them. Think of them as your chapter's yellow brick road to chapter success.

Here they are:

 

1. Alignment. Are all the Chapter members on the same page?

2.  Goals. Do you have them? Does everyone in the chapter know what they are and agree with them?  (Hint: being in agreement is part of being in alignment.)

 

3.  A Plan/Process. Every team needs a plan, a playbook, a system to help everyone win together. What is your chapter's plan?  Does it support your alignment?

 

4.  Accountability. This is the hidden ingredient that makes all the rest work.  (Refer back to last month's newsletter) 

 

5.  Recognition and Celebration. This is one of the most important activities for any team. All great teams recognize and celebrate. Do you? What do you do to recognize your team successes and individual success?

It is important that one element builds on the next. In other words, it's not easy to have goals and a plan everyone follows if the leadership team and the chapter aren't aligned. Nor is it productive to try and build accountability without alignment, goals, and a plan.

 

Think of it this way. If every member understands all the different processes of BNI in exactly the same way and also understands why those processes are in place, the whole group more quickly comes together. And once they've come together, they can move in the same direction to achieve their goals! Use the educational segment of your meetings to educate and reinforce the processes of BNI and why they work. Education + Practice + Accountability = Results!

Speaking the same language creates a healthy chapter culture. Everyone feels included, and it's exciting for members when they know everyone is using the same BNI playbook. They can see the path to unlocking the true potential of BNI. Speaking the same language becomes a shortcut to building excellent referral relationships, as members understand the sequence, the timing, and the activities required to make it happen. The last element that makes all of this work, which can be scary, is (brace yourself) accountability.  Accountability is the secret ingredient that pulls all of the BNI fundamentals together.

 

So now is the time to create a team culture of accountability and productivity which will propel you to Success in the upcoming year!

GO BNI TEAM!