What if everyone in my chapter were exactly like me?

Article contributed by TR Garland.

I was recently going through an iLearningGlobal course offered by Brian Tracy called, “The 7 Responsibilities of a Leader”….and something he said COMPLETELY stood out as a topic that I wanted to discuss this week.

I’ve modified this for relevance within BNI, but basically Brian said, “Ask yourself a question:

What kind of a chapter would my chapter be, if everyone in it were exactly like me?”.

It’s a pretty powerful question to ask yourself, isn’t it?

If you’ll remember that Dr. Misner’s new book “Networking Like A Pro” clearly states that “Perception is Reality”.

So, let’s put this into perspective:

What if everybody only passed one referral last month?

That would result in only 60-70 referrals TOTAL…and many of those referrals might not be qualified referrals or even close.  Would we, as a chapter, be happy if only 10 people a month got closed business from participating?

What if everybody only received one referral in the last 3-6 months (which might be the case)?

Would you be excited, happy, and enthusiastic to show up at 7am every week if you knew you were only going to get one referral every six months?

What if no one volunteered for a Leadership Team positions, to be a mentor, to be a visitor guest host, etc.? What if everyone said to themselves “I volunteered last year, I’m not going to volunteer for another 12 months?”

What if everybody hadn’t shown up to an MSP, Advanced MSP, or Chapter Success Forum in 2-3 years?

Where would our interpersonal and networking skills be collectively as a chapter?

What if everybody showed up every single week and brought their personal problems and negative mood with them?

This chapter wouldn’t be a fun place to show up to every week, would it?  Would people eventually quit or begin to spread that negative mood from person to person?

What if everybody showed up 2 minutes before the meeting started and left right at 9am whether the meeting has ended or not?

Would we really get to know each other?  Would referrals be passed?

SO NOW LET’S LOOK AT THE POSITIVE:

• What if everyone passed 1-2 referrals per week?
• What if everyone received 1-2 referrals per week?
• What if everyone conducted 1-2 One-to-Ones per week?
• What if everyone showed up to MSP, Advanced MSP, or another training once every 2 months?
• What if everybody left their negative mood at the door every Wednesday?
• What if everybody treated everybody else with the respect they deserve and how they’d want to be treated?

How cool would that be?

It kind of makes me think of the lyrics to John Lennon’s song “Imagine”.

IT’S MY BNI!!!!

TR Garland is VP of Strategy & Business Development and a Founding Member of Ivan Misner’s iLearningGlobal Team. He is the Chapter Growth & Retention Coordinator for a thriving BNI chapter of approximately 70 members, and he maintains a very popular LinkedIn Group called BNI – How to grow your Chapter larger than 40, 50, 60, 70 members (and pass referrals exponentially). TR was also recently honored with “The Go-Giver Award” by Dr. Ivan Misner who wished to personally commend TR for his ever-present business philosophy.