Under Pressure!

I love that song, especially the Queen and David Bowie mix; in fact I’m listening to it as I write this.

But, that’s not why I titled this blog – Under Pressure.

You see we have started the Hot Seat initiative at our chapter, Elmbridge, and as part of the Leadership Team (and VP) you could even say it was my idea. And, as I believe in leading from the front, I put myself top of the Hot Seat inviting list.

Now for those of you who have never heard of the Hot Seat, in simple terms, it’s about inviting visitors. In our case three members are given the job of finding a visitor in a given number of weeks, with the knowledge that should they fail….well there will be some form of consequence!

Now of course not many members like this concept and many in fact hate it. So why are we running the Hot Seat?

Well, the answer is two-fold: first, to replace members lost by natural attrition, and second, more business for our members. By far the most important of these is losses. On average a chapter will lose 12 members every year through no fault of their own. It just happens. Members move, retire, change jobs, have children and just about every other reason you can think of to leave. So unless these members are replaced the chapter gets smaller and smaller and smaller. I have even seen chapters completely disappear because nothing was done to keep the visitors coming. It happened to one of my chapters once and I never want to witness that again. It still saddens me to this day.

So I totally understand why members feel under pressure, because I feel it as well. In total I have five weeks to find a visitor and one of those weeks has gone already. I’ve tried my best possibilities so now I’m really Under Pressure and I have to say I’m feeling it a bit!

However, I also know that it is essential that I find a visitor for the well-being of my chapter (to do my bit) and so whatever it takes I will find one. I hope very soon.

Sometimes I wish I didn’t believe in leading from the front because then I would be further down the inviting list, have extra time to find a visitor and feel a lot less pressure. But, as they say, someone’s got to be first and it may as well be me. At least I have two friends with me (well they were!).

Do you like your Power Team?

The BNI definition of a Power Team is this:

‘A power team is a group of professionals in BNI who work in non-competing, related fields and have developed relationships so they can refer customers to each other.’

Many BNI Power Teams don’t work and I think the reason for this is very simple and the answer as to why this is the case can be found in the definition above.

You see most members hear (or read) ‘group of professionals in BNI who work in related fields’ and think the ‘non-competing’ is unnecessary, for example, an electrician doesn’t compete with a plasterer. So they think things will just work.

But, and this is the really important part, they have missed out ‘have developed relationships with'. You see a Power Team will never work to its maximum potential unless relationships are built between its members and, I would even say, unless they truly like one another.

Because as you build a relationship, you want to help one another, you’re working with one another and you’re finding out about one another; you are getting to like one another. Only then will the best referrals come - but first you must build the relationships.

So, if your Power Team doesn’t seem to be working take a moment and think about these questions. Have you built good relationships with the members of your Power Team? When did you last have a 1-2-1 with someone in your Power Team? When was the last time you met for a social event? And, the big one – do you like them? And, more important, do they like you?

If you work on the relationships the referrals will follow.