FRANCE: Decide What You are Doing

by Thierry Mazué
French Bureau Chief

Are you still doing what you've planned, maybe years ago?

Some time ago, you've decided to become an entrepreneur and to start your own business. The commitment implied hard work, lots of time and efforts. Providing a product or a service does not make any difference.

Depending on the level of success you've reached, you may have followed opportunities, generally based on customers requests. You started.


If you did, chances are you are still progressing in the same area.Therefore, you probably have a company's mission.

Stop changing your company's mission depending on customers' requests.

Decide for good what you are, what you are providing to your clients.
Be the best supplier ever, be excellent at what you are doing.
Chances are you will stand head and shoulders above your competitors.

I am working day in day out with entrepreneurs, small business owners. I can tell you that those who are struggling to survive take whatever business comes around them; they are not well know for their company's expertise. On the other hand, I've met a successful electrician. He owns a 12 years old company, works with 7 colleagues, and plan their activity for the coming... 6 months!

He is a real expert, as are most of his colleagues. They've just hired a young man, and they plan to train him for 8 months, having him work with a seasoned electrician. Each customer receives a detailed report including a plan of everything done.

Do his clients ask for more than electrical stuff ? Sure they do! Most of the time, they are asked : can you handle the painting ? the plumbing ? what about plasterboard ?

The answer is always the same : Sure, we work with XYZ. They handle all the painting we need. And you'll get the same answer for the other domains they are asked to. The have a team of professionals they work with. Whenever one of them signs a contract, 3 or 4 of them work together to handle the overall project. They are all independant companies, working closely together. And guess what : Each one of them has a unique expertise.

This is how they have a good view of the coming six months.

If networking is a contact sport, good networking is a team effort. It makes a hughe difference in business.

Successful entrepreneurs have a clear understanding on the importance of the mission of their
company.

This is also true for large organizations. Just think a moment about it. What company do you know that has been successful for years, and continues to develop its activity following the same mission ?

I can name BNI : The mission of BNI is to help members increase their business through a structured, positive, and professional "word-of-mouth" program that enables them to develop long-term, meaningful relationships with quality business professionals.
I can't think about the amount of opportunities that came around this organization. Yet, for over 20 years, the mission defined at first has been followed. With more than 111,000 members, it clearly shows that among many, following its primary mission a company can reach a high level of success.

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FRANCE: Decide What You are Doing

MASTERING THE MEMBERSHIP MAZE: Why Did You Join the Chamber?

Mastering the Membership Maze with Glen Gould

Why did you join the chamber? Have you stopped to ask yourself this question?

Usually members join the chamber with no clear-cut plan. Our study shows that members join for one of three reasons: Respect, Recognition, or Return on Investment. Unfortunately, members rarely know which of these they are seeking. In their minds, members usually join because they "ought to". They ought to support the community. They ought to because it will grow their business. They ought to because everyone does. And while "I ought to" is a reason, it will rarely lead to a benefit for the member beyond the momentary good feeling one gets when doing something they "ought to".

But there is good news. If you are one of the hundreds of chamber members in the typical chamber who still isn't sure why he or she joined, you can begin today to get a huge benefit from your membership. And if you are one of the few who knows exactly why he or she joined, you can get greater benefits too. All you need to do is to tap into the collective knowledge base of the chamber membership.

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One of the more valuable benefits of being a member of your chamber of commerce is being able to interact with like-minded business people and to learn best practices and cutting edge ideas to build your business. Chances are there isn't a problem, challenge, or opportunity you face in your business today that hasn't been addressed by someone in the chamber before. All you need to do is to tap into the collective knowledge base and find the answer. It seems easy, and it is.

At chamber events you have access to the best and brightest minds in business. By connecting with others you can help them, help yourself, and help your community. All you have to do is become engaged. Just attending meetings and meeting people will expose you to many new ideas that will help your business. While this process works, there is a better way.

Many chambers have formal idea exchanges. Whether panel discussions, interviews with successful business leaders, CEO Roundtables, or Business-to-Business Connection programs, there is an avenue for you to meet people that you can help and that can help you. If your chamber doesn't have a forum that regularly puts members together to discuss ideas, I have great news for you!

You can be the solution to the problem by volunteering to lead a group.

If you are a regular reader of this column or my blog (www.glengould.net) you know that the biggest benefit you can receive is through service to others. Helping your chamber develop a CEO Roundtable or Business-to-Business exchange will deliver amazing results. Imagine a group of business leaders who meet monthly in a non-threatening atmosphere to discuss challenges and solutions to problems they face. Whether it's hiring employees, sales training, or work-life balance, you can create a program for business leaders to come together and solve problems. It is a powerful tool that every business owner needs.

Or you could develop a business-to-business program to facilitate the exchange of leads and referrals for salespeople of member companies. Start out meeting once a month in an open format and then create closed groups of non-competing industry people to meet more often and build tighter relationships.

Often the best way to solve your problem is to bring others together who share a similar challenge to solve it together. Try building CEO Roundtables and Business-to-Business groups at your chamber and watch your business grow!

Glen Gould

glen@inspirationagents.com

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Bringing business people together to discuss faith and values in the workplace

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MASTERING THE MEMBERSHIP MAZE: Why Did You Join the Chamber?

BREAKTHROUGH NETWORKING: The Networking Chain

Breakthrough Networking with Lillian D. Bjorseth

To accumulate important relationship wealth, you need to use the right tools … in this case stellar networking and communication skills. Let’s examine what networking is and why it is an absolute must in your relationship-building tool chest.

Networking is an active, dynamic process that links people into mutually beneficial relationships to build a new kind of wealth: social (relationship) capital.

• Active - You cannot sit back and wait to be contacted or approached. You have to make it happen! The knight or princess on the white horse will not drive up to your door with referrals or job offers. You have to take the initiative to participate and meet others.
• Dynamic - People, events and information are constantly changing. No two interchanges are the same. You have to keep up with your industry, your business, your company, your community, your friends and, most of all, you have to hone your techniques continually so you can apply them universally.
• A process - Networking is a series of hierarchical actions and interactions that leads to an end: a result, a solution, a relationship, an answer, a sale, a job.
• Links - The process connects, bonds and couples people with one another. Just as a chain is only as strong as its weakest link so is your network only as strong as your weakest link.

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Your Networking Chain

Your chain is comprised of different size links as well as broken links. Take a few minutes now and decide whose names go where in your chain. How much work does your chain needs to make it strong again?

• Big, thick links = people who are strong connections and you can always count on.

• Medium links = people with whom you have more casual relationships and can usually count on.

• Small links = people you may or may not be able to count on. You need to work on strengthening the relationship.

• Broken links = relationships have gone awry because you haven’t bothered to stay in touch. These are vital links you need to repair to make your chain as strong as it can be.

• Mutually beneficial relationships - Networking is as much about giving as it is about getting. You and people you connect with and connect to others need to mutually profit from the interactions to make it work. Just as you can’t take money from your savings account until you deposit it, you can’t take from the universe until you have helped others. And you don’t need to keep track because the natural law of reciprocity makes sure you will get when you give.

• Social (relationship) capital – This kind of wealth is what helps you amass financial capital. Who you know is more important up front than what you know. Advanced degrees and experience won’t open doors for you. It’s people who do that … people I call your network of “knob turners.”

Lillian D. Bjorseth, internationally known speaker, trainer, coach and author of the new third edition of Breakthrough Networking: Building Relationships That Last. http://www.duoforce.com/; http://www.greaterchicagonetworking.com/, lillianspeaks@duoforce.com

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BREAKTHROUGH NETWORKING: The Networking Chain

NETWORKING SUCCESS: Become a Networking Mentor

Networking Success with Dr. Ivan Misner

Ivan's section is sponsored by qAlias.com

If you want to improve your networking skills, then teach someone else what you know.

Can you remember someone who selflessly shared his wealth of knowledge and experience with you to help you succeed? Mentors come to us disguised as parents, coaches, teachers, colleagues, supervisors, and friends. Mentors share with us what they’ve learned in order to help us avoid making the same mistakes they made. They support us through our struggles with guidance and constant nurturing. They celebrate our achievements as if they were their own. They are the very embodiment of the “Givers Gain®” philosophy—in other words, they are happy to give their time and effort to help others because they know that by helping others unselfishly, others will ultimately want to help them in return.

Mentors are invaluable resources for our business success. They guide us through growth, change, and crisis; they help us become who we truly are meant to become. Mentors are leaders, often leading by example. Leaders move us forward. Peter F. Drucker says, “Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to higher sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.”

Take a moment and tap into the feelings you have for your mentors. If you’re like me, you feel a deep sense of gratitude, respect, and admiration for them. If you could, you would no doubt place them on a pedestal—not to mention thank them for all their help. This relationship will stand the test of time and distance. If a mentor called you today and asked for a favor, you’d stop what you were doing and give her request your full attention. You would do almost anything for her with the utmost attention to details of service and quality.

Now imagine that you were someone’s mentor—and that person had those same feelings toward you. Imagine the depth and intensity of that relationship. Imagine the loyalty. Imagine the sense of accomplishment you’d feel. Perhaps there is someone who already considers you a mentor. Perhaps you know someone you’d like to mentor—someone who reminds you of yourself when you were just getting started in business.

It’s common knowledge that if you want to improve your skill, then you should teach someone else. I learned this firsthand many years ago in martial arts. I discovered that by teaching other students some of the fundamentals, I improved my own martial arts skills. Later, this lesson was repeated for me in regard to playing chess. I was always a decent player at the game; however, it wasn’t until I started coaching a school chess club that my game really started to improve. Teaching young people the rudiments of chess strategy made me focus on improving my own game. Sometimes mentoring and coaching others gets us to focus on the basics and apply them better ourselves.

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So, why not try helping others with the networking strategies that you’ve found to be successful. Reach out to someone you know who may be disconnected or just starting out in the world of networking and begin to connect them to your network. This behavior embodies the qualities of a master networker and this will definitely improve your networking skills by acting as a refresher for what you’ve learned and getting you to refocus your efforts on areas you may have forgotten.

Before entering into a mentoring relationship, however, you should reflect on each of the qualities of a good mentor which are presented in the list below (courtesy of www.sonic.net/~mfreeman/mentor/mentchar.htm.).

Characteristics of a Good Mentor

• A Desire to Help—Individuals who are interested in and willing to help others.
• Have Had Positive Experiences—Individuals who have had positive formal or informal experiences with a mentor tend to be good mentors themselves.
• Good Reputation for Developing Others—Experienced people who have a good reputation for helping others develop their skills.
• Time and Energy—People who have the time and mental energy to devote to the relationship.
• Up-to-Date Knowledge—Individuals who have maintained current, up-to-date technological knowledge and/or skills.
• Learning Attitude—Individuals who are still willing and able to learn and who see the potential benefits of a mentoring relationship.
• Demonstrated Effective Managerial (Mentoring) Skills—Individuals who have demonstrated effective coaching, counseling, facilitating and networking skills.

After determining your interest in and capacity for becoming a mentor, you might want to take a look at those in your various networking circles who might benefit from your help or area of expertise. There are also many volunteering opportunities at local high schools or community colleges, where there are many students who could benefit from having a mentoring relationship at this time in their lives.

Keep in mind, though, that many potential “mentees” may be shy about approaching you, assuming you are too busy with your business to help them. Make your availability known, and you may soon be involved in one of the most professionally and personally fulfilling relationships of your life.

Called the “father of modern networking” by CNN, Dr. Ivan Misner is a New York Times bestselling author. He is the Founder and Chairman of BNI (www.bni.com), the world’s largest business networking organization. His latest #1 bestseller, The 29% Solution can be viewed at www.29PercentSolution.com. Dr. Misner is also the Sr. Partner for the Referral Institute, an international referral training company (www.referralinstitute.com).

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NETWORKING SUCCESS: Become a Networking Mentor

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF NETWORKING: How do You Fuel Your Relationships?

The Psychology of Networking with Christine M. West, MS, CMHT

How aware are you of how you Fuel your Relationships?

Everything requires a form of energy to be useful and function. Petroleum, coal, natural gas, and, renewable energies are some examples that fuel our buildings, cars, and modern day technology. The topic of energy is at the heart of the global political, economic, environmental, industrial, and societal infrastructures. A lot of time, energy and money are spent on discussing, arguing and debating about emerging clean and cleaner technology solutions to improve efficiencies and production of future interdependent demands. Yet we have forgotten and need to be reminded to become cognitive of how we fuel ourselves and fuel our relationships.

Our lives are a creation of interweaved webs of complication that ends up fueling ourselves and our relationships. None of us can escape this reality. This is good and bad news. A simple example of what I mean is if you fuel your body with nutritious foods and drink plenty of water daily then the body responds more vigorously. You knew that, right? The problem is we need to properly fuel more than our body. So let’s take it to the next step – our emotions and the mind.

Neurology teaches us the moment a fetus begins to develop its neurology, the central nervous system begins to develop, which is directly connected to our brain, and learning begins. The developing fetus is being fueled by the mother’s experiences in food, thought, emotion and reactions. Psychology teaches us the moment the fetus transcends from the womb to being born our caretakers begin to fuel our experiences. Our caretakers begin teach us what to believe, how to feel, how and what to think and what is acceptable and unacceptable behavior. As we develop, other influences such as the media, radio and televised broadcasts, our schools, what we read, our friends, family, our workplace and everything we surround ourselves with fuels our mind and emotions.

It is our job is to differentiate between clean and damaging fuel for our mind and emotions. How do differentiate when this stuff is deeply rooted into who we think we are and how we think we are supposed to behave. We have constant interactions with family, friends, mates, our dates, bosses, co-workers, strangers, enemies and the media. How do we start to distinguish this boundary? The first place is to ensure we are feeding ourselves clean pure loving thoughts. We need to have a clean relationship with ourselves before we can have a clean relationship with others. We need to clean up our defective belief system that continues to trigger our disheartened self-images.

Spirituality teaches us the reason we seek unconditional love and support is to attract to us the circumstances and behavior we want to experience in our lives. If our belief system and self images are incongruent and misaligned, relationships end up compounding our problem. The overall purpose of our relationships is to fuel mutual love, value and support. Yet it doesn’t appear this way because we distort our interactions with other people. When we behave this way, we think we are fueling our relationships with love, support and value. The reality is we are actually sending fear, distrust, hate, and manipulation which results in making ourselves and others miserable. So how does this affect our relationship capital and our ability to grow our networks? Something to think about -

Business teaches many to believe the more pragmatic and more focused one is on the hard skills for example technology, processes, procedures and the bottom line, the more successful one will be. Those who have bought into this belief misunderstand the value of soft skills. The more proficiency one has with soft skills, the more influence one has to shape behavior and to fuel relationships positively. Most people want behavior to change yet most people unknowingly use hard skills to reinforce unwanted behaviors. We need to become smarter with selecting the correct tools to fuel and grow our relationships.


I want to help to broaden your awareness in acting smarter about growing our relationships in positive healthy manner. If you are a non-smoker and you spend your time with people who smoke. You end up subjecting yourself to the same health risks as the people who smoke because of second hand smoke inhalation. Now let’s look at how energy works. If you are generally a positive person who spends their time with pessimistic gloomy people you end up with the same second hand negativity inhalation. This is because energy flows where our attention goes. If our attention is about valuing people and our relationships, we will continue to be presented with opportunities to learn to master this skill. On the other hand if we focus on the negative or what we don’t want to happen …….. Energy flows where our attention goes.

Genuinely,

Christine

Author: Christine M. West, TheBusinessMD, 2240 E. Tudor Rd. #976, Anchorage, Alaska, USA 99507. Phone 1-907-223-8403. Email: info@thebusinessmd.net, http://www.businessmd.net/ http://thebusinessmd.blogspot.com/ TheBusinessMD offers transformational services to assist better human relationships in the workplace.To hear a conversation with Christine http://www.thebusinessmd.net/downloads/TheBusinessMD-Interview-Business-Corner-09.mp3

Christine is also hosting an enticing Webinar Series titled “How to Master the Fear in Challenging Economic Times”. This is an invigorating series that you will not want to miss! To sign up https://secure.confertel.net/tsregister.asp?program=TNNWWest

Christine is also a Featured Columnist for The National Networker

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF NETWORKING: How do You Fuel Your Relationships?

U.S. SOUTHERN PLAINS: BABWA

By Peter Biadasz

Southern Plains Bureau Chief
(Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, New Mexico)

I have had the privilege over the years to have had very positive interaction with the Broken Arrow Business Women's Association (BABWA). Many of its members are involved in the community in such ways that our paths cross regularly. BABWA has as its mission to: Provide professional and personal support, camaraderie, networking and education through the collective voice of business women. The group was founded in 1996 by Betty Kennett, Sandy Southard, Teresa Morrison and Michelle McKown to fill a need in the community for a professional women's organization.

The group meets the third Tuesday of each month from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. for their monthly luncheon at Tarp Chapel and Gardens, a beautiful and picturesque wedding chapel and reception facility overlooking a stunning landscape. No matter what time of year, the glass walls reveal surroundings that set a warm tone for the meetings. In addition, for the past six years BABWA has held a Business Extravaganza for an opportunity to showcase businesses to BABWA members and guests. This is accomplished by combining the lunch with many booths “manned” by member businesses and a very large attendance. It is a great time of networking and business learning for a few hours.




Babwa is highly organized. Officers include the President, Vice-President, Secretary, Vice-Secretary, Treasurer, and Vice-Treasurer. The Executive Committee consists of the officers and the immediate Past President. The Board of Directors, consisting of the current officers, including vice officers, the immediate Past President, and the standing committee chairs, manage the affairs of BABWA, including arranging for an annual review of the financial records. There are also standing committees such as the Membership Committee, Program Committee, and Public Relations Committee. Each Committee establishes goals for the coming year.

The group has an Annual Meeting of the Membership every December. One of the honors bestowed at that meeting is the Founder's Service Award. The Founders’ Service Award is an award given to an outstanding BABWA individual who has demonstrated continued involvement in BABWA above and beyond expectations. The award is given to someone who has served as an active member in good standing for a least one full calendar year, has demonstrated commitment and dependability through their efforts in helping and has assisted in organizing and participating in BABWA functions. Each year, nominations are taken for this award which is voted on by the previous recipients. The award is given at the December Christmas Banquet.

In addition, every other year, leadership supplies a list of local organizations to the membership for voting to select the main focus of donation distribution. As fundraising and donations allow, BABWA also makes donations to several other community organizations. In addition to financial support, the general membership also volunteers, donates requested items and provides non-monetary support. Last year, for example, when the community food banks were hit hard by a combination of external and internal factors, BABWA members and their companies donated over 50 food baskets to help with the holiday shortfall. These donations were over and above the money given by BABWA.

Teri Dorshorst has been involved in various leadership roles within BABWA over the years. She shared with me that “as business woman there is much emphasis on creating a very nurturing environment. Relationships and a sense of community are top priority. Experienced members’ mentoring younger members is strongly encouraged. The group works hard to foster strong relationships with the local chamber, the city and the local board of education.”

Babwa has an informative and great website that even allows for members to invoice themselves for dues payments. This helps to makes the job that is dreaded in many groups, Treasurer, to flow that much better. To learn more about this outstanding organization, feel free to go to www.babwa.org

Peter Biadasz, author of such book as More Leads as well as Increase Your Sales And Lower Your Golf Score, is President of Total Publishing And Media. To contact Peter about getting your book published feel free to contact him at Peter@TotalPublishingAndMedia.com

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U.S. SOUTHERN PLAINS: BABWA

POWER THOUGHT OF THE WEEK: Building Virtual Community, Part 2

Power Thought of the Week with Patricia Parham, Ph.D.

Setting Boundaries

One of the things that virtual communities require is a container. This container is defined by the purpose of the network. The more detailed the purpose, the more able people are to appropriately select in, or out, of the network. With a strong container, powerful community members will populate the community and they will know how to show up and contribute, thereby helping to build community.



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POWER THOUGHT OF THE WEEK: Building Virtual Community, Part 2

U.S. MID-ATLANTIC: Social Networking – Training the Next Generation

by Bruce Newman, U.S. Mid-Atlantic Bureau Chief

(New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Washington, DC)

I was watching my son interact with his friends on Xbox 360 live last night. Playing in advanced mode, they had to coordinate all of their actions to win their game. There was my son telling his friends where they should move and who should protect whom. It was truly impressive to watch how they worked as a team. In fact, even when they completed their very intense game, my son still talked with them as he walked into our kitchen to get something to drink.

It made me wonder; is this the future of networking?

And I would have to say, yes. Kids - Generations Y and Z (Millennium) have embraced instant communication, remaining in constant contact through a multitude of modalities – all of which appear as natural extensions to them. Even their socialization is more group oriented than in previous generations. Going out in groups instead of one-on-one is now the accepted norm. They are constantly instant messaging each other, writing on each other’s Facebook walls, text messaging and sometimes even speaking with each other face to face.

So, how does this affect business networking?

Do you have a Twitter account? Or Facebook? Or LinkedIn or any other social account? Do you have a blog? Most people have at least one and should have more. Relationships are built, nourished and grown through these applications. There are a number of people on my various networks that started out as contacts and whom I can now truly call friends and business partners.

Would you have even considered creating a MySpace account five years ago? (Be honest.) Few people did. Today, there are many social websites and many more under development. Whether or not they add value depends on both their capabilities and the quality and use of the relationships constructed by their subscribers. Increasingly powerful tools such as Google Friend Connect allow people to connect through any number of social media sites. Gmail and Google Latitude allow us to locate and visually communicate with people on our network by literally, the click of a button.

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Networking is more than just attending events and passing out business cards. It’s about interacting with people. It’s quality versus quantity. The days of having a Verizon representative merely collecting as many business cards as he can at an event are rapidly ending, being replaced by a medium that is fast-moving and based on the development of quality relationships.

Which brings me back to my son and his video games. Many behavioral experts decry the violence of video games – which I certainly don’t deny. Yet, while advocating their position, they overlook one key benefit: the ability to develop and maintain social interactions through this medium. When I see my son get up in the morning and check his Facebook account, sometimes discuss what he and his friends accomplished the previous night or text a friend, I realize how interconnected this world is and how adept and socially networked is this new generation; no training required.



Bruce Newman, an expert on consulting, is the mid-Atlantic
editor for The National Networker and the Vice President at The Productivity Institute, LLC. The Productivity Institute has provided consultant and client-centered solutions that significantly increase productivity and profitability to small and mid-sized companies since 2000. Subscribe to our informative and free newsletter (circ 6,000+), receive our RSS feed, and read and comment on our blog. Bruce can be contacted at bnewman@prodinst.com.





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