Working together and building relationships in BNI is pulling your oar!

Ask any successful BNI member what is the best part of being a BNI member and they are likely to say “the people I’ve met and the relationships I’ve built,” . If you dig a little deeper, you may come to discover that mutual accountability is what keeps them coming back to BNI.

Just like when you are rowing a boat or riding a tandem bike, no one wants to feel that they are the only one pulling an oar or peddling the bike. The relationships that are built in BNI are predicated on the idea that everyone is held to standards—fairly high ones at that. That, in turn, generates trust—which is the bedrock of any long term business relationship.

Those member standards include:

• Regular weekly attendance at BNI chapter meetings.
• Meeting regularly with other BNI members outside of the weekly meeting.
• Giving quality BNI referrals.
• Following up and nurturing business referrals you are given.
• Bringing visitors to weekly BNI meetings.
• Becoming even more educated about quality referrals and business networking and sharing that knowledge.
• Giving gratitude to those who have helped you through referrals, knowledge or mentoring.

If you read them closely, you’ll see that these quality standards have a lot in common with the way that successful businesses are run. That’s not a coincidence, over the last 30 or so years BNI has been refining and improving on the process and support that helps business people from all walks of life succeed. As an organization, if it’s true that BNI is only as strong as its weakest oar puller (member), it simply makes sense to ensure that every BNI chapter has the very best chapter members and the highest amount of mutual trust and respect possible. This is good for the BNI members, the BNI chapter, the BNI organization and the economy. That’s a boat that’s worth rowing!

PR Chick Jill Bode founded Designed Write Public Relations in 1998. Working with recycled bubble gum, string and duct tape, she managed to craft a cutting-edge, custom PR consortium that works with clients all over the world–including BNI Central Indiana.

This Walker This Video talks about the BNI Mission Statement!