Are You Going From Good to Great?

Most people are good in what they do, but few seldom achieve greatness. Most are content with just being good, however, they feel that greatness is something that is achieved with a lot more hard work, time and energy. However, let me share with you something that might just shock you!

1. Greatness requires just a little more from you

In the Olympics, any 100 meter race is over by just a couple of seconds. The difference between the first and the second place is just a matter of split seconds! However, the prize money between the first and second (or even third) usually differs by a few times! Just a little bit more in the final push towards the end line, and the person is the first place. Since we are already putting in so much effort to be good, why not take a little more to make it great? It is no harder to build a good company than to be build something great and lasting.

An interesting note: No one remembers 2nd place in a race, but everyone remembers only the first!

2. Greatness sometimes requires less suffering and work

In the book Good to Great, Jim Collins comments that some of the great companies face less suffering and perhaps less work. This is because Great companies are able to realise that much of what they are doing is a waste of energy and have the ability to focus on objectives that will only drive the company towards a singular goal. Most other companies tend to focus on a lot of areas and diversifying their time and efforts, thus resulting in a lot of extra work with not much result.

Collins adds, “I am not saying that going from good to great is easy… but I am asserting that those who strive to turn good into great find the process no more painful or exhausting than those who settle for just letting things wallow along in mind-numbing mediocrity. Yes, turning good into great requires energy, but building the momentum adds more energy back in to the pool than it takes out.”

3. Greatness is about asking the right question

If we ever ask questions like “Why should I need to be great? Isn’t success enough?” My question to you would be whether you are in the right kind of work. If you are engaged in something that you really love and are passionate about, that question becomes irrelevant. This is because when we are in the flow of doing what we really enjoy and like, we will want to make it greater and better. We will be asking better questions like, “How can I add more value to my clients/organisation in what I am doing?”

Conclusion

Make a conscious decision to be Great in what we do. Since we are already striving to be good, let’s strive to be Great!

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Written by Kenneth Kwan
Principal Trainer

Website: www.deepimpactonline.com

The 3C’s to Create a Dream Team

The word TEAM is often referred to as the acronym for “Together Everyone Achieve More”. The definition of a team is a collective group of people working together to achieve a common goal. An exceptional team is created when individual members are working together in synergy such that the end result is more than the sum of individual efforts. There are 3 essential elements for a group to be cohesive and working seamlessly together as summarized by 3 Cs’.

1. Clear vision of the future

This is essential for the continuity of a successful team as all the members will then be committed to work towards a common future.  With a clear vision of the future, the leaders can inspire and also motivate the members of the team to be highly confident, committed and adopt a positive outlook. Good and effective leadership with a clear vision of the future is a very essential component for a good collaboration.

2. Constant communication

Communication is essential in any interpersonal contact and more importantly of a team. As a group gets larger, constant communication should be emphasized to both the leaders and the members of that particular team. Expressing of ideas, articulation of feelings, expressing the goals and plans, and sharing motivations that one has is a good way to cement a team. Establishing the roles one has to play is also important as every member needs to understand what exactly his or her role in the team is and his or her responsibilities. The leader can outline this on the onset of the team formation, in a clear manner defining purpose of every member.

3. Constructive criticism

No matter how strong and compact a team functions together, there will always be conflicts and arguments arising. Team members should be encouraged to give constructive criticism and very often it is the members who care for the team that will voice out their thoughts and feelings. This is essential to ensure that problems and unhappiness are voiced out in a timely manner so that a sound resolution can take place. A team that consists of yes-man or members who do not take the courage to voice their unhappiness will be in danger of disintegrating one day when small issues balloon to a big problems. The right way to give constructive criticism is that it must always be given in the light of the larger good of the team and it must be backed by suggestions on how to make improvements. Team leaders should get to the core of the argument instead of avoiding the issue. To avoid offending other members or misunderstandings, clear channels to provide feedback should be established and such channels communicated to members so that everyone understand the preferred way to give feedback within the team.

Building Ties that Bind

As the size of a BNI chapter grows, one of the common challenges faced by all members is the ability to understand everyone’s business. We know that in order to increase referrals and to find opportunities for business collaboration, building strong ties with members is critical. Just like the intelligence of a person is dependent on the links between the memory cells in the brain called synapses and not the size of the brain, the strength of a BNI chapter is also dependent on the ties between members and not merely the number of members.

 As time is a constraint faced by most people, group dance cards will be more efficient as compared to the traditional way of 1-1 dance card.  To maximise the result from group dance cards, below are several suggestions on conducting effective group dance cards:

 1. Show-Case melody

 Each member given 10 minutes to talk about their business & ideal client profile. Be very specific & time-conscious about how the show-case is being done. The objective is to get to know in greater detail about each other’s business goals, ideal client profiles & how to get referrals for them. Some specific things to talk about:

 a. What’s the unique selling proposition for your company & its’ products/services? Why your company, not your competitors?

 b. Ideal client Profiles, and how they can benefit from your services.

 c. How do you propose you can work with the various members of your group?

 d. What are the improvements you hope to make this year about your business, personal and professional development?

 2. Speed Dance-Card

 a. Each write down their name on a slip of paper, put into two separate cups alternately, so that you split into two groups. Open all the slips in one cup, and get them to each in turn pick a name from the other cup. This will be the first round of combination.

 b. Each given 10 minutes to share their business. Be specific about the dance-card, to quickly state the unique selling points, how their services can benefit their target market groups. Then each given another 5 minutes to suggest how to collaborate with each other.

 c. Then rotate in order of group 1 meeting new group 2 person. Then finally one round together within the group.

 3. Chapter Improvement suggestions

 a. Break-out into 2 sub-groups and discuss about

 i. What suggestions you have to increase referrals especially for members who did not receive a lot of referrals and especially tier 2 referrals?

 ii. What are the suggestions you have to develop stronger business ties as well as relationship between members?

 iii. How can we as a chapter market our chapter members’ services more effectively?

 iv. What arethe things that have happenedinBNI that will make you commit to the Chapter and become a 10 year member?

 v. What are your suggestions on how we can improve BNI Renaissance further?

 b. Run a general discussion with each member given 5 minutes to speak about what areas of improvements can be made to the chapter. Get a facilitator to classify and group the points made. Then open to the entire group and go through groupings of suggestions and comments.

 4. Share about How Referrals and Visitors came about. This will help each other learn how to pass more referrals and bring visitors.

 5. Visitor Day! – Why not make it an occasion to invite visitors to your members’ group gathering. You can put together a social event, perhaps get a member to be MC and introduce other members and share what the BNI Renaissance is all about.

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