Imagine your country’s Olympic team returning from the latest games, having delivered their best performance in 20 years. Many athletes who didn’t win medals still excelled by breaking world, national, and local records or achieving personal bests. They all returned satisfied, knowing they gave their best.
So, how do you become good enough to compete, let alone win, at the Olympics?
One word: discipline.
You wake up at 4 am, put in countless hours of practice, make sacrifices in pursuit of a higher goal, and start winning races. With more practice and more victories, despite setbacks, you maintain a burning ambition. Eventually, through hard work, dedication, and determination, you succeed. You stand on the podium, your national flag rises, your anthem plays, and your mom weeps for joy.
The fundamental driving force behind every gold medal winner is discipline.
In your networking group, members are either business owners or hold significant responsibilities within their organizations. Their actions, decisions, and leadership shape the future of their companies, their lives, and the lives of their employees or co-workers. Like Olympic athletes, your focus should extend beyond daily tasks to long-term goals for your business and personal achievements.
Many members view the meeting as a gathering of their sales force. With this mindset, consider that if the meeting represents an extension of your business, there might be people you would prefer to let go. In reality, there are members whose performance falls below expectations and who need to be re-educated about your company’s aims, goals, and expectations.
Here’s a bit of management wisdom: if someone is underperforming, it’s not their fault; it’s yours. If you don’t clearly communicate your expectations and regularly train them on the latest products and services, how can things improve?
In the one-minute training workshops I run, I emphasize that it is YOUR meeting. You determine the success of the group for yourself. You must act as if the entire organization’s success or failure is in your hands—because it is.
If you’re not achieving your goals, take responsibility and fix it.
If you attend meetings expecting the magical referral fairy to deliver hundreds of referrals just because you showed up, you might as well stay in bed. Networking is a mirror; you only get out what you put in.
Like running your business, active involvement in your group is essential—not just by serving on the Leadership Team, but by consciously deciding each day to improve YOUR group for the benefit of all members. Now is the time to take control, get involved, make a difference, and have the discipline to train your Chapter effectively, ensuring they bring back the gold.