First of all a question:

Who actually knows what the Chapter Director does?

Good to see a few hands, but to be honest, unless you have actually carried out the role, you only ‘think you know’.

The most obvious part of the role is that of leading this meeting each week, which means:

• Being here earlier than most everybody else (except maybe a doorkeeper or two)
• Leaving later than everybody else
• Being on their top form from the start until the end, talking and explaining to any visitor WHY they are missing out on a trick if they do not join (priming them for Alan’s closing moves at the visitor orientation)
• Keeping the meeting running to its proscribed BNI structure, whilst allowing a certain level of freedom of expression and ‘friendly banter’ (which is more difficult than you might think).

But it does not stop there, No sirree! If you think you have done a lot of work this week for the chapter, I can guarantee the Director has done that and more.

One of the major ‘unseen’ elements of the Chapter Director role is that of trying to get the whole chapter to pull together as a team, that of a motivator, an organiser and a delegator.

Some people may have the idea that if a chapter succeeds or fails it is the fault or at the action of just the Chapter Director, but this would be a narrow minded view. We, as a chapter, are a team, we are limited by the weakest member, or by a member who chooses not to pull their weight. Quite often the attitude of a few members can be perceived as ‘I will do the minimum, and it will not be noticed’.

It is a Chapter Director’s task to find the strengths of each of the members of the chapter and play towards them, avoiding any weakness. Not everyone can be brilliant at all aspects of being a BNI member, some may not be so hot on getting visitors, but may be better at seeing interesting ways of finding referrals, or vice versa. If any member has a problem, with ANY aspect of being a member, then the Chapter Director and the team that surrounds them should find the best way to solve that problem.

Obviously, that does mean that the problem has to be brought open enough to be noticed. This means a large amount of communication from the members to the Chapter Director. If the issue is glossed over, it is almost impossible to solve. Communication from all sides to the Director is of the highest importance, both good AND bad. It has to be said that this RARELY happens, no matter how often it is asked for. Silence is never golden when it comes to the BNI.

In my mind the best person for this role is someone who motivates and facilitates on a day to day basis. Hmmm, why are the Life Coach and the Human Resources Consultant on the top table, I wonder?

There are many other elements that go together to make this chapter of businesses work, too much for one person, which is why the Director delegates the important tasks to other members of the chapter: Alex for organising the membership, Chris for looking after the money, Gary for co-ordinating the education, etc. Everyone stood a few minutes ago and stated who they were and what their job title was. If you do not understand what it might entail, have a chat with them, a 1-2-1 even.

One last thing that has to be said about the role is that EVERY member of the chapter can be the Director, it isn’t limited to a special ‘elite’. The outgoing Director’s last action is to choose the next person to take the centre seat and choose the leadership team. If you want to do the job, watch, learn and act, you will surely be chosen soon!

The whole chapter should want the team to grow stronger, larger and more vibrant. That is the ONLY way to increase each individual’s return from their investment. The Chapter Director may be a figurehead, but unless we all pull together behind their actions, we are going to be moving nowhere.

This entry was posted by Keiran Wynyard

on Thursday, April 15th, 2010 at 14:30 and is filed under Education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.