“Accountability breeds response-ability.”

Whether you are a seasoned business person or a fledgling in the business arena, once you are a member of the BNI family, whether you like it or not, you will find yourself raising the bar for your self on personal accountability.

If TRUST is the chain that holds our network together, ACCOUNTABILITY are the links of that chain.

As a corporate slave it is easy to brush off less than excellent service or products on management decision or policies. It's so easy to play the blame game. "Hey, if it were up to me, I would have been able to do a better job for you but I am afraid the big guns at the company have tied my arms so this is the best I can offer you."

"I am so sorry our customer service rep hasn't got back to you. Leave me your number and I will get someone to call you back in the near future."

Sound familiar?

Everyone blames someone else or tries to pass responsibility off to this really popular person; SOMEBODY.

In BNI, you are that somebody and you have a name. Like Cheers, the pub (or at our chapter, Mark's Place) everyone knows your name and what you do. If you don't hold yourself accountable for your actions and promises pretty soon you will find yourself as the weakest link.

This past month as the core team got ready for the launch, one of the things VK said really kept ringing in my ear. "BNI is not something you do once a week." As I battled with family and work commitments, I realised my mindset had to change.

BNI isn't a weekly meeting to see what leads I can get & to socialize. I have to work at it for the whole week prior to the meeting. Work at raising my level of accountability, to be more responsible and in turn gain trust.

On the surface it looks like just any other organization but if you really LIVE the BNI philosophy, you will find that it transforms you as a person because you soon conduct yourself based on values that never go out of style.

Stephen R. Covey said it best. Accountability breeds response-ability.