 | The Referral Institute Mission Statement | Why I Love It So Much ... | Posted on: 28/08/2013 By: Jacky Sherman |
I love the Referral Institute Mission Statement. It reflects the common theme that has been present throughout my career and is rooted in my childhood. Inclusion and a real sense of community ...
The Referral Institute Mission Statement reflects the common theme that has been present throughout my career.
Why is that so important to me? I was reminded of why when I went up to Kings Lynn last week to help launch the Referral Institute in Norfolk.
I spent my childhood in East Africa. My father was in the Colonial Service and we never stayed anywhere longer than two years. I was constantly having to leave friends behind and make new ones. Then, as a teenager, we came to England and moved to Brancaster, a small village in North Norfolk.
I found it incredibly difficult to make new friends in, what was at that time, quite a closed community. We didn't stay long and moved to Norwich where, at yet another school, I was spectacularly unsuccessful at breaking into established friendship groups and I was left very much on the outside.
I didn't settle until I formed a group of friends through the Red Cross, where we used to provide the First Aid for local sporting and other events. I found it easy to make friends with people who shared a common interest.
Looking back, my happiest times at work have been where I joined a community where there is a strong sense of a shared purpose.
When I first left home, I worked for the Cheshire Homes. In the 1970s people with disabilities were most often hidden away in residential homes deep in the country. The home I worked in was a small community with some budding activists in the Independent Living movement. The people who lived there influenced me to have a strong value for inclusion with communities by focusing on the common interest rather than differences between people.
From there, I went into the RAF to train as a nurse. Another very distinct community with a common interest. Then I had a successful career in rehabilitation nursing, helping people reach their potential after catastrophic injuries. My passion was to enable them to either get back into their own communities or bring the local community into their lives if they remained in residential care.
Even my time in NHS management was geared around one community at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, which is a small specialised hospital with a very strong tradition of community and a strong sense of purpose.
When I came into the commercial world, it was suddenly very scary being 'out there' on my own. Then I discovered business networking through BNI which gave me a community of other business leaders to join.
I recently tracked my network in Milton Keynes and over 95% of the people I know there I met through BNI either directly or through another member. I'm now part of the NNcoNNEct network because Paul Green, who runs it, is building a supportive network with common purpose to help each other succeed in business.
The Referral Institute takes networking up another dimension and that's what appealed to me. Yes, the methods help people to considerably increase their income. If that was all there was to it then I would have just remained a client. What made me buy into the company was that deeper sense of purpose to build communities of like-minded people who together generate amazing business and achieve their life ambitions.
To me that's a fantastic way to earn a living! I run a series of workshops called 'Link and Learn' which bring together people who share a common target market to build their own community of referral partners. More on that next week.
If you'd like to learn more about how the Referral Institute builds communities then do call me on +44 (0) 7970 638857 or click here to ping over an email because working with others who share the same common purpose as you can bring benefits to the entire group.
Until next time ...
JACKY SHERMAN
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