The Return on Investment, Energy and Relationships

Tom Suddes | April 12, 2007

Here are some thoughts on this concept of RETURN… RETURN ON INVESTMENT… RETURN ON ENERGY… RETURN ON RELATIONSHIPS…

If you’ve been following the For Impact MESSAGE in any way, you should be familiar with the VOCABULARY CHANGE of ‘donor’ and ‘donation’ to ‘investor’ and ‘investment.’

And, obviously, you would know what every INVESTOR wants from their investment: A RETURN!

And, as a For Impact Leader or Social Entrepreneur, you know that you can DELIVER on that RETURN.

There is another ‘RETURN’ that Nick and I use quite often that seems to really grab people’s attention: RETURN ON ENERGY.

This particular nugget should be pretty self-explanatory. What (exactly) is your RETURN on ENERGY? (In this case, ‘ENERGY’ means both physical and mental TIME and FOCUS.) Is the end result worth the ENERGY? Are you working on your Top 3% or still expending a lot of (wasted) energy at the bottom?

*This concept is explained and expanded wonderfully in a great book by Jim Loehr called The Power of Full Engagement.

Loehr’s premise is very simple: It’s all about MANAGING YOUR ENERGY… NOT YOUR TIME.

Special Note: I believe this RETURN ON ENERGY concept applies both to YOU and your INVESTORS / CHAMPIONS. (They are also expecting a return on ENERGY, not just a return on INVESTMENT.)

As I was pulling this together, it hit me that the first return may be the RETURN ON RELATIONSHIPS. I never really heard anyone talk about it this way, but if you think about it, the RETURN on a RELATIONSHIP could be a way to talk about both RETURN ON IVNESTMENT and the RETURN ON ENERGY.

Again, I believe this RETURN ON RELATIONSHIP applies to both YOU and your FOR IMPACT ORGANIZATION, and your STAKEHOLDERS, INVESTORS and CHAMPIONS.

Are you actually maximizing the RETURN ON RELATIONSHIPS? Are your top prospects and potential investors clear about their RETURN ON THE RELATIONSHIP? And, finally, can you use this whole concept of ‘RETURN’… on the RELATIONSHIP… on the INVESTMENT… on ENERGY… as a way for you to get TRULY FOCUSED???

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