For those who are dismissive and critical of networking and even disdain the term, I suggest a shift in attitude. Whatever word you choose to use, the process we have come to call “networking” has existed since time in memorial. Whether it was the people who recommended a barn with a manger, the farmers who helped each other build barns or the people who travel to the sites of natural disasters, we are pre-wired to connect, form communities and help each other.
1. Shift your attitude. Networking is merely helping others; it’s a lifestyle and it’s reciprocal. It’s the way the world works and always has and always will.
2. Assess Your Network. Know who you know. Get paper and pencil or your smart phone or “phablet” and write their names. Don’t forget people in your daily lives: the cleaners, hairstylist, favorite waiter, auto mechanic, accountant, dentist and barista. When we limit ourselves to people with “titles” of importance, we forget the people we know who KNOW us and have access to others who would want to help us.
3. Hang out with people of all generations and diverse backgrounds who are good at what they do. They will be wonderful, if not informal, mentors. ASK for what you need (people won’t know); OFFER your help to others.
4. Establish a pre-need network. . If you only show up at professional association business events, chambers of commerce and community organizations when you are in transition, that is a huge mistake.
5 Create and maintain visibility. Be seen and be known. “Work” every room. When those invitations or conference brochures or monthly meeting announcements arrive, do what the people who create their own “luck” do. Say YES, to face-to-face events even when you want to say NO. It’s one of the EIGHT TRAITS of people who turn serendipity into their success
6 Be a matchmaker. Introduce and help people connect who can do business with each other. And you don’t have to be a “yenta” to be one.
7. Stay in touch with people when you need nothing from them.
8. Keep people in the loop. Let people who refer you business, ideas or job leads KNOW how the process is progressing.
9. Make small talk. While the snobs and socially inept look down their noses at small talk in business, the savvy networker knows that it leads to BIG TALK. Artful, interested conversation is how we establish common bonds. Schmooze and win!
10. MIND YOUR MANNERS. Being gracious, treating people with respect and acknowledging their contributions and help form the core of savvy networking behavior.
11. Clean Out Your Networking Closets… of those whose behavior is not “fitting” or ethical nor supportive… to make room for whom and what is to become.
12.”Turn-about is fairplay”: support, assist and mentor others.
13. FOLLOW-UP is essential to create a supportive network that becomes your safety net.
If you apply these lucky 13 strategies each and every day, you will establish and grow a network of people who are influential, resourceful, interesting and supportive who will contribute to your success as you contribute to theirs.
Susan RoAne is an in-demand keynote speaker and the best-selling author of the silver anniversary edition of How To Work A Room®, the classic book which launched an industry. She is the undisputed original networking authority who also wrote the landmark book: The Secrets of Savvy Networking as well as Face To Face: How To Reclaim The Personal Touch in A Digital World among others.
For daily insights, follow her at twitter @susanroane @howtoworkaroom
About Susan RoAne
