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Introverts, Burger Toppings and Business Networking?

Guest post by: Patricia Weber

Article Overview: Many of us network like we eat a burger: on auto-pilot. Just how well is that serving you? In particular as an introvert it may not be. And if it's not, then here's what to do about it.

Introverts, Burger Toppings and Business Networking?

Do you know anyone who loves so many toppings on their hamburger that there is actually more oozing out of the bun than into their mouth with each bite? One of my Canadian Joint Venture partners describes such messiness of a burger with: caramelized onions, BBQ sauce, pickles, ketchup, tomato and more that can top the burger and make any bite difficult to contain it all.

So, the question is how to eat the well-dressed burger to taste the deliciousness of each and every bite without finding most of it lost in the process. The same goes for networking: with each organization you join, each meeting you attend and every online venue you choose, you get to choose how to react to the messiness of it. Maybe more for introverts than extroverts, meeting people who you want to connect further with and meeting people who you may wish you hadn’t met at all takes some inner reflection. Networking includes two types of energies:

Hot Potato Energy: For example, you go from event to event, collecting business cards, making connections and you plan or hope for the best from those efforts. You procrastinate in taking the necessary action steps to further the relationship. Why? Because it isn’t always worth holding on to a networking relationship but how do you know when to let go?

Warm Bun Energy: For instance, you keep moving forward in networking with people who you are both attracted to and who seem attracted to you. With a glimmer of some possibility – you meet at Starbucks, you make a telephone call – you nurture a warm bun effect with people who you decide to follow-up. Why would someone choose the hot potato energy instead of the warm bun energy in networking?

• Many of us network on autopilot. Networking on autopilot can ignore the good and the bad about networking. As long as we attend events, shake hands, do business with the same people and give our elevator pitch, the truth is we can feel like we are moving forward. But what we ignore is that we may either be treating others or setting ourselves up to be the hot potato no one wants to hold on too long. But, is staying in an organization or chasing down a potential connection always the right thing to do? Are there times to move on?

• Being on autopilot, we don’t stop to check how we feel. Now stay with me. I won’t take you down a woo-woo path. The truth is, there are many places in the networking process where if we just stop momentarily to check-in with ourselves, we would pay more attention to the course we are setting. Say you’ve had a disturbing day – a deer hit your car, you broke a favorite dinner plate that your grandmother gave you as a gift, or you tossed and turned the night before and feel tired. Do you stop to acknowledge any of this? Do you ignore it and keep moving? Picture this: The above scenarios are comparable to you carrying emotional baggage as you network with people. You are making the process more labor-intensive than you need to.

• Get and use more self-steering. If we stop and find out how we are feeling, we can make better decisions, including whether or not to be in the crowd of networking. Before going either on-line or to an in-person networking event, what if you thought both about how you feel as well as how this particular venue is for your networking events? You’re feeling quite excellent – a new client signed on with you, you got a larger commission check than usual, you have a dinner date with your honey tonight – things are buzzing. But you checked your sales results for where your best prospective clients are coming from, and it’s not this particular networking venue. Are you going to take your bags (good baggage this time) and refocus your efforts? Do you choose hot potato or warm bun energy? Are you not going to attend or put your efforts toward something more productive, whether you go or not?

Get off of autopilot and learn to self-steer, as you trust your feelings about the messiness of networking. As introverts, we’re accustomed to likely spending more time than with our own thoughts than extroverts. Why not leverage this trait? Let those thoughts guide us to those feelings. You’ll find you make better choices, of whether to take the hot potato or the warm bun approach with improved discernment. Likely sooner than later, the messy burgers of your networking will eventually bring you the best outcomes possible.

Related Articles
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  Networking Tip - 5 Social Networking Ways That Benefit Introverts
  Wendys to Unseat Burger King as #2 Burger Brand in America
  Introvert Myth - Are Introverts Aloof Or Something Better?
  Networking for Introverts

Article Tags: action steps, bun, business cards, caramelized onions, glimmer, hamburger, hot potato, inner reflection, introverts, joint venture partners, ketchup, meeting people, messiness, nbsp, networking, pickles, relationship, starbucks, telephone call, tomato



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