Networking is a Continuous Process
Networking is a Continuous Process
The answer is simple: if you need to start to leverage networking when the times get tougher or when you are no longer employed, you are in for some rough sledding.
You should be networking continuously (so you have people who will gladly help you anytime) starting with pre-school and grade school. My grandsons call them play dates. They qualify as much as relationship-building events as do meetings and conferences or having coffee with someone. The challenge is that you tend not to stay in touch with the people on your Little League team or those you stayed up with all night cramming for exams … until you suddenly need them because your cradle to grave job leaves you looking at an early job “death.”
Of course, some of you continue this pattern as you change jobs, leave professional organizations or move geographically. You keep breaking those links in your networking chain. (Some of them rust and can never be repaired.) Others of you network until you find a job and then fall back into your old ways. After all, you are busy at work and want a life outside of it, too. Networking is an after thought until you get a pink slip or discover you’re the only employee in your department not to get a raise.
Networking is a continuous activity because it is the number one way to build relationships, the key to business and career success. Relationships are built on trust, and trust develops over a period of time. It is also wise to weed the seeds you plant at networking events to make sure you are spending time on mutually beneficial relationships. Networking is as much about giving as it is getting.
Your network is also your number one business support source when you are in transition. Your family supports you in a different way. They are not the ones you commiserate with when you had three job interviews in one day, and none of them was positive. You need to talk with people who understand … who can remove themselves emotionally from the conversation because they don’t depend on you to put bread on their tables.
Here are some key ways to build trust so you always have a pocketful of good business relationships no matter where you find yourself in your career. Keep in mind that people build trust at different rates; some people enter new situations as a doubting Thomas while others assume trust is a given. The suggestions below are ones you can control and generally speed up the relationship-building process.
· Behave with integrity. Be honest, reliable and truthful in all your dealings. No one undermines you like you when your actions and words do not mesh.
· Be trustworthy. I still remember the sage advice a human resources director gave me at one of my first jobs. To find out whom you can trust, share information with only one person at a time. If others learn the same information, you know from whence it came.
· Listen with your eyes and ears. Practice your people-reading skills until you know what others are really saying and then respond accordingly.
· Listen in proportion to how you were born. If you forget, look in a mirror and note you have two ears and one mouth.
· Support those who work for you/with you. Consensus doesn’t mean you always get your way; it means you are a team player.
· Share good news as well as bad, particularly if you are in charge. It will stifle rumors and build rapport among the troops.
· Meet you commitments. Always do what you say you will do … else don’t promise it. Over the years, I guestimate that at least 30-40 people have said to me they would send me a business card (they had run out, hmmm, wonder how that happened!) or email me their information. I’ve yet to receive one card in the mail and, sadly, have received only a few emails. They easily ruled themselves out of my network.
Networking is a Continuous Process - To learn more about this author, visit Lillian D. Bjorseth's Website.
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Recently I was interviewed for an upcoming e-book on relationship building. One of the questions I was asked is becoming a perennial favorite from clients, audiences and the media: How do you use networking to help you in these tougher economic times and especially when you are in transition?
The answer is simple: if you need to start to leverage networking when the times get tougher or when you are no longer employed, you are in for some rough sledding.
You should be networking continuously (so you have people who will gladly help you anytime) starting with pre-school and grade school. My grandsons call them play dates. They qualify as much as relationship-building events as do meetings and conferences or having coffee with someone. The challenge is that you tend not to stay in touch with the people on your Little League team or those you stayed up with all night cramming for exams … until you suddenly need them because your cradle to grave job leaves you looking at an early job “death.”
Of course, some of you continue this pattern as you change jobs, leave professional organizations or move geographically. You keep breaking those links in your networking chain. (Some of them rust and can never be repaired.) Others of you network until you find a job and then fall back into your old ways. After all, you are busy at work and want a life outside of it, too. Networking is an after thought until you get a pink slip or discover you’re the only employee in your department not to get a raise.
Networking is a continuous activity because it is the number one way to build relationships, the key to business and career success. Relationships are built on trust, and trust develops over a period of time. It is also wise to weed the seeds you plant at networking events to make sure you are spending time on mutually beneficial relationships. Networking is as much about giving as it is getting.
Your network is also your number one business support source when you are in transition. Your family supports you in a different way. They are not the ones you commiserate with when you had three job interviews in one day, and none of them was positive. You need to talk with people who understand … who can remove themselves emotionally from the conversation because they don’t depend on you to put bread on their tables.
Here are some key ways to build trust so you always have a pocketful of good business relationships no matter where you find yourself in your career. Keep in mind that people build trust at different rates; some people enter new situations as a doubting Thomas while others assume trust is a given. The suggestions below are ones you can control and generally speed up the relationship-building process.
· Behave with integrity. Be honest, reliable and truthful in all your dealings. No one undermines you like you when your actions and words do not mesh.
· Be trustworthy. I still remember the sage advice a human resources director gave me at one of my first jobs. To find out whom you can trust, share information with only one person at a time. If others learn the same information, you know from whence it came.
· Listen with your eyes and ears. Practice your people-reading skills until you know what others are really saying and then respond accordingly.
· Listen in proportion to how you were born. If you forget, look in a mirror and note you have two ears and one mouth.
· Support those who work for you/with you. Consensus doesn’t mean you always get your way; it means you are a team player.
· Share good news as well as bad, particularly if you are in charge. It will stifle rumors and build rapport among the troops.
· Meet you commitments. Always do what you say you will do … else don’t promise it. Over the years, I guestimate that at least 30-40 people have said to me they would send me a business card (they had run out, hmmm, wonder how that happened!) or email me their information. I’ve yet to receive one card in the mail and, sadly, have received only a few emails. They easily ruled themselves out of my network.
Networking is a Continuous Process - To learn more about this author, visit Lillian D. Bjorseth's Website.
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
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Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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