What does networking mean to you? As a career and executive coach, it has deep meaning to me, and I’ve spent my career in and around the subject.
Just before Covid more or less turned networking into a strictly two-dimensional, on-screen activity, I had surveyed 85 managers in a global professional services firm, part of a leadership development project.
One particular element of the engagement was designed to identify the values, attitudes, and beliefs of their existing operating culture, specifically regarding networking. Top leadership was eager to determine how their current and future leaders viewed and approached their roles and the roles of their colleagues, and this was one of the elements.
What the managers really said
Innocuously placed among ostensibly random, but actually purposely sequenced questions, was an open-ended one that asked respondents to list three words or short phrases – in order of importance to them – that they associated with networking. The three most frequent answers, in order, were: job searching, relationship building, and connections. Hold that thought.
What their bosses were hoping for
In a separate but related survey, the top 16 executives were asked what three words or phrases they’d like to have seen as the top three among their employees. In other words, what their ideal culture would look like. The three most hoped for answers were: leadership, morale / esprit de corps, and team building.
Night and Day
The striking difference was not so much in the actual answers but in the nature of the answers. The broader audience gave answers that were more transactional and self-centered. Leadership’s responses indicated that they had hoped for a more strategic, team-first approach.
The Challenge
The in-your-face question that arose was: How do we as an organization go from a group of transactional actors to a cohesive team of altruists? Pretty good question, one that Socrates would savor as the start of his method of questions begetting answers which, in turn, beget new questions, etc. And that’s exactly what this did.
The Outcome
To say there was an epiphany is to understate what happened. Members from all levels of the organization came to a mutual understanding of the greater good that would be spawned by mutual networking goals. Seven pillars of networking – strategies, actually – were agreed upon for all to adopt. It was not unlike writing a declaration and then getting ratification, if you will.
1. A.B.C. That’s the cardinal rule of networking: “Always Be Connecting.” The biggest mistake we all make – whether in job searches, career development, or team building – is that we tend to ratchet up the activities we call networking when we need something, and then start coasting when that need is met. Talking about transactional!
2. Help first, then get help. If all you’re in this for is to advance your own position (not an unnatural thought, by the way), that soon becomes evident. What follows is isolation, exclusion, lack of cooperation, or other negative sociological consequences. But if you’re seen as a giver or a helper, that word also gets around.
3. Identify and mobilize all resources. Include all stakeholders. Look at everyone – absolutely everyone – as part of the network. You never know who can push what buttons or for whom you can do the same.
4. Think big and think small. It’s not just the big dog that counts. Everyone is capable of doing something or of having a great idea – and often we are surprised by the extent.
5. Proactively reach out. Don’t wait for someone else to take the initiative. If initiative is, in one definition, the power or opportunity to act or take charge before others do, then this strategy is rock solid.
6. Never break the chain. Networking goes on all the time, not just when there’s a specific need. Networking is not situational; it’s a mindset, a lifestyle. Therefore, the network you build must be attended to nonstop. It’s like a brass nameplate that needs to be polished every day.
7. Go for quality, not just quantity. One of the big paradigm shifts in this process was the realization that a big network is not necessarily a good one. “A smaller, leaner network of good networkers and good teammates,” concluded the COO, who owned this transition process, “will always outplay a large network of people who don’t understand these seven strategies.”
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September 26, 2022 at 04:58AM
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7 Networking Strategies For Everyone, Not Just Leaders - Forbes
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