As a follow-up to her excellent presentation on effective networking at the February meeting of WOCASTD (and as a public service for those of you who couldn’t be there!), Julie Bauke, Congruity Career Consulting, sent along these thoughts:
Networking is the Building of Mutually Beneficial Relationships for Personal, Professional and Business Success.
Sure, it’s a mouthful..... But doesn’t this definition make it seem less scary, and more doable?
Effective networking is ALL about building relationships. Networking is NOT:
Build quality, authentic relationships with people that you connect with, who can be of value to you as you work toward your goals -- AND to whom you can also provide value as they work toward theirs.
The good news is that you already have a network, but probably don’t spend much time thinking about it or managing it.
Take a close look at your goals. Don’t have any? Well, then start there!
Once you have established goals for your personal or professional life:
Evaluate your current network. Do you have the contacts that will provide the information, connections, support and resources you need to get where you are trying to go? If not, how can you fill in the gaps? What kinds of new contacts do you need?
Share your goals with people who are in your current network. You may be surprised how helpful people will be once they know what your aspirations are.
Look to give first. If you follow the golden rule of networking -- give first, take second -- you may be surprised by how eagerly people reciprocate.
If you develop goals, build authentic relationships that align with those goals, and look for opportunities to give first, you’ll be amazed at the REAL power of networking!
What do you think about Julie’s take on effective networking? It is certainly a much more intentional approach than I have used in the past. What are your thoughts?
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