 |
| Photo by Ani Kolleshi, Unsplash |
Networking Strategies Vol. 2
Understanding Networking
Networking is one of those general terms
that may go misunderstood by individuals.
I believe it extends a little further than the definition of just “acquiring
contacts”. If we think of it in this way
though, it is far better than thinking that it is something that it is not. It has been important in my journey to grow
my network that I think of the network as being “mutual contacts with purpose”. I believe this definition could serve
everyone better for several reasons.
Understanding mutual contacts with purpose
requires us to avoid mass-friending and following others on social media. I believe that defining networking in this
way gives us substance to what we are looking for when we refer to the purpose,
as well as gives a mutually beneficial relationship with the contact by
understanding that you cannot be networked with another without them also being
networked with you.
Premature Pitching
A problem that I have encountered enough to
define it as a problem is the act of prematurely pitching your idea to a
potential network connection. This
almost always fails in successfully securing another member of your larger team
or network because, even if they were on your network, they may not vibe with
your current idea. It is important that
we don’t go looking for network connections for professional or even personal
use by trying to lure them in with a current pitch or idea. This is exceptionally important from the
entrepreneur’s point of view primarily because when you are salivating over an
entrepreneurial idea, this is a natural tendency.
The network member relationship must
mutually exist between two parties before any ideas, pitches, or opportunities
can be presented. This has been a showstopper
for me. I get all wound up about a recent
idea that I have been building on, go to grow my network, cant stop thinking
about network applications to this idea, and end up just delivering the idea to
someone I am trying to add to my professional network. Chances are the individual that I’m speaking
to thinks that I’m a kook and likens me to a door-to-door amateur vacuum
salesman or trying to sell him a life insurance policy via a cold call.
It is important to deliver your interest in
creating a network member relationship during that first conversation and avoid
discussing business. I would also argue
that it takes some reinforcement of that relationship further before discussing
profession business especially as it applies to entrepreneurial ventures or
opportunities. From the receiving point
of a view, if you are trying to sell an entrepreneurial journey cold, the
individual on the receiving end of this conversation would probably think that
you are very desperate and if you indeed have a following that you have
acquired through your methods, you are probably created a cult instead of an organization.
Network Member Relationship Theory
I like this idea just because it so very
well meshes with principles of leadership and team building. The meat of this meal hovers around
individual relationships with members of your network. It is the difference between a cold call and
a warm call from a salesman’s perspective. This is a theory that describes the process of
initially contact a potential future contact, gaining rapport by building a
simple relationship, growing that relationship, and then having an integrated
network-member that is more likely to actually hear any ideas that you have. This is important in professional networks
because you want as much honest feedback as you can get. The better you develop relationships with
members of your network, the more fine tuned your feedback machine is.
The powerful application of this is that
you can dial in exactly how much effort you plan on putting into various
network members before you intend to ask for feedback on an idea or problem. On giant platforms like LinkedIn, you may
find that you must put a good deal of effort to build the relationship of your
various connections before you are able to extract any honest feedback. I have found that smaller forums and message
boards of entrepreneurs and professionals usually are more willing to engage
you on the short term just because of the common ground of being a part of a
smaller community. I have been
capitalizing on this a lot and plan to do so much especially with the number of
growing small community forums that exist.
Network Member Roles
Having a network of contacts is an
important part of developing professionally in the world. We all communicate and exist in and through
relationships. Without doing this would
make life a very lonely experience. As
we study building networks for professional purposes, we need to keep some
attention on who our network members are and what roles do they fit for us. When we dive deeper into the realm of
building a very large multi-functional professional network, we are going to
encounter many different types of contacts and network members. It will be clear that some members may seem
to be better at giving advice and consultation while others tend to be more available
to give feedback. You may find that some
are interested in current projects that you are working on and are eager to
learn about them. Some may just be there
for the drama, and some may be present to provide negativity or nothing at all.
The key point in mentioning roles is that
while we are focused in growing our network, we should be growing it in the
direction that we want to use it. Over
the course of the past year I had read a couple books that mentioned
networking, so I sought to network, and network I did. I was so willing to have followers, network
connections, and friends on Facebook and Instagram that I was literally
connecting with anyone willing to click the accept button. The point here is that many of the people who
I connected with filled the role of nothing, ergo I never really created a
network, rather I created a few internet accounts that had a high number of connections.
The solution to my problem here was to
identify a few roles of network members that I wanted to create and then
actively look for network members that could specifically fill that role. There is still a lot of filtering through
people through various attempted connections and contacts, however, it becomes
clear when you find someone that can provide at least one aspect of the things
that you are looking for.
It is important to not be too restrictive
in this area. Chances are if we are
honest with ourselves and set out to connect only with those who could help
push our current entrepreneurial venture forward, we would all end up with a
very small list of connections. I think
diversity here is important. We need to
properly identify various areas that can be occupied by networking
members. I think it is important to
create an email or contact list and list them individually by their potential
roles to be served in your network. I
think that if you are properly developing a network member relationship then
you could even discuss this with them, as well as ask them what roles that they
are wanting you to fill as a member of their professional network.
When thinking of specific roles, I like to
broadly define many categories. Mentors,
mentees, those that provide consultation and advice, those that provide
feedback, those that are able to help promote a venture, those that may be
directly interested in helping a venture succeed, potential partners, other
dreamers, general colleagues, and even unknown are all roles that I consider
when I initially meet someone new.
Conclusion
Even if we are going nowhere and doing
nothing, I think it is obvious that human beings are social creatures. Having a network of contacts is essential
even in the dull activity of nothingness.
If we escalate this thought to the next level of having goals and
working towards them, it becomes even more clear that networking is
necessary. Our success depends on the
success of our ability to effectively network.
I think focusing on the effectiveness of network should precede focus
towards an efficient system of networking.
I do not believe that we should do one and completely avoid the other,
however, I believe that one should come before the other.
I believe that once we are effective at building
our network, we need to continue this into a more efficient vehicle for
networking. Efficiency in networking
will be a topic of a future content submission.
No comments:
Post a Comment