A Pebble in a Pond: Relationship networking for career success
By Jan Thibodeau, ABC
Does the word “networking” conjure up painful images of working a room with a pocket full of business cards? Do you think you have to network only when you’re looking for a job, changing jobs or starting a business? If you think either is true, you may be letting a powerful business tool slip through your fingers.
Let’s begin with the first assumption: networking means attending a networking event and handing out and collecting as many business cards as you can. This approach is uncomfortable for most people and often ineffective.
Changing your networking success metric from “how many cards can I give out?” to “can I start one or two good, long-term relationships?” will make networking more enjoyable and more fruitful.
What is a good business relationship? It’s one in which the two of you share knowledge, information, skills, and even fun. A good relationship is reciprocal: you give as much as you get, and over time, you learn that you can rely on each other for help.
This type of relationship takes two kinds of skills. First, you have to listen at least as much as you talk. And listening does not mean preparing a snappy comeback or a persuasive pitch while the other person is talking. When you listen actively, you uncover needs, interests and things you have in common, all of which are the foundation of a productive, enduring relationship.
Second, you must nurture the relationship over time. For example, Joan and Carol, both looking for jobs, met at a networking event. They started talking, and they discovered that they might be able to help each other. Joan knew of a job opening for which Carol would be well-suited. Carol offered to set up an informational interview for Joan. A month later, Carol had been hired through Joan’s contact, but Joan was still looking. Eventually, Joan found a position, and although it was unrelated to Carol’s help, they still stayed in contact with one another. They sent articles of interest to each other, met for lunch or breakfast periodically, and over the months and years learned to rely on each other for information, resources and advice. Joan and Carol each played a role in nurturing their relationship over time. The didn’t keep score of how many times one helped the other, and they didn’t expect immediate gratification.
And that’s the way a long-term relationship happens. You start by throwing a pebble into the pond, and it ripples out indefinitely.
That brings us to the second assumption: you network only when you have to—when you’re looking for a job, you’re changing jobs, you’ve been downsized, or you want to start your own business. While these are opportune times to network, they are not the only times. In fact, if you practice relationship networking, you may not have to ramp up your networking efforts when you find yourself in one of these situations.
The secret is reframing your perspective. Relationship networking is not something you do; it is a way of thinking, an attitude. Every day, every situation is a potential opportunity for networking. Take Bill’s story, for example. Bill is a freelance writer. One day, he asked a plasterer to give him an estimate on re-plastering his home office ceiling. The plasterer arrived, gave Bill a business card, and proceeded to inspect the damaged ceiling. Enthralled by the business card, Bill asked the plasterer who had designed it. He wrote down the designer’s contact information, met with him the following week, and was impressed with his portfolio. Bill and the designer began referring clients to each other, and later formed what became a long-term, profitable business partnership. And, yes, Bill hired the plasterer, too.
The point? You have to stay alert to every networking opportunity. Networking is not something you do one day, and not the next. It’s a lifestyle.
A networking attitude is particularly valuable after you’ve landed your dream job. Don’t get so consumed by your day-to-day job that you lose sight of your career goals. You must continually communicate your value to the organization. That doesn’t mean brown-nosing the boss or bragging ceaselessly about what a great job you’re doing. It does mean building a network of influential people and communicating honestly how your accomplishments benefit the department or the organization.
An important part of developing a networking attitude is to listen more. Just as you need to listen to start a good networking relationship, you must also listen and observe to discover unmet needs within your organization. Each one of those needs or problems is an opportunity to which you can apply your unique set of skills and help build your career path. And if you’ve already developed an effective network, it will be much easier to convince the organization’s decision makers that you are the right person to tackle the problem.
The most effective networkers are those who build long-term reciprocal relationships and solid networks before they need them. Given this way of thinking about networking, here are some relationship networking tactics:
Build and nurture relationships.
- Plan to network. At the beginning of each month, jot down the names of two or three people you want to contact during the month. It may not seem like much, but at the end of the year you will have nurtured 24-36 relationships.
- Touch base when you need nothing. A five-minute phone call or a quick e-mail exchange can keep relationships fresh. Mailing an article of interest with a sticky note attached is another easy and effective method to keep in contact.
- Join an organization and become active. Becoming active on a committee or as an officer of your professional association is one of the most effective ways to network. Working elbow-to-elbow with a colleague to complete a project builds solid long-term relationships.
- Develop your 30-second elevator speech. You need to be able to communicate concisely what you do. The purpose is to communicate, not to impress. Remember, the goal is to create opportunities for conversation. A good formula is: your company name and title or position; what you do for the organization or for clients, and the benefits; and a concrete example. So, the basic points in your 30-second speech might sound like this: “I run a communication practice, called ABC Communication. We do marketing communication for corporations in the technology industry. For example, we just completed a pre-trade show campaign that increased visitors to the company’s booth by 40 percent over the previous year.”
- Schedule time each week to get out of your office and network. A quick breakfast, lunch or drink after work won’t detract from your job performance, and it may do wonders for your career. Make time each week to nurture relationships both internal to your organization and external.
- Report back and say “thanks.” It’s not only courteous, it’s one of the best ways to nurture a relationship. When someone helps you, acknowledge his or her help and let him or her know how it went. The simple maxim is: people appreciate being appreciated.
- Become a network architect for others. Remember, relationship networking is reciprocal. Stay alert for opportunities in which you can put two people you know into contact with one another. Perhaps one person is looking for a resource to fulfill a particular need and you know just the person.
Develop a networking attitude.
- Keep work samples up-to-date and handy. Don’t fall into the trap of letting your résumé become out of date. Keep a career folder on your computer desktop and use it to store copies of successful project plans, work samples, complimentary letters, client testimonials, awards, and brief descriptions of a project and its results. During the year, add items to the folder as they occur. When you attempt to update your résumé, you won’t have to scramble to reconstruct your most significant accomplishments over the past year.
- Give a holiday gift to yourself: an updated résumé. At the end of each year, use the contents of your career folder to update your résumé and prepare for your performance review. Don’t put it off. Even though you may not need it to look for another job (or so you think), you might be asked to submit a résumé to become an event speaker or to teach a workshop.
- Demonstrate value to your employer. Connect everything you do to your organization’s strategic goals or its bottom line. So many of us become wrapped up in our jobs without thinking how what we do relates to the goals of the business. Use the business goals as the yardstick to measure the success of what you do and to demonstrate your value to the organization.
- Practice networking everywhere. Networking is like exercise: it’s easier to do when you keep the momentum going. At least once a week, practice networking at a business meeting, an association event, or even in unlikely places, like the dry cleaner or a PTA meeting. Remember, the idea is to practice so that relationship networking becomes second nature.
Jan Thibodeau is president of JT Communications LLC in Cumberland, R.I., where she practices marketing and employee communication for corporate clients, and gives workshops on networking. She can be reached at
.
|
