November 19, 2003

Rebranding Networking

This post has been in draft for far too long, partly because I think I wanted to add something to the discussion rather than just quote Chris' newsletter, and I also wanted to decide how I was going to apply her advice.

However, I don't really think there's much I can add to what Chris Carling said in her October newsletter, which she's generously allowed me to quote here. The newsletter regularly has such thought-provoking nuggets, subscribing is recommended.

"NETWORKING IN ANOTHER LANGUAGE

Taking a leaf out of my own book, I'll mention one of my own achievements, which is to have run a number of successful workshops on networking based on a tool originally developed by Thomas Leonard called the Team 100 (anyone wanting further information, do drop me a line). As a result I tune in to media mentions of networking such as the recent piece in a Saturday Guardian from Sandra Deeble who suggests that, for some at least, there's something slightly dodgy about the word 'networking'. 'It suggests,' she says, 'a world of back scratching and trouser hitching.'

At the same time, however, she stresses that networking is a necessity for business development and career progression, and gives a set of useful tips for the networking novice. One of the most useful that I picked out was: 'Find a new language.'

Actually it was a tip Sandra picked up from John Lees's 'How to Get the Perfect Promotion and How to Get a Job you'll Love'. 'If you say to people 'networking', they think it's a form of selling,' says Lees. In other words, people can be put off by the term 'networking, assuming it's a dark art that has to be practised in a very specific way.

But suppose you don't call it networking. Suppose you call it 'fact finding', or 'broadening my horizons by meeting new people', or 'sounding people out.' After all, that's the kind of activity that networking involves. Or choose a term you're comfortable with, a term that sums up for you that 'taking the initiative, asking for whatever information you need, chatting to people, opening up a bit so they can see who you are' kind of activity that some people call networking.

Suppose you say to yourself: 'I'm going out to get some new ideas, new knowledge, new contacts, new information about my field and what's the latest developments.' What could be wrong with that? And if you think of it that way, you're more likely to feel focused enough to ask the kinds of questions that will generate new ideas, information, contacts, that will plant seeds that may lead, now or later, to a new opportunity. And that, after all, is what networking is all about."

And echoing some of the sentiments of that, plus adding some more practical tips are these networking tips from The Chilli. Not quite sure yet how I'm going to put this all into practice, but I'm getting more of an idea of the sort of things I should be doing.

Posted by Adrian at November 19, 2003 04:46 PM | TrackBack

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