Effective Networking: Develop Your Personal Brand

What is networking?

Do you sometimes think you need to meet more people so that your talents or ideas can be discovered and shared?

Networking is the process by which individuals build and maintain a professional network community where connections are mutually utilised for information and personal, professional or business development.

The purpose of networking is to meet like-minded people, share information, seek out business opportunities, develop your career or even grow your business. Networking happens both formally and informally every day. You might not even recognise some of the things you do as networking activities. Activities that involve networking might include socialising with colleagues, attending a networking event, engaging with a social media platform such as LinkedIn and Twitter and being part of a professional association.

Informal networking takes place all the time, but you can also be proactive about seeking opportunities to develop your network. However, it’s worth bearing in mind that effective networking requires planning and will be time consuming. It takes time to establish strong relationships built on trust and to maintain them while you continue to expand your network. How much time you are able to invest in your professional networks will determine how effective they are. It is definitely the case that you will get out what you put in.

In today’s digital world, online networking is equally as important – if not more so – than face-to-face networking. With the growth of platforms such as LinkedIn and Twitter, online networking can be quick, effective and global. However, face-to-face networking is still very much alive and well and remains an essential business and social skill. Whether online or in a face-to-face setting, it is important to listen to what others are saying and to make your contributions count, ensuring what you say integrates well with what others have to say and adds something useful for everyone.

Despite the fact that some people worry about face-to-face networking, it can be fun! If you can feel more relaxed when networking face-to-face, you will communicate a more positive first impression and that is what this course sets out to help you achieve. So let’s explore the benefits of networking in more detail.

Face-to-face networking

Face-to-face networking is any kind of networking situation which involves your physical presence in the company of others.

Actually being there in the flesh means that you can send out and receive a complex stream of information and impressions simply not available from online networking. Body language, tone of voice, facial expression and eye contact are all elements of interpersonal communication that we take for granted, but which contribute to the richness of the face-to-face networking experience.

Being physically present in the company of others covers an enormous range of situations, but what makes it qualify as networking is the way you approach it. You need to recognise the opportunity to network and be prepared to start or join a conversation which will offer you, and the people you are with. Some people seem to be naturally gifted at doing this. For others it’s more of a struggle.

By this point you’ll have realised that being effective at face-to-face networking is going to take a certain amount of confidence. But what if you’re an introvert, shy or just lack the confidence to strike up a conversation?

There are some small steps you can take to minimise stress and build your confidence when presented with face-to-face networking opportunities.

Prepare: Assess the situation. What’s the worst that can happen? How many people will there be? Who will be there? Try to get hold of the attendance list in advance of the meeting and review it to find people you know and interesting people you would like to speak to.

Arrive early: This sends out the right impression, but another benefit of arriving early is that if the thought of entering a room full of people fills you with dread, there will be fewer people there earlier on.

Network one-to-one: Talking with somebody one-to-one will be easier than joining a big group, so approach somebody who is alone to ease yourself in.

Find a friend: If there are people there you already know, seek them out first. It is often less threatening to be introduced to contacts of a friend and can lead to you expanding your network and being introduced to like-minded people.

Take a break: It can be quite tiring listening intently and answering other people’s questions, so make sure you give yourself a break and escape the room now and then. After all, this should be fun too.

Listen: If you aren’t confident in taking centre stage, then play to your strengths and listen to others. People appreciate a good listener.

Ask open-ended questions: If you don’t want to be the one doing all the talking and wish to avoid those dreaded awkward silences, then ask open-ended questions that elicit a detailed answer. Letting others do the talking will give you time to think of something to contribute to the conversation.

Group Networking - Team Work

Working in teams is an essential part of organisational life, whether face-to-face, online, work or leisure. As you work out what you have to offer to other people through networking, it’s worth asking yourself what kind of role you tend to be good at when you have the opportunity of working in a group.

Psychologist Meredith Belbin has devoted his career to finding out what makes an effective team. He argues that however brilliant individual team members might be, it is the balance of roles in a team that determines its success (Belbin, 2004).

Belbin’s framework recognises nine important roles that are required for a team to be successful. Each role has different strengths and weaknesses that need to be balanced in an effective combination:

• Plants are creative people who are good at generating ideas and solving complex problems but may be careless of detail.
• Resource investigators are extroverted people who are good at developing contacts, identifying opportunities and resources in the external environment, but can lose enthusiasm towards the end of the project.
• Coordinators can see the big picture, clarify goals and allocate roles and responsibilities; they often act as the chairperson for the team. They are good at delegating tasks to the right person but can be perceived as manipulative.
• Shapers are task-focused people who provide the necessary drive to ensure that the group is kept moving and does not lose focus. They challenge the team to improve, make sure that all possibilities are considered, and that the team does not become complacent. However, shapers can become aggressive and offend other team members.
• Monitor evaluators critically analyse ideas rather than generate them; they act as neutral and logical observers and judges of the team’s ideas and decisions. However, they can become very critical, damping team enthusiasm, and they lack the ability to inspire others.
• Team workers are good listeners and diplomats; they are supportive and understanding of others, and good at smoothing over conflicts. Since the role can be a low-profile one, the beneficial effect of team workers can go unnoticed until they are absent, when the team begins to argue, and small but important things cease to happen. Because of an unwillingness to take sides, a team worker may not be able to take decisive action when needed.
• Implementers convert ideas and objectives into practical actions. They are practical, reliable and efficient, and can be relied on to deliver on time. However, they may be seen as inflexible since they will often have difficulty deviating from their well-thought-out plans.
• Completerfinishers are perfectionists and make sure everything is ‘just right’. They may frustrate their team mates by worrying excessively about minor details and by refusing to delegate tasks that they do not trust anyone else to perform.
• Specialists provide expert knowledge and skills. They are single-minded and self-motivated, but may dwell on technicalities.

Nine is a lot of roles to remember – but one individual can fulfill more than one role. Perhaps as you read through the list, some of them may have reminded you of aspects of yourself or people you have worked with.

A study of a large set of UK managers (Fisher, et al. 2000) suggests that there are plenty of coordinators and resource investigators available, but that coordinators can happily double up as team workers and implementers. Resource investigators also make good team workers, and can turn their hands to coordination as well. Completer finishers and monitor evaluators are more difficult to find. So if your talents lie in either role, it’s worth knowing you represent a relatively rare but valuable resource to other people.

What part do you play? 

We all work in teams or groups from time to time.

Think of a time when you have felt pleased about something you have accomplished as part of a team or similar group of people. This might be at work or in an educational setting, something to do with sport or leisure, or even a family activity. For example have you ever been involved in organising a wedding? It’s not something you can do on your own. Whatever the situation you have in mind, think about what you brought to the team that helped. Was it a talent for getting the best out of others, were you the one who spotted details that needed taking care of, or was your contribution more about coming up with ideas than carrying them out?

Now consider the team roles Belbin outlines that you learned about earlier. The nine roles can be simplified into three overall categories: thinking-oriented, action-oriented and people-oriented. Which category would you place yourself in with regard to the situation you thought of? Are you a thinker, a man or woman of action, or a people person?

Don’t forget that some people (including yourself) can carry out more than one role, and that some teams (depending on the task) do not need someone to carry out every role. But having a clear idea of what you can offer when working in a team can help you identify the kind of strengths you can talk about with confidence when networking.

Personal SWOT analysis

Looking at your values and your special talents for working in a group can help you identify some of your personal strengths, as well as areas you feel you need to develop. In order to move forward with your networking plan, you should have a good idea of what your strengths and weaknesses are and analyse what opportunities and barriers may lie ahead.

SWOT analyses are used to assess the competitive position of a product or service which helps to develop strategies. You may have come across these being applied to business situations, but they can be equally useful as a personal analysis tool.

A SWOT analysis uses the titles ‘Strengths’ and ‘Weaknesses’, ‘Opportunities’ and ‘Threats’, and is usually set out on a grid as the image above shows.

Completing a SWOT self-analysis is about acknowledging your talents as strengths and utilising these to seek out opportunities that can drive your career or business ambitions forward. However, by also spending time analysing your weaknesses, you will be able to take action to manage these and minimise problems that could present themselves as possible threats and setbacks. To get the best out of the analysis, you need to look at your strengths and weaknesses from another networker’s point of view; in other words, what you can offer others.

By looking at yourself objectively through the SWOT framework, you can begin to emphasise and nurture the talents that set you apart from the competition, thus helping you achieve your goals.

Grab a sheet of paper and divide it into four. Label the sections ‘Strengths’, ‘Weaknesses’, ‘Opportunities’ and ‘Threats’. Work through each section using the prompt questions.

Strengths

Start with the ‘Strengths’ section. Acknowledging what you are good at is not an easy task for everyone, so you may like to ask yourself the following questions to help you recognise your strengths:

• What do you do well or better than anyone else?
• What are your greatest achievements?
• What do colleagues or friends/family say you are good at?
• Do you have any useful connections or resources you can draw on?

Weaknesses

Next, you need to look at your weaknesses:

• Is there any training you need?
• What tasks do you find difficult?
• What do you avoid doing?
• What do other people say are your weaknesses or bad habits?

Opportunities

Now looking back at your strengths, what opportunities could these lead to?

• Is there scope for growth in anything you recognised?
• Are you doing something that others aren’t?
• Can you utilise any of your current contacts or resources?
• What are your ambitions/goals?

Threats

Finally, revisit your weaknesses and consider how these could become threats and hold you back or cause you problems. - Is there anything that would cause barriers to achieving your goals?

• Are there any wider factors that could turn into threats?
• Consider your competition – are any of these threats?
• Would there be any relevant professional standards you can’t currently meet?

Now you have completed your SWOT self-analysis, you should have a clearer idea of your direction and the possible opportunities you may wish to explore. This will give you the basis of a long-term plan in which your network will play a vital part. You will also find it useful to look back at your strengths and opportunities when you craft your elevator pitch.

You began the article by looking at what networking is, why it’s important and how it can benefit you. A large focus of the article has been thinking about yourself, starting with your values. You have also reflected on your particular talents when it comes to group work, completed a SWOT self-analysis and utilised all of this information to help you make a start on crafting your own elevator pitch.

References

Belbin, R.M. (2004) Management Teams: Why They Succeed or Fail 2nd ed., Butterworth, Heinemann.

Fisher, S.G., Hunter, T.A. and Macrosson, W.D.K. (2000), ‘The distribution of Belbin team roles among UK managers’, Personnel Review, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 124–140. Available at: https://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00483480010295934 (Accessed 16 June 2016).

Schwartz, S. H. (2012) ‘An Overview of the Schwartz Theory of Basic Values’, Online Readings in Psychology and Culture, vol. 2, no. 1. Available at https://dx.doi.org/10.9707/2307-0919.1116 (Accessed 16 June 2016).