Effective networking: my rules and experience

Recently, my colleque asked me how to learn networking, turning it into a concrete skill that helps in work and in life.? For me, the ability to find the right people and establish relationships with them is a certain professional competence that is directly related to a number of professions. I need this skill in my work, so I tried to develop it to the best of my ability. What helped me to do this?

? Firstly, it was reading professional literature. I can't say that I have read all the literature on the subject, but I did come across a number of good books. I consider both of Keith Ferazzi's books "Never Eat Alone" to be the best.? These books formed a more systematic view of making and managing your own connections. The book "Connections Decide Everything" also came in handy.

? Secondly, special trainings. There is a set of trainings devoted to this topic. I cannot boast of a large number of them, but descriptions of many can be found on the Internet. I would highlight the key aspects that are important for this training: who leads, what is the system underlying the program (like any business skills training, these programs should be based on some system around which the whole action is built). And also how this system is revealed, how certain skills are trained in order to ensure their quick use in life.

Thirdly, and this is the most important thing - practical experience and development of your own system. Any skill should be formed based on some paradigm. In addition, it is important to understand why you are doing this - what you want to get for yourself from developing your own network of contacts, how you will use it, who you need and how to properly segment and form your network of contacts so that you don't get lost in them and don't lose them.

My rules of networking

?For me, my approach to networking is defined by a number of simple attitudes and rules.

Rule 1: "Do somehting good in advance" If there is an opportunity to do something good and useful to someone easily and quickly, you should do it. Then the advances given are returned. To put it into practice, you need to learn to find out the person's interests and desires and find opportunities to help achieve the person's goals. If it turns out that you have a similar resource (now or for the future) - you will be remembered by the person, and this will become the basis for the continuation and development of your partnership.

Rule 2. "Find synergy." One of my favorite now, yet challenging exercises. I've been in business too long and realize that the number of new ideas within this field is limited. So I consciously seek out new sources of inspiration. They usually lie outside of this sphere. It's a great way to push your own boundaries, but it's also very challenging. It can be difficult for a person from business to build a dialog with people of art, doctors, diplomats, teachers, etc. The ability to ask the right questions, even in a brief conversation, in order to learn something for yourself, to absorb other ideas and a different vision of life is an invaluable skill. The point is that in the future it will not only serve to consolidate contacts with a person - after all, it may turn out that you will need him in the future. But it will also allow - most importantly - to find new interesting ideas, to look at familiar things from a new angle.? Of course, this approach has a certain zone of discomfort - after all, you can easily support a dialog with a person of your own circle. But how to talk to a person with whom you do not have much in common - it is not an easy task.

Rule 3. "Purpose of contact." It is very important for yourself to set clear goals of why and with whom you want to be friends and communicate. The fact is that purposeful focus turns on selective perception mode - we start to see many more things related to our question and discover many more connections.?? Even if it turns out that our contact is "not applicable" here and now, we can use it in the future. It is only important to properly "register and store it" in our head or contact book.

Rule 4. "Recommendations and common acquaintances." The most effective way to get close to a person is to approach him by recommendation or finding common acquaintances during the contact. The fact is that this allows you to move very quickly from the category of "stranger" to the category of "yours". This is the most effective way to build and maintain a relationship.? YOU immediately break the protective barrier of perception and it gives a person the opportunity to open up faster.

Rule 5. "Contact Activation." Once you get acquainted with a person, you can not record this contact in your asset. The actual acquaintance - this is not yet an indicator. It is much more important to find a way to "activate" the contact. That is, to provide a secondary interaction, preferably on the occasion that is significant and pleasant for your new acquaintance.

Rule 6. "Stay in touch" It's not always possible, one thing you need to be able to do is stay in touch. For this purpose, friendship in social networks is excellent (especially great is the opportunity to "like" the content of your friend - just do not overdo it") or being always near, in the right hangout. Then in a situation where the question arises they will come to you - becouse they will assosiate you with your expertise.

Rule 7. Proper positioning of your personal brand. It is extremely important for you to correctly position yourself when getting acquainted. After all, getting acquainted with a person, we classify it in a certain way, putting it in the cell of our memory. This classification has permanent attributes - as a rule, these are areas of professional competence or areas in which a person can be useful to us. There are also short-term attributes - "anchors" that will activate memories of the event that brought you together in a place. This is an occasion to remember, which should be formed as the first contact is made, then repeated interaction will be more productive.

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All these rules work in both offline and online life. Now, due to the distance from the cities of active business life and personal circumstances, I mostly work and communicate online. In particular, I develop my network of contacts with colleagues around the world - Europe, LATAM, Asia, Africa - using LinkedIn. And these principles help me a lot.

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What your own rules can you add?

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