Can Technology Help Make Introverts into Great Networkers?

Peak introvert is seemingly upon us. Those of us who don’t dislike the company of other people but who do have their limits, are no longer vilified for being strange or unsociable. High profile advocates of the power of introverts such as Susan Cain, author of 2012’s wonderful book “Quiet”, have raised the profile of introverts in a world often judged on extroverts’ terms. Introverts are now recognized for their insight, for their decision making and sang froid, and especially for the balance they bring to organisations replete with ‘noisier’ people.

One area however where even an introvert has to admit that the extroverts have an advantage is when it comes to networking. I’m a regular attendee of business networking events and I have learned a few tricks which work for me, but I still envy how some colleagues can “work a room” and who I know are having more fun doing it than I am.  

Why would I want to network more? I equate meeting new people with mindfulness. When I take the time to understand what somebody does and I slow down the world long enough to think about the business world from their point of view, then I always feel that this has been a positive experience. Take my own case, I recently completed a postgrad in Digital Marketing, and I need to meet people who are experts in this field. However people with this type of profile don't seem to attend many of the work functions I attend. I’d like to think I am good at networking, but I also know that I invest a lot of energy into it when I do it.

So can a smart introvert become a better networker?  This is what Shapr, a new business networking app, would have us believe. The prospect of a convenient way to meet people who share my own professional interests is a very tempting one. Tempting enough for me to give it a try and to judge whether for this introvert, technology really can provide a solution. 

Setting up a profile took just a few minutes. I downloaded the app, copied over information from my LinkedIn account, added a few keywords around my interests, and my profile was live. I’m a few years older than most people who grew up in the Tinder era, so I found the app itself quite novel. Each day you get around 20 suggested matches and you decide individually whether you’d like to meet them or not. If a match is made the app tells you and you are free to exchange messages.  Despite being quite selective in my interests I rapidly found myself with several matches and a few weeks later I can say that I am a veteran of quite a number of networking meetings. What have I learned?

I still don’t like the first few minutes of meeting someone new. However with a set of common interests laid out in advance (you see on the app which #interests you share), those first few minutes pass very quickly. Once the anxiety is out of the way, then you are in conversation with another person who has professional experiences to share and certainly some wisdom to impart.

There is a sense of “lucky dip” about meeting people based on an online profile and a glance at their LinkedIn profile, but here is where my networking as mindfulness mantra kicks in. Whoever you meet, take the time you spend with them as a moment to think about what you can learn from them. Enjoy 45 minutes where you put down the smartphone and listen to another individual who knows different things than you or sees the same things in a different way.  Remember that feeling which you get these days when you finish reading a meaningful book? That is the closest sensation I can think of. It feels like getting back in touch with something I’d almost forgotten I could do. 

With the right attitude there is no such thing as a bad meeting: you already have an open mind to want to try this type of approach to networking. If you go in with this outlook then the worst outcome is that you spend 45 minutes rediscovering how to listen and connect with a sympathetic person previously outside your circle of contacts.    

Reading more about Shapr on their website they seem to have lofty ideals around how we should make meeting new people part of our everyday routine. Before this introvert tried it, I would have described a good day as one where I don’t have to meet new people, but now I think I have been converted.

#networking #professionalnetworking #careers