Two ways to succeed at networking.
Some of us are naturals at networking. Given a luke warm glass of indifferent white wine and some limp crisps those lucky people circulate at room like honey bees in search of nectar.
Two hours later they are the last to leave (undoubtedly to go on to their next fixture) and they have talked to at least a dozen people that they barely know.
Some of us are not naturals. Some of us need help.
My very first abject failure at networking happened when I was put forward for an exclusive club where the candidates were vetted at a cocktail party. My sponsor invited me along, introduced me to a series of very influential people, and then left me alone with them. To a woman they each looked at me, raised their eyebrows, waited expectantly for me to say something impressive, and then swiftly moved on, in disappointment, to the next candidate. I did not make the cut.
Don’t get me wrong, I was aware that I was meant to make impressive small talk, with at least half a dozen different people. I just had absolutely no idea what that consisted of.
I still don’t know.
I don’t think you need to make small talk anymore though in order to impress.
Here’s 2 things you need to do.
- Do some research.
That cocktail party was in the dim mists of time before linkedin, before Twitter, before facebook, before the Campaign A List.
Now, faced with any prospective encounter with people you don’t know you can easily look them up and find something to talk to the about.
It may seem obvious but it’s something that people who ask to meet you rarely do do. This is not stalking. This is not intrusive. This is professional preparation.
If people have shared aspects of their careers, personalities, interests, and humour on social media or in Campaign, they are in the public domain and it is just polite to find out something about them in order to make conversation.
5 minutes preparation about who you think will be at a gathering so that you have something to connect with them about will make a difference.
So if you want to connect with Tess Alps (and who wouldn’t), listen to some Bach. Brushing up against WPP UK country manager Karen Blackett, perhaps show an interest in athletics.
- Make your network wide and weird.
It’s great to be in with the in crowd. To know the latest gossip, and to feel at the centre of a large group of familiar faces. They will be warm to you and useful in your career. But don’t spend all your time with them. Make sure that you make contact with people outside the “usual suspects”. Especially people who have only a very random connection to your current day job. In the first place they might be really intriguing, going outside the norm is fun. In the second place, with the pace of change in our industry you don’t know where your career will take you and building connections outside of the current status is a really beneficial thing. Finally, once you have established a relationship with them you’ll be able to ask them about work issues that it is difficult to speak to your current inner circle about because everyone knows everyone. They will give you great, unbiased advice from a remote perspective. That’s very valuable in any situation.
Doing some homework and going wide and weird. The two essentials of effective networking.
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on Thursday, March 15th, 2018 at 6:09 pm and is filed under MediaComment.
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The weird way to succeed at networking
Some of us are naturals at networking. Given a luke warm glass of indifferent white wine and some limp crisps those lucky people circulate at room like honey bees in search of nectar.
Two hours later they are the last to leave (undoubtedly to go on to their next fixture) and they have talked to at least a dozen people that they barely know.
Some of us are not naturals. Some of us need help.
My very first abject failure at networking happened when I was put forward for an exclusive club where the candidates were vetted at a cocktail party. My sponsor invited me along, introduced me to a series of very influential people, and then left me alone with them. To a woman they each looked at me, raised their eyebrows, waited expectantly for me to say something impressive, and then swiftly moved on, in disappointment, to the next candidate. I did not make the cut.
Don’t get me wrong, I was aware that I was meant to make impressive small talk, with at least half a dozen different people. I just had absolutely no idea what that consisted of.
I still don’t know.
I don’t think you need to make small talk anymore though in order to impress.
Here’s 2 things you need to do.
That cocktail party was in the dim mists of time before linkedin, before Twitter, before facebook, before the Campaign A List.
Now, faced with any prospective encounter with people you don’t know you can easily look them up and find something to talk to the about.
It may seem obvious but it’s something that people who ask to meet you rarely do do. This is not stalking. This is not intrusive. This is professional preparation.
If people have shared aspects of their careers, personalities, interests, and humour on social media or in Campaign, they are in the public domain and it is just polite to find out something about them in order to make conversation.
5 minutes preparation about who you think will be at a gathering so that you have something to connect with them about will make a difference.
So if you want to connect with Tess Alps (and who wouldn’t), listen to some Bach. Brushing up against WPP UK country manager Karen Blackett, perhaps show an interest in athletics.
It’s great to be in with the in crowd. To know the latest gossip, and to feel at the centre of a large group of familiar faces. They will be warm to you and useful in your career. But don’t spend all your time with them. Make sure that you make contact with people outside the “usual suspects”. Especially people who have only a very random connection to your current day job. In the first place they might be really intriguing, going outside the norm is fun. In the second place, with the pace of change in our industry you don’t know where your career will take you and building connections outside of the current status is a really beneficial thing. Finally, once you have established a relationship with them you’ll be able to ask them about work issues that it is difficult to speak to your current inner circle about because everyone knows everyone. They will give you great, unbiased advice from a remote perspective. That’s very valuable in any situation.
Doing some homework and going wide and weird. The two essentials of effective networking.
This entry was posted on Thursday, March 15th, 2018 at 6:09 pm and is filed under MediaComment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.