I just finished reading Tales From the Networking Community and really enjoyed Dan Williams’ simple, yet powerful statements about networking. My favorites are:
- “Building trust is not an event, but rather comes with frequency” How true! Generally, introductions into another person’s network don’t happen after one encounter. The relationship must afford you consistent visibility and you must remain top of mind with your contacts in order to solidify the affinity, gain credibility, and eventually broaden your network.
- “Networking is like farming; it requires an ongoing process of activities to grow, it requires a leap of faith, and it cannot be done alone.” Without proper nurturing, nothing can grow. Like children, your network requires a lot of attention in order to remain healthy and prosperous.
- “Networking has very little do do with personality. Networking is all about a learned set of skills and having a systematic process to exercise those skills.” People are not born knowing how to network. Anyone can learn the strategies for creating successful relationships, but they have to be willing to do the work. And it is a lot of work!
How true. When I started a focused networking effort 2 years ago, I found out how much work it really was. And now, being a small business owner, I find that it takes a lot of discipline to keep it up, especially when the work plate fills up.
I love your work and find it a very helpful resource.
Thanks for the comment and the kudos! People in a job search need to think like small business owners. Job seekers are all owners of their own company called “I Want a Job Inc.” and they need to be evangelists for their product (themselves)and spread the word through networking to communicate their value add.
Keeping up your network does require hard work and discipline and sometimes it feels like a full time job in itself. But it is worth it and hopefully you are building some fun into the process too!