{"id":172,"date":"2009-03-20T09:41:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-20T09:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/career-advice\/effective-networking-refresher\/"},"modified":"2019-10-19T08:42:08","modified_gmt":"2019-10-19T15:42:08","slug":"effective-networking-refresher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/blog\/effective-networking-refresher\/","title":{"rendered":"Effective networking refresher"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gayle Hallgren-Rezac co-author Work The Pond! <\/a><\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Effective_networking_refresher\" Effective networking may seem like old hat, but chances are that you could benefit from a refresher. In our training seminars on Positive Networking\u00ae<\/a>, we get attendees to rate their skills at the beginning of the course. We recently worked with a group who rated themselves extremely high. They liked networking, and, trust me, that\u2019s not normal! And they felt they had pretty good networking skills. So after our half-day boot camp, they went off to a luncheon speaker event. They had an opportunity to network at the reception and then during the lunch. After the luncheon we debriefed and they were full of new and fresh ideas.Here are some uncommon common sense reminders:<\/p>\n

Effective networking basics<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Help others<\/strong>
\nWe all want to practice Positive Networking but sometimes we revert back to \u201csales mode\u201d. This is transactional networking which is all about \u201cwhat can the people I meet do for me<\/em><\/strong>; how can they help me<\/em><\/strong>?\u201d Positive Networking is a different philosophy; it\u2019s discovering what you can do for someone else. It\u2019s not so much about closing a sale, as opening a relationship. It works and it takes all the pressure is off.<\/p>\n

Bring business cards<\/strong>
\nTake business cards with you and give them out. While this hardly seems like a secret, it is! Half the people we meet don\u2019t have business cards with them. And if they do bring them, they don\u2019t give them out. We encouraged our team to give out their cards when they first<\/em><\/strong> met someone. And, if they weren\u2019t given one in return, they asked for one. It was easy and it worked.<\/p>\n

Add value<\/strong>
\nAdd value to every event you attend. \u201cI didn\u2019t meet anyone worthwhile\u201d is a common networking lament. The question to ask is, \u201cWhat did those people gain from meeting me?\u201d Stay focused when talking to others. Ask good questions and smile. Your smile is your most effective networking asset. Never leave home without it.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Bring a friend<\/strong><\/p>\n

Taking a tag teammate is a really smart idea. As I mentioned, this group we were training was very savvy, but we sent them to the event with a tag teammate. They found it much easier to circulate with \u201cback up\u201d. They met more people and seemed to enjoy \u201cworking the pond\u201d together.<\/p>\n

They loved the idea of walking around and introducing themselves to everyone at their table before the lunch. They felt confident exchanging business cards and then put those cards on the table next to where they were sitting. It helped them bring people across the table into the conversation. They could address them by name and also had some ideas regarding conversation topics.<\/p>\n

Look for eye colour<\/strong>
\nOur team loved the idea of focusing on the other person with this simple technique: finding out the colour of the other person\u2019s eyes. The feedback we received was that our team members felt that they listened better and made a more meaningful connection.<\/p>\n

Everyone was tuned in to opportunities to connect people. It\u2019s great to be able to say, \u201cI just met someone who I think you should meet; let me introduce you.\u201d So turn on your Connector Radar<\/a> and keep it turned on because connecting doesn\u2019t stop when the event ends.<\/p>\n

Best advice? Go to an event and try out these really simple ideas for more enjoyable and effective networking.<\/p>\n

Related to effective networking<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Effective networking; developing this essential skill<\/a>
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What is Positive Networking?<\/a>
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Networking advice<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Effective networking may seem like old hat, but chances are that you could benefit from a refresher. In our training seminars on Positive Networking\u00ae, we get attendees to rate their skills at the beginning of the course.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6590,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172\/revisions\/6590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}