Thought Leader Insight: Networking without the fear and loathing...
If there’s one great benefit of working from home, it’s that we all get a break from dreaded networking. But a newer, shinier and altogether more positive way to network in business is now possible. Thankfully, it’s about as far from the old definition of networking as we can possibly get!
THE HARD WORD’S THOUGHT LEADER INSIGHT SERIES IS INSPIRED BY MOMENTS FROM OUR REGULAR INTERVIEWS WITH THE BEST AND BRIGHTEST IN BUSINESS.
Networking is a vital part of good business, but as a business practice it has a serious reputation problem. The idea of standing at a conference venue, lost in a crowd of strangers and tasked with developing transactional relationships is one that makes most of us reach for a bucket – not only because we’re typically plied with free alcohol during such events!
My last such experience was at a risk and insurance conference in Melbourne. During a coffee break I was approached by a young man who, like me, was attending on his own. He asked if I worked in insurance.
“No,” I said. “I’m a writer, here to check out the content of some of the keynotes for inclusion in various business publications.”
“Oh, thank God for that,” he replied. “I’ve found somebody interesting to speak to.”
It was the reaction of just one person, but it perfectly encompassed the way we all feel about starting up manufactured conversations with strangers in our own industry.
Another networking memory is of a drunken colleague at the Frankfurt Book Fair (you know you’re in a special kind of networking hell when the event is so large that you have to catch buses between the many conference halls) who told me, at around 11pm, he was heading back to the hotel.
“Sleep well,” I said, trying not to spill my recently filled stein.
“Oh, I’m coming back,” he slurred. “I’ve run out of business cards and have to re-stock.”
However you look at it – through clear eyes or gin goggles – networking is an awful experience. That’s why speaking to the delightfully candid networking expert, author and keynote speaker Janine Garner is so refreshing.
Garner recognises the dreadful folly in the old understanding of networking, and she has developed an entirely new, more powerful and thoroughly inspirational alternative. Interestingly, it is a process that can be managed just as successfully when working from home as it can in the office, or on the road.
The new networking
Garner has never been a fan of traditional networking, although she understands it has its place.
“It has such bad connotations,” she says. “The majority of people I speak to and train, to be honest, vomit in their mouth at the thought of networking!”
“We’ve created this fear around it, this image of hard work. It’s all wrapped up in a perception of networking being at large events and involving superficial conversations, handing out business cards … take, take, take.”
Real networking, the type that will boost your career, increase your professional abilities and benefit your employer, Garner says, is a far more human process. It’s transformational rather than transactional, and it involves surrounding yourself with a team of supporters.
This team will promote you to others, keep you on track, ensure you are constantly improving your knowledge and skills, and will not be afraid to challenge you when you’re losing motivation or being distracted. And for obvious reasons, this team has never been as important as it is right now.
Look around – your team already exists
Best of all, Garner says, most of these people are around you, already. You simply haven’t identified them as such. Real networking success comes when you formalise the relationship.
Explain to each person what you’d like to get from the relationship, but at the same time remember that this is not transactional, it’s human. You’ve got to be willing to give back and to make it worth their while.
“It’s all about a transfer of humanity and a deep connection,” Garner, whose book It’s who you know: How a network of 12 people can fast-track your success explains her process in great detail, says. “We must understand what each person is trying to do and respect each other’s careers.”
“This is very much packaged up in mutual care and respect. There’s a mutual exchange of value, a willingness to help and support, and a desire to want to see the other person succeed.”
Once you surround yourself with a team you’ll be properly and meaningfully networked. It will mean so much more than the network you’re trying to build at 11.30pm, with a business card in one hand and a beer stein in the other.
“One of the stories I share is what eagles do in the wild,” Garner says. “When a storm kicks in, an eagle will rise above it and continue to glide toward its destination. The rest of the birds, however, are down in the trees chitter chattering and making a stack of noise. It’s chaotic.”
“To me, this is what effective networking can create for us. If we can surround ourselves with fellow eagles, imagine how much higher we can fly together and how much further we can travel, especially when the shit hits the fan. That’s when most people and most businesses become the equivalent of the crazy birds in the trees.”
Freelance professional writer Chris Sheedy from THE HARD WORD spoke with Janine Garner for a story for Colonial First State.
