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The network effect

Shamelessness, schmoozing, brown-nosing, calculating, ruthless, shameless (again)…one gets the impression that Schumpeter’s attempts at networking have not been so successful!

Jan 16th,2015| dentaku

“Abandon all shame…praise them to the skies…pretend to disagree with your interlocutor before coming around to his point of view; that gives him a sense of mastery.” Perhaps Schumpeter has spent too much time observing vainglorious CEOs who expect such sycophancy.

“Successful networkers must be calculating, ruthless and shameless...” Oh dear! Schumpeter please, climb out of that rabbit hole.

Networking shouldn’t be any of those things. And if you think it is then you’ve made the same mistake that all poor networkers make: you’ve assumed that networking is only done out of scarcity. We network because we want something. Not so.

Your first principle should have been: Don’t wait until you need something to start networking.

Networking involves giving too. Done well it involves giving first. Giving, and not counting the cost (yes, Jesuit educated), nor expecting anything in return, ever. Act as if Karma holds, maybe not month to month, but over the course of your life. Trust that being a helpful, generous, interesting person will pay off in the long run.

Your second principle: meaningful communication with everyone.

Once you understand the first principle, the second becomes easier. And, as you briefly (too briefly) noted, “success comes from having a well-stocked mind, not just a well-thumbed Rolodex”. Exactly! At some point you must have something to offer.

Good networkers are committed to their industry. They are experts in their fields. They are curious, they get a kick out of helping other people. They connect people who have shared interests. They send contacts articles that may interest them. They are genuinely interested in others, whether it’s the new graduate, or the president of the golf club.

In The Tipping Point, Gladwell describes “connectors” as having the “ability to span many different worlds is a function of something intrinsic to their personality, some combination of curiosity, self-confidence, sociability, and energy.” That’s what good networkers do.

In other words, do all the things that a friend would do, because that what a network is: a collection of professional friendships.