The Ripple Effect: Maximizing the Power of Relationships for Life & Business (Second Edition) by Steve Harper

Author:Steve Harper [Harper, Steve]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Self-Improvement
ISBN: 9780976866503
Publisher: SWOT Publishing
Published: 2009-11-19T08:00:00+00:00

Connecting In the Eye of the Storm

Let's assume you are one of the many unfortunate individuals that have been recently forced from their jobs. (As you saw, chances are good that if it's not your turn today, it will be one day — maybe one day soon.) And let's assume that, like Rebecca, you haven't tended your network as carefully and intentionally as you should have. Does that mean that trying to do so now would be a waste of time? Absolutely not! In fact, if you're out of work, connecting has become your new full-time job.

Visit any online job board or career coaching site and you will find networking listed as one of the top "must-do" activities for anyone looking for work. Unfortunately, many of these websites offer little guidance about what — and, just as importantly, what not — to do. Here are some tips:

1. Strangers don't care that you're unemployed. Most people don't attend networking events expecting, or particularly desiring, to meet someone in the midst of a career transition.

2. When asked that horrible question, "So what do you do?" never, ever respond by saying something like "Oh, I'm out of work right now," or "Well, I just got laid off," or "Actually, I'm hoping to find my next employer here." You may get some sympathy for your troubles, but you won't make the impression you really need to make.

3. Similarly, when everyone in the room takes turns giving their 30-second elevator pitch at a networking function, don't be the poor schmuck who stands up and tells the group that you're there to look for a job. It may be honest, but I promise you that people will practically run screaming rather than have a conversation with you.

4. Don't print up really nice business cards listing only your name and email address. I guarantee you that 95 percent of the people you give them to will simply throw them away as soon as they get back to their office.

5. Following an event, don't immediately rummage through the business cards you collected and begin sending Facebook and LinkedIn invitations. Receiving those kinds of requests from someone they just met places people in an awkward position and likely ensures that any future connection to that person is lost forever.

"Think less about quantity and more about quality," advises rainmaker extraordinaire Patti DeNucci. "When I meet people and receive their business cards at networking events, I don't automatically enter them into my database or schedule coffee with them. I wait until we've seen each other and have interacted several times at various gatherings. I have to be comfortable with them, really 'get' what they're all about, and be certain of their level of stability, talent, experience and integrity.

"On some occasions, I may add a person or company to my database immediately if they are introduced to me and are heartily endorsed by someone whose judgment and experience I trust implicitly. Or if I have consistently heard good things about them from others I trust.

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