Stand Out Networking by Dorie Clark

Author:Dorie Clark
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2015-05-06T16:00:00+00:00

Prioritize

Networking, when done well, is about making tough choices. We can’t prioritize everyone; focusing on everyone means focusing on no one. Ideally, we focus on people we genuinely like and would enjoy spending time with, people we can learn from, and (sometimes) people who are in a similar enough professional orbit that we can help them and they can help us. As long as you truly like and value your prioritized contacts, that’s not disingenuous; that’s what friendship is.

Keith Ferrazzi suggests taking the time to develop a Relationship Action Plan and categorizing your contacts based on how well you know them: 3 is a trusted contact, 2 is an acquaintance, 1 is someone you’ve met, 0 is for people you don’t know, and -1 is for people with whom you have a strained relationship. Ask yourself: Who do you want to spend time with, rather than simply letting networking happen to you?

The categories will differ for every person, based on their personal and professional goals. Ferrazzi identifies his own key constituencies as Fortune 500 executives (since he runs a consulting business, Ferrazzi Greenlight, aimed at that market), business thought leaders, entrepreneurs (so he can compare notes on running their businesses), and those involved in the high-tech world, since he’s just launched a mobile learning firm. Ferrazzi says it’s also useful to think about what types of connections would be valuable to others in your network, such as headhunters.

It’s also important to reevaluate regularly. Even if you’re a great networker, you can’t afford to go on autopilot. “You need to look at your network and scrub it annually,” says Ferrazzi. “You may have changed priorities and you need to make sure you’re correlating time to the most strategic individuals.” In other words, as you change and grow, the people you connect with should change as well. Now that Ferrazzi has launched his mobile company, it’s important for him to spend more time with product designers and tech entrepreneurs than ever before. If you’ve just entered the health-care field, for instance, you’ll want to network with professionals in that industry so you can learn the ropes.

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