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We’ve heard lots of advice over the years about networking and its importance to leadership and career development. While I would never deny that relationships are important to leadership, there may be an even better way to build them than networking, and that is connecting.
Many networking events are about what you can get out of them, so they can be a bit self-serving, but connecting is about what you can do for others. Are you very curious about lots of topics, have high energy and are comfortable with meeting new people (or at least willing to work through discomfort of shyness)? Then you may be more of a connector than a networker. You can use those abilities to help out those you connect with, which in turn builds relationship in less of a self-serving way that networking might.
How can you connect? One way is to join groups, clubs and organizations but only those that pertain to what you love. Learn as much as you can and get to know people you meet, which should be easy because you have something in common. Give thought to how you might help them and who in your contacts list might help them, too. And then do some connecting. People remember this and it helps build great relationships with them.
If you work in a competitive field, you don’t have to sell out your own interests to connect. Use good judgment to not hurt yourself in the connecting process – if you’ve got your eye on a job opening, connecting doesn’t mean you have to call all your contacts to advertise this position to them, too. Connect people without thinking about immediate payback, and you’ll find over the long term that you get more back than you ever could have dreamed.
Want to know more, including what connection advocates like Malcom Gladwell (The Tipping Point) and Keith Ferrazzi (Never Eat Alone) suggest? Find out here, in the article from which this summary was derived.
