I attended a SIM Fairfield/Westchester event on Networking recently. All the panel members agreed that this was not something you start doing when you need a favor from others. Rather like skills training, it represents an investment in your future. Successful networking requires a balance of give and take. One of the panel, Adrie Reinders, has written an excellent book on the subject. In his book, Adrie explains how to be creative and make a first and long-lasting impression with the professionals you want to meet. He emphasizes the importance of e-networking tools like LinkedIn, Plaxo, Facebook, SecondLife, Zubka, Google’s Orkut, Hyves and others.
The monthly meetings of your local SIM chapter offer a great networking opportunity, and there is no substitute for initially getting to know someone face-to-face. That has been the traditional SIM model for the past 40-years, but it limits the number of people in your network to a hundred or so people who may come along to one of your local meetings. Hopefully the SIM Portal will represent a breakthrough in this regard (we are calling it SIM 2.0), and we intend that the Portal will grow into a vibrant community of people with common interests. I have about 200 people in my professional contacts list (outside of the normal business contacts) and I try to stay in contact with each of them at least a couple of times a year. That contact can be reactive (yes, some of them have the same process as me!), or proactive. A CRM package would be useful in this regard, but I simply use Microsoft Outlook “Contacts” and put remarks in the Notes field. You can find free contact management software on Google, or try this site.
Some further advice on building your network can be found on this networking advisory site. But wait, I hear you say – how do I find the time in my busy life to take on this additional task? Well, it all comes down to priorities. If you want to be “the woodchopper who is too busy to sharpen his axe”, then of course you won’t make time for proactive networking. But I would put it to you that this time should be substitutional rather than additive – a good network can make you more efficient at your core tasks, and that can free up the time to allow you to develop your network, and so on.
In next week’s blog, I will share some of my thoughts on Executive Search firms – nothing controversial there….!