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By Mike Schultz

Life Before Blackberry…

Thirty-five (even twenty-five) years ago, heading out of the office for a leisurely three hour, three Martini lunch with professional colleagues wasn’t so out of the ordinary. (Or, at least, that’s what my father tells me, though I believe he preferred the Gibson to the Martini.) With no internet, no email, no cell phones, no fax machines, no Blackberry, no video conferences, no webinars, and less complexity in our work lives, this kind of meeting was not only common, it was necessary.

In those days, especially since ‘marketing’ for professional services was virtually unheard of, the only way to build a client base was by building a professional network comprised of either potential clients or potential referral sources. And it was relatively easy to network in the ‘old days’ as there were significantly fewer options for professional networking. You knew where to go, you met colleagues there, and you began business relationships which, for better or worse, usually included gin, dry vermouth, and a few olives.

Fast forward to today. We have:

Hundreds more professional networking options with conferences, associations, trade shows, seminars, technology-based meetings, technology communications methods, and the like.

Greater awareness of both our markets and our competition. This increases our potential for professional networking because we can easily identify new people to meet, and intimidates us because we feel like small fish in a very large pond. Anyone remember the days when, if you wanted to learn about a company, you had to call and ask them to send a brochure…and it took 3 weeks?

Many more demands on our time. We’re expected to produce more, bill more, and contribute more to our offices than ever before and with fewer resources. It seems so long ago since everyone had a secretary (before the term ‘administrative assistant’ even made sense to everyone) to answer phones, file, and manage calendars.

Less value placed on professional networking because we can now, of course, find just the professional we need by typing a few key terms into Google. Thus, who needs to go meet people?

Less practice interacting with people. Conversations that used to happen face to face, even on the same floor in the same office, happen over instant messenger or email.

So we have less time to go out and interact, less time to maintain relationships if we start them, and more ability to find people quickly anyway. Why bother with the pain of networking at all?

Why Network

It might seem like professional networking is a thing of the past, a dinosaur, a convention of slower times when relationships were more important than the ability to move fast and be flexible. As we struggle to produce deliverables on time, keep our teams and our tasks on track, or bill more hours, networking is often the first item that falls off the to-do list.

And, of course, given the reasons listed above, why bother networking? It takes a lot of time, you never know what results (if any) it will produce, and it’s hard work for the majority of us who are not hard wired to be networkers and relationship builders.

However you might be wired, think about the following seven professional networking guidelines. As you read these, consider them as both guidelines and reasons to network. Implemented consistently, you’ll find the dividends they yield to be both worthwhile and long-lasting.

Show up. With increasing numbers and types of services providers out there, and with everyone calling themselves a ‘consultant’ and expert in an area, buyers of services are becoming increasingly wary of engaging business relationships with people they don’t know.

The only way to get to know people is to get out there and meet them. If you don’t make the effort to get out there consistently, you’ll simply be another so-called expert with a small network that nobody really knows.

Really show up. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve seen show up physically to networking events, conferences, and seminars and then don’t make an effort to meet people. They stand around, have a conversation or two (often with people they already know well), and then call it a day.

Most people can get literally 10 times more leverage out of events if they simply make the effort, after they show up, to create as many conversations as they can that might go somewhere.

Build relationship momentum. As you might imagine, showing up and having conversations isn’t where your networking efforts should stop. That only gets you in the game. The power of professional networking is not in accumulating business cards, but in doing something with them. And what you do with those cards – how you continue your relationship with people you meet – dictates what those people begin to think of you.

You can think of this as building your brand with your network. Your contacts should know who you are, know what you do, and ultimately prefer to work with you in the appropriate situation. This is how you can build professional relationships that will yield career dividends.

Provide value. Most networking conversations are never followed up upon. But those that are tend to be straight sales calls. “Hi there. We met at the ABCD Association meeting last week. Want to buy my services?” This approach rarely works. The best way to build relationships with people is to provide some value to them with your interactions. In other words, as you network, your mission is to give, not get.

Send an article that might be of interest. Give them a new business referral. Invite them to an event they might think worth their while. Comment on an article they wrote. You might be surprised at just how responsive people will become to you if they see you, right from the start, as someone who is valuable to them.

Connect. The most successful conversations, and the relationships that ensue, tend to be strongest when you can establish real rapport in your conversations. The old adage, ‘people buy people first’ is truer than ever. In an increasingly impersonal business world, people are looking as much to find fulfillment and enjoyment at the workplace as well as make money. If people see you as someone they can work with and like at the same time, you’ll be in great shape.

Use technology, yet add the personal touch. Technology makes keeping in touch with people much easier. Technology can help you set reminders to make follow-ups, write emails on planes and between meetings, and make cell phone calls during off-times in your day.

Realize, however, that the people on the receiving end of your communications also understand that technology makes staying in contact with them easy. Activities like writing personal notes and sending them through the snail mail, or faxing something to someone that you can’t easily send via email, are particularly memorable and will help you build strong relationships. (Yes, I guess faxing is old fashioned and personal nowadays.)

Find a way to enjoy it. Professionals’ disdain for anything they might consider a ‘selling’ activity, including networking, ranges from slight dislike to vehement disgust. Many simply don’t like to do the things they must to develop business. As much as motivational speakers would like us to believe, there is no secret, easy formula for learning to love it.

The truth is that most of us have to go through some highly personal process to psych ourselves up for making telephone calls, going to networking events, or working those events when we are there. Whatever your technique, you have to force yourself to view networking as a necessary component of your professional career (that is, if you want to advance in that career), and find a way to make the most of it.

If you can actually become enthusiastic about professional networking – and most people can if they work hard enough at it – you will not only have more conversations through sheer effort and determination, you will have more positive and productive interactions.

The pace of our work and personal lives leave us with difficult challenges for building meaningful connections through our professional networks. But, as with most things, the more difficult a task the fewer people will do it. This creates an opportunity for great success and career growth for those who make the effort to build a network filled with rich and rewarding relationships. And besides, while the three martini lunch may be lost in the olden days, I’d rather have my email. [CLOUD]

IMD MBA participants joined IMD’s Responsible Leadership Summit where prominent guest speakers from around the world shared their views on responsible leadership, and answered questions from the international audience. To learn more about the program: www.imd.ch/mba[CLOUD]

Audemars Piguet CEO, Philippe Merk, shares his thoughts on leading in turbulent times and reflects on his IMD experience as an MBA participant in 1985.[CLOUD]

For those of us that are just beginning their job search after finishing their course of study, the world of work can seem rather daunting. There are so many careers to choose from these days. They are no easier to get into than they ever were, and it is so hard to know before you start which are the most likely to suit your temperament and long-term interests.

For all those embarking on a job search I would like to say that one of the most important criteria should in fact be the choice of the company. Do make enquiries about the company and their reputation for developing their staff. Find out if possible about staff turnover rates and if at interview, do ask questions which relate to the value that the organisation places upon its staff and their development.

Once in most companies the degree of flexibility for individuals to develop and change roles within most professional organisations, which exists nowadays, is greatly improved compared with ten or twenty years ago.

In many organisations career development for professionals used to be hierarchical, linear and predictable. Now in contrast it is dynamic, lateral and unpredictable, at least within many of the most vibrant and successful professional organisations in the United Kingdom.

When most professionals think of their career they often think in terms of their qualifications, training, experience and the opportunities that progress in these will bring, as long as they have made the right choice of company within which this will happen.

Indeed recent United Kingdom research has shown that the companies themselves generally see this as the career progression route they offer. Nevertheless, research within these organisations in recent years and the charting of the progress of individuals has shown that there are other important career drivers at work within these organisations which are allowing employees to move both upwards and laterally. These effects which are greatly beneficial to the careers and job satisfaction of staff remain largely unappreciated within these organisations, and yet we are going to reveal them here.

In this article I will now list and explain these all important “other ways” to get on in your career. We hope that those reading this, who are at the job search stage, will feel re-assured. Be assured that it is becoming very unlikely that a poor career decision now could ever leave you in the situation of being a “square peg in a round hole” later, when you develop a better personal knowledge of your own job strengths, and maybe find they don’t match your current role.

The “other ways” to reach fulfilment and promotion in your job:-

1.Follow your passion

2.Be pro-active

3.Grasp opportunities

4.Engage in politics

5.Be visible

6.Use personal networking

7.Build and share expertise

8.Risk taking

9.Personal image

Not all these will be open to employees at all levels within the organisation, although most will and I will now briefly comment on each of the above list. As follows;-

1.Follow your passion

Don’t be concerned, especially during your job search, if you do not have a formal career plan. Although most of us imagine that successful people are driven by a career plan, recent interviews with top achievers have shown that this is not mostly the case. What these job search high achievers have in common though is that they are driven by a challenge, or learning, or both.

Another common factor for success is to be true to yourself, and this is where the flexibility to change roles within an organisation is so important. You may need to move around to find that niche in which your personal goals become aligned with company goals. When this becomes a reality, then those around you will also feed off your positive motives which will show through, and the subconscious affect will be very positive.

2.Be pro-active

You will need to seize opportunities and actively seek them out. Earlier we talked about the increase in flexibility that organisations are allowing their staff to develop their careers. The other and slightly negative side to this is that you are far less likely to be looked after than in previous years, and the days of being offered promotion as and when your experience and length of service would place you next in turn are far less likely than they once were.

3.Grasp opportunities

It hardly needs saying that you will actually need to grasp those opportunities, but if your personal goals are aligned with those of the organisation, you will want to take on the challenges that promotion will offer you. Don’t be cynical about volunteering. Do raise your head above the parapet and make your willingness to accept progression clear to your line managers, and the right decision makers.

4.Engage in politics

I am going to call politics the ability of high flying employees to (without necessarily realising fully what they are doing, or to themselves call it “politics”), recognise those in the organisation who yield the power and influence to further their careers. This is best done through contact made during projects and obviously includes developing good relationships through your contact through normal duties with higher levels of management. This is positive politics. Do not view it, and do not use it as knife-in the back politics, which it should never be.

5.Be visible

You will not be offered opportunities unless you are in the right place at the right time. Some choose deliberately to work at head office. Others rise through regional and branch offices, but make sure they remain visible by their use of politics, and by sheer skill and effort in producing remarkable results which in themselves create the visibility you will need.

6.Use personal networking

To most of us it comes naturally, but is still worth mentioning her. Treat your colleagues well, and as you would hope to be treated. Do assist less senior staff in their work. Do take on specialist expert roles, become involved in office working groups and committees, and make yourself available to colleagues who may need assistance in their decision making. OK, this may take up some of your time, and reduce your performance in core work to some extent, but, those you help will usually work more effectively after assistance is given, especially if they are part of your team, and become far more likely to support you in your promotion, when needed.

7.Build and share expertise

This is particularly important to those whose vocation is in the technical field and who do not seek management posts to rise within an organisation. Immerse yourself fully in all technical aspects of your chosen subject. Use to the fullest the willingness of most enlightened companies to provide you with training. Use politics and personal networking to build your reputation as an expert within your specialist area, if you can excel in what you do, publish papers and publicise your standing both within the company and within the professional organisations to which you will hold memberships and present you research.

8.Risk taking

This will come naturally if you are following your passion, but do be calculating and do use all possible political and personal networking skills to weigh the risks in say starting a new product section of the organisation. Be sure to understand the relative merits of the upside, alongside the downside if somehow you fail. Handle things well and even a less than successful outcome can be put to your own advantage in most circumstances, and generally your commitment to sensible risk taking in connection with new ventures will count very highly in your favour.

9.Personal image

All of the above will build over time to become your personal image, both as you see yourself and others see you within the organisation: your reputation. As you rise within the company structure no matter whether you be a manager, or a technical expert just about the most important aspect of your reputation will be your reputation to deliver. To deliver what you promise, when you promise it, and within allocated resources, time and cost. Your ability to deliver will underpin all your other efforts combined, and you will be a success story attracting those around you to follow you.

So, job search may be your quest today, do your searching with energy and drive. Never forget the enormous opportunities that lay ahead in employment, to build your own life-experience, achieve wealth and fulfilment, and “make a difference”.

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