This month’s webinar topic Professional Networking and Mentors is such an important one for people searching for relevance and opportunities.

We talked about how to strategically build the network you need to accomplish your professional goals.

You can download the podcast Professional Networking and Mentors to hear the discussion.

Here are some of the things we covered:

Standard Networking Rules Apply

Network when you don’t need anything.
Give more than you take – always.
Successful people get help.

(See more about general, Authentic Networking)

Be clear about your goals

Set your networking targets. What you are trying to accomplish? List the types of challenges you have, the decision makers you need to connect with, and what you need to achieve. Who can help you? The webinar worksheets help you create your strategy and plan.

You are more vulnerable if you are not connected. Who other than your boss cares what happens to you? How are you viewed by your boss’s peers? Who knows you? What happens to you and your boss in a re-org, or acquisition?

Is this just Politics? Call it what you wish but you will be at a disadvantage without a network of support. If you intentions are honorable and you are giving back, your networking efforts will be authentic and valuable to both sides. They will not be hollow, selfish or political in a negative way.

Get and Use Mentors

Why you need mentors. You need mentors to fuel your imagination, help you see what is possible and necessary in your work, keep you connected to reality, make connections for you, and help you learn how to do a bigger job.

Types of mentors you need. Don’t get hung up on the word “mentor”. You need lots of smart people (you can’t have too many), but you also specifically need career advocates and business advisors. We talked about how to approach this and why it matters so much. There is a checklist in the worksheets.

How to ask for a mentor. We discussed several approaches but the main idea is to ask in a way they can’t refuse. Be gracious, respectful, and don’t ask for a lot of time. Listen to the podcast for effective conversation starters, and how to build a friendly meeting into a strong mentorship.

Your Extra Teams

Build a Personal Advisory Board. Successful executives have a group of people they can go to assess and brainstorm their business and career issues. It is really valuable source of support if you can work it out. We talked through a couple of models.

Build your Extra Team. Successful people get lots of people working for them that don’t report to them. Don’t just network with people above you, reach to peers and people at levels below you in the organization too. Make personal connections. Give them opportunities to connect with your network, and give them exposure at your level. Then you’ll always have help when you need it.

Want to hear more of the discussion?

Download the podcast of the webinar Professional Networking & Mentors.
Download the complete webinar including the podcast, presentations and worksheets.

Downloads are free to members. Learn about membership.

If you found this useful, you can subscribe to this blog for free and get updates in your email or RSS reader.

THINGS YOU CAN DO NOW

1. Get Facebook Updates.
Click “Like” to get more great business leadership updates on Facebook

2. Check out a short video about my new book:
RISE…How to Be Really Successful at Work AND Like Your Life.

3. Get your copy of RISE… now on Amazon

4. Get RISE for your whole team at corporate, volume pricing.

Many people worry that spending time networking is being “Political” which they are philosophically against, or that it’s a selfish activity to “get” things from other people.

The Networking Paradox:

• You need a network that can help you
• Networking is about Giving not Taking

Highly successful people are successful because they get a lot of help, not because they are too good to need it.   Their network is ready to spring into action at a moment’s notice, whenever they need it – and they call upon it regularly.

But then how is Networking about Giving? 

• You Build your network by Giving
• You Use your network by Taking

 The trick:

• GIVE when you don’t need anything
• TAKE LESS than you GIVE - always

10 Things you can Give your Network:

1. Hello, news:  Just say hello or update people when something interesting happens.  Be the one to stay in touch. You are not asking for anything.  You like to hear from people, so do they.

2.  Remember things: Listen. Keep details about them in your contact database. Did your son get his black belt? Did you buy the Aston Martin?  How is your daughter doing in NY?  It feels good when someone remembers your details.

3. Offer to help: What is your challenge right now? How I can help you? 

4. Positive feedback:  I was really impressed with [that article, that talk, something you did]… it really made a difference to me.  Thank you.  How often do you get positive feedback? 

5. Say Thank You.  I can’t tell you how many people I only hear from when they need a reference, and then after I let them know I did it, I never hear from them again.  Saying thank you is a big deal in your network.  Thank people a lot and often.

6. Follow up: When you ask someone in your network for something and they give it (like a reference, advice, an introduction) let them know what happened.  Did you get the job? Did the idea work?  Most people don’t do this. I do all kinds of things people request of me, and never hear back about what happened.  When I do, it is the exception, and I am thrilled.

7. Make an introduction: Be astute about helpful introductions you can make.  You have then given two people a valuable gift without asking for anything in return.

8. A point of interest or enjoyment: If you remember what is important to people and what they like, it gives you an opportunity to point them to great stuff that you run across.  Food also works!

9. Photos:  Photos of things you saw and did, you, your family.  You always look at them, don’t you?  It is a real personal touch.   But make sure to either send a link or resize them.  Don’t email 8MB photos.

10. Video Mail: Video mail is an excellent way to make a contact as well.  People really appreciate it.  And it seems like a much bigger deal than it actually is!  Some free services here: www.eyejot.com and www.tokbox.com.

Schedule time to do it:

Schedule a block of time each week or month to reach out to your network. 

Think about how many emails you could send in 30 minutes.  Think about how many 1 minute video mails you could send in 1 hour.  Put 2 people in your calendar each month that you want to call to personally catch up with. 

You will find if you do these things, you will have an army of people who want to help you, and it won’t feel political or like you are being selfish.

Related Articles:

The Power of Weak Connections
Who has the best Ideas?
Authentic Networking

More Resources:

Attend this month’s Member Call on Networking vs. Politics

Download the Authentic Networking Podcast 

WANT BLOG UPDATES SENT TO YOU?
Subscribe here for email or RSS updates.

One of the many reasons that we tend to resist connecting with people is the fear that we don’t have time for the “relationship”.

There are two really important considerations here:

1) A connection typically doesn’t turn into a time sink – others are busy too
2) Having “weak connections” is very valuable.
What is a weak connection?

We all have key relationships where the whole point is to spend time with the person  because we enjoy and value that.  These are strong connections.

You tell them about your life and you want to hear about theirs.  You do things together. You know each other very well.  The fact that this takes time is a good thing.

Weak connections on the other hand, are with people you know, and at one time had an authentic reason to connect with — your weak connections are still personal connections.

They are not just a stack of business cards of people you don’t really know at all – I don’t believe this type of “contact” adds value to your network, and it is not authentic.

These weak connections are with people you would genuinely like to stay in touch with, but you don’t regularly have a specific reason to contact them.

How much time does it take?

You can establish or maintain a weak connection about once a year with a brief phone call or email.  In techy terms we call this a “ping”.  A ping is a test of a network connection, without sending any real data.

“I thought of you the other day, and thought I would say hello. Things are going well for me and my family. Still at my same company, but I started a new job as a regional director, which I am enjoying.  Hope you are well.”

Use your own style of course, but the point is to realize that it doesn’t take a lot of “data”.

Weak connections are about keeping the connection fresh, not keeping all of the details of the relationship current.

(I am here, you are there.  I thought enough about you to acknowledge our connection.)

Find some method or process or trigger to keep yourself doing this.  Think about spending maybe a half an hour a month, and making this kind of brief connection, “ping”, with 10-30 people. That is a lot of network refreshing without a big time commitment.

You will also find that people are glad to hear from you!

Network when you don’t need anything!

Keeping connections fresh is more about giving than taking.  You are giving someone attention, and you are not asking for anything.  It is a pleasant contact for them.

If you don’t do this, it is very uncomfortable when you need to reach out to people that you have not communicated with AT ALL in 5 years and “suddenly” ask them for something.

But if you have kept the connection fresh it will be much more natural and comfortable when you need to reach out — and they will be much more inclined to actually help!

The value of a weak connection

A large network of “weak connections” is more valuable than a small network of close connections. And it is not just a matter of the numbers.

The people you are close to are not always very useful to help you because they tend to be in the same environments, know the same people, and think similarly to you.

Whereas your “weak connections” have access to different stuff!

If you are on a job search (a big reason people reach out to their network) or looking for new insights, your network of weak connections will have more new ideas, broader reach, and bigger impact.

The Science behind this concept:  (from Wikipedia): The Strength of Weak Ties: Mark Granovetter is an American sociologist who has created some of the most influential theories in modern sociology since the 1970s. He is best known for his work in social network theory and in economic sociology, particularly his theory on the spread of information in a community known as “The Strength of Weak Ties” (1973).[1]