What was the first thing Mom taught you when you headed off to school? Be polite to other people. Be nice and say please and thank you. She was teaching you social skills because she knew that these are the most important skills you will need to be successful in life. They are also one of the most important skills you will need to be successful in your networking strategy. It’s also one of the areas that cause the most stress and anxiety for many new networkers. Here are some of the most helpful tips I have learned in my seven years of intensive networking.
Comfort Level
It’s tough to help other people feel comfortable with you if you aren’t feeling comfortable yourself. Your conversation may be awkward or you may have a perturbed look on your face. Other people may not chalk that up to you feeling discomfort; they just might think you are not friendly or interesting, even though you are. You want to find a way to get a basic level of comfort with networking and meeting new people as quickly as you can. Practice and experience is a great way to do this of course. So are the rest of the tips in this article.
Practice
There is nothing wrong with planning what you are going to say ahead of time. Guys will rehearse their “pick up” lines and while we don’t want to bring in any aspect of cheesy schmoozing into real networking, it’s still a good lesson. You are going to be asked the same questions over and over again. It’s almost guaranteed that you’ll be asked “What do you do?” at a business events. “How do you know the host/organizer?” is another regular question. The drive to an event is a great time to work out what you want to say about yourself, your company and the networking group or club.
Be Interesting
We all sweat over how to be interesting and what to say that will show others how clever or funny we are. Dale Carnegie taught is that to be interesting, you must first be interested. Stephen Covey put it another way, “first seek to understand, then be understood.” Both imply that you’ll do more listening than talking. You know that practice session in the car on the way to the networking meeting? Think about great questions you can ask people that will show them you’re interested.
There are many more aspects of building your social skills than we can cover here. Start with these networking strategy tips and you’ll find yourself more comfortable and skilled all the time. And, if you really need advice, ask your mom.
