The power of networking
Can you imagine a world filled with an abundance of job opportunities, free guest list parties?, an opportunity to travel the world and free food and drink? Well all this is possible with the power of networking.
Networking means meeting people, building rapport, getting them to like and warm to you and creating opportunities.
Networking requires an ability to connect with people. Regrettably, even at business schools, little of the educational experience seems to address this issue or teach the ‘necessary people skills’ to get ahead.
It makes sense. “You don’t build a business, you build people, people build a business’ meaning that when you go for a job, when you walk into a party, when you go anywhere, you’re coming into contact with people.
“People like people like themselves”, so how can you connect with people and get them to warm and like you creating all the amazing opportunities you would want?
Well it is important to remember the point that Dale Carnegie made in his famous book ‘how to win friends and influence people’ is that people like to feel important. What is the easiest way of making people feel important? It is by listening to them and empathizing with their point of view. If you listen to other people, let them speak, understand and empathize with their point of view then they will warm and like you.
I have mentioned several times on my articles that 96% of what we do, think and feel is subconscious meaning that a large proportion of our beliefs, values and morals have been formed subconsciously and have been influenced by our parents, our friends, our school, the media, at University, during work etc. When you meet people, they give us lots of clues about what beliefs they might have and some level of understanding about their unique map and model of the world. The clothes they wear, the way they speak, their accent, their non-verbal gestures, the way they walk all present some clues as to what they may be like!
With this in mind, you can tailor your personality to suit all people and this is a brilliant skill when networking. Let the other person speak, be interested in what they have to say, don’t interrupt and then build rapport by demonstrating common interests. Be supportive and interested in their point of view and then they will want to be around you and more importantly they will want to help you by connecting you to opportunities that can help you in some way.
This is a fantastic skill to learn for when you are applying for jobs. You are not applying for a job with a company; you are applying for a job with a person! The company is just a name that has been registered with company’s house. It is people that built that business, so you need to have the people skills to make then warm and like you and give you a job.
When you look around at most organisations you find that a lot of the people are very similar. This is because ‘people like people like themselves’ and companies want to hire people who support their brand and image. The staff at Burberry HQ are (as you can imagine) all pretty, petite and fashionable! No surprises there!
If you can put yourself into other people’s shoes and their map and model of the world‚ you will demonstrate empathy and people will respond to that. Give these tools a try at your next networking event and see what a difference it makes!
Written by Emma Vites, CEO The Apprentice Project
‘The Apprentice Project provides the education that graduates need after finishing university’
Emma Vites is the CEO, The Apprentice Project. She is also a trained life and career coach and is writing a book called ‚The Graduate bible‚ helping graduates get jobs after University. For more information Follow @emmavites or @apprenticepro
