Prepare your energy.
Today we’ll wind up this week’s offering of 10.5 Tips to use networking to enhance your commitment to Employee Engagement. (The final tip is the 0.5…but it’s still powerful!)
Practice picking Comment Points. Comment points offer opportunity to direct the conversation to sharing of ideas and insights. You’ll find beneficial connection between the types of questions you are comfortable and familiar asking and the comment opportunities the other person’s answers generate. Preparation readies you to offer comments on the other’s answers. Those comments (and The Pause that invites comments in return) stimulate healthy two-way conversation, and that’s the basis of a powerful networking relationship.
Know and apply the value of “You.†Statements that express interest in the other individual (her work, her skills, her challenges) generate greater responses. “You†(and “Yourâ€) statements require attentiveness to not seeming nosy, pushy, or probing. Offering information of your experience, in comparison, can be beneficial. Just remember not to reply to every statement by the other person with, “I remember… .â€
Prepare your energy. Networking situations come in many different formats: receptions, exhibit-hall breaks at conferences, association luncheons/meetings, one-on-one exchanges over coffee, informal and spontaneous opps (cashier lines, Little League games, commuter train rides…). The energy you take into the meeting can determine how successful the meeting will be—for you and those you meet. Energy is physical: consider rest, water, light meal, stretching in advance of the networking. Energy is mental: allow a few moments for “mind-clearing†immediately before you enter into Networking Mode. Energy is spiritual: encourage your body to relax and your mind to relax; accept and appreciate the common bond each of us has with all of us.
Warm up. Every time. Find/create specific now-I’m-ready actions to help you find the groove or get into the zone for networking. Affirmations such as: I enjoy meeting others and learning from them. Tongue twisters to loosen your verbal muscles: Toy boat OR Rubber baby buggy bumpers OR She still sells seashells swiped from Sheila’s sister’s seashore store…each of these said repeatedly. Gentle stretching to loosen your shoulders, back, legs…and provide you energy that others will notice and appreciate!
Give yourself a score. You want every networking situation to be better, more pleasant, more enjoyable, and more productive than the previous one. If you “grade†yourself and your networking performance every time, you have an easy way of setting and resetting the bar you hope to get over. Use whatever scale suits you; keep it simple so that scoring is not a chore. A simple approach is to turn these Tips into a checklist and after each networking opp, ask yourself “Did I do Tip #?â€
