Pam Slim at Escape from Cubicle Nation alerted me to the teleforum Creating Your Own Success with Srikumar Rao, hosted by leading news.
You can listen to the whole teleforum from here. It’s a great discussion and worth spending the hour listening to it.
Srikumar and Patricia discuss three topics,
- Handling a difficult boss…..masterfully
- A revolutionary strategy for effective networking
- How to create positive, lasting change in an unpredictable world
I liked his “revolutionary strategy for effective networking”.
The crux of the strategy
- People are uncomfortable at reaching out to others for self serving interest. (which explains why networking for this reason makes it feel awkward and strained, and why most of us dread doing it).
- Best way not to try to build a network is to let it evolve around you. (this feels counter-intuitive, but it does make sense in the whole scheme).
- Reach out from a value space, (Srikumar explains, people touch us on a value level because of things they have done, or are doing).
When someone touches you this way, reach out to them and make a specific offer of help. Not because you want to form a relationship, but because if offer accepted then you’ll form deeper, longer lasting relationships.
You can easily check this is true by looking at the strong relationships you already have with people, and how that relationship started and continues.
And it also goes without saying connect (network) with people when YOU don’t need it, (you’re working) and let your network evolve (takes time) around you.
