Networking is often something women find especially hard to do.  So what’s the point?  It’s all chewing the fat and having drinks with people you don’t really know – much better to get out there and be excellent at your job and deliver stuff right ? – well, perhaps not.

Unfortunately, building a successful career is as much about who you know (and who knows you) as it is about doing a good job.  Before we get started let’s do away with the word networking and replace it with the art of career development or developing key relationships ….well any relationship come to that.  And that’s why anyone who cares about their career should care about networking.

….it is a two-way street, your boss and others need to know about you…but more than just doing a good job.

The art of networking is nothing more than simply keeping people informed of what you do, what you are good at and how you can help them.  It is a two-way street, your boss and others need to know about you…but more than just doing a good job.

It’s about the value of long term relationships, everyone has a career journey.  Our careers start between the age of 16-25 and finish about 50-65.  Most people spend about 80% of their careers in the same field.  Therefore, you will end up knowing the same people for most of your careers.  Your reputation and theirs are on the same journey.  By having the mind set of developing and nurturing long term relationships with these people will help your career no end.  This is where trust, reputation and brand comes from.

So we also need to network externally, not just with the people in our own companies.  So what’s the difference between networking internally and networking externally?   The ‘act’ in its self there is no difference.  Your focus should be on what you want networking to do for you.  All networking should include external networking NEVER just internal networking.  The balance is wrong.  You need external contacts for your career development, personal development, profile, knowledge, competitor intelligence, customer intelligence etc.

A lot of relationship building takes place at events where there are lots of people.  There are many tips for working a room and you can find out how learn this dark art by visiting www.smarternetworking.co.uk.  Here you can download an ebook that will give you over 300 tips to get you started.  Our key tip is, the more you do it, the better you get, and whilst at first you may feel out of your comfort zone you will soon find your flow.  Remember, probably 50% of the people in the room are feeling exactly the same as you are.

Another thing we are asked is why men don’t need to network.  It’s not a case of them not networking, they just do it differently.

A question we both get asked a number of times is is it OK to go to events and just hand out business cards to all and sundry. In the right context, handing out your business card is absolutely the right thing to do.  What you need to consider is when NOT to do it.  In short never hand out your card if you haven’t established a positive/good connection between you and the other people in the group (or the person you are speaking to).  Otherwise you might be seen as superficial, pushy, sales-like etc.  What you MUST avoid is leaving the wrong impression with people.  If you haven’t connected with them we can almost guarantee where your card and brand and reputation will end up…in the bin.

Another thing we are asked is why men don’t need to network.  It’s not a case of them not networking, they just do it differently.  In fact, they do it almost unconsciously.   Most of their networking interactions happen at the water cooler, on the golf course, in the pub etc – they network all the time.  A recent survey we conduced with a group of guys on the subject of Networking indentified that they don’t even really acknowledge Networking as something they think about as a skill.  Passing recommendations, introducing contacts, recommending others for job in a man’s world just comes naturally to them and has no official label.

That aside, if you have ever seen gentlemen at Networking events, they work the room and pick up contacts almost effortlessly.  Our advice is don’t try to emulate their style or any one else’s for that matter, just focus on your own – that’s what makes you different, stand out, approachable etc to your male counterparts.  Our recommendation is that you don’t worry about how men do it, focus instead on how you want to do it.  What would work for you?  Stay focused on what you want networking to do for you and just get on with it.  In the end it all comes down to the same stuff – great results and great experiences.

Networking as a skill and a means to an end is far more diverse and adaptable than most have given it credit for

People often ask if there is a case for business networking?  A friend of ours recently interviewed 70 MBA students about what networking could do or be for them, here is what they said

• Open career doors.

• A better use of time.

• Help to make an informed decision.

• An ‘insurance policy’.

• An opportunity to develop personal skills.

• Extending personal resources.

• A way of gaining industry knowledge.

• A way of monitoring competitor activity.

• A way of influencing key people.

• Bring in new business.

• A means of creating a strong, virtual team.

• Help develop self-marketing skills.

• Help find new employees.

• A way of creating new ideas by listening to people.

• A way to demonstrate abilities.

• A forum where one can test out ideas and skills.

• A way of creating a higher profile for oneself.

• A forum to support colleagues and clients.

• A means of developing your business.

• A way to benchmark and exchange best practice.

• A way of testing efficiency.

• A shortcut to business or personal goals.

The same team of MBA students what might be counter-productive about networking and this is what they said. (And the point we want to make here is ‘forewarned is forearmed and could be fore planned … if you want it to be!’)

• Can take a lot of time to get started.

• Being careful about confidentiality.

• You can meet the ‘wrong’ type of contacts.

• Some events have distinct ‘in-house cliques’.

• Getting close to key people you want to meet.

• It may take a long time to see results.

• It might be difficult to justify the time to the boss.

• You may not get the results you want.

• You may lose employees.

• It is easy to lose focus at events.

• You can lose impartiality.

• Down time away from the desk!

• Effect can be difficult to measure.

• There are a number of blind alleys to go up.

All of these disadvantages can easily be turned round by clarifying your networking objectives.

So in short, ‘Networking’ as a skill and a means to an end is far more diverse and adaptable than most have given it credit for.  We will conclude with a set of pro’s below for you to decide whether any of these are things are in line with what you want to achieve by Networking, if the answer is yes, then starting your Networking journey is a great way to make it happen.

?        Developing better career opportunities

?        Generating new business

?        Developing a network of alliances, partnerships and contacts

?        Getting departments talking to each and being more effective (culture change)

?        Tapping into the crossing-selling opportunities inside an organisation

?        Setting up a business and making a success out of it

?        Improving self-marketing skills

?        Sharing knowledge more easily and readily

?        Gaining market information and sharing the intelligence effectively

?        Becoming a better internal consultant

?        Attending conferences, exhibitions and forums and gaining better results

?        Setting up internal networked groups e.g. receptionists, support teams etc.

This article was written by Vanessa Vallely, Founder of leading women’s City website www.wearethecity.com and Heather White, from www.magicofnetworking.co.uk.  Both are accomplished networking experts and speakers.  For more information, contact Vanessa.Vallely@wearthecity.com or heather@smarter-networking.com

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The Happiness at Work Luncheon sponsored by Abbott

Location: Hoxton Apprentice, 16 Hoxton Square, London, N1 6NT

Date & Time: 5th November 2010, 12 noon – 2.00pm

Ticket price: Only £15.00

• What makes you happy and work?
• When do you or your colleagues go the extra mile?
• How might personal and organizational happiness affect the bottom line?
• And what might that mean for you as a leader?

Starting with a fabulous lunch from the Hoxton Apprentice you will discover some of your unrealised strengths and give you ideas for development.

Timings

12.00-12.40 Canapes and networking
12.40-1.00 Keynote Speaker – Jess Pryce Jones
1.00-1.10 Lunch served  with Keynote Speaker – Niki Garcia
1.30 1.45  Q&A with speakers
1.45 – 2.00 Further networking and close

The menu

Canapes and wine on arrival

Main Course

Fishcakes or Ravioli (vegetarian)

Dessert

Sweet taster plates for afters

Topics

Jessica Pryce-Jones, CEO of iOpener, a human asset management consultancy and author of Happiness at Work will outline her five-year research programme, the highs, the lows and the results. And will tell you what it all means in the current climate.

Nicola Garcea, a Chartered Occupational Psychologist and Consulting Director of CAPP (The Centre of Applied Positive Psychology) will outline the importance of using strengths in order to help you perform, provide you with energy and aid happiness. The session will highlight how using your Unrealised strengths can offer you your greatest areas for development.
You can expect this lunch to be interactive, so you will be asked to get involved. But you will leave with at least five key things for you to think about and action as leaders and influencers in your business.

What Can Strengths Do for You?

This session will outline the importance of using strengths in order to help us perform, provide us with energy and aid happiness. The session will highlight how using our Unrealised strength we can capitalise on strengths that might be less well known to us but can offer us our greatest areas for development. By attending this session you will discover:

• What are strengths?
• Why strengths can benefit you?
• How you can harness your Unrealised strengths?
• How strengths can help you to achieve your goals.

Prior to this session you will be provided with a complimentary code to access CAPP’s strengths assessment and development tool Realise2.

About the speakers

Nicola Garcea – Nicky is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist and Consulting Director of CAPP (The Centre of Applied Positive Psychology).  Nicky has delivered work in America, Argentina, Canada, Europe, Nigeria and Venezuela.

She has also managed long-term client projects with Aviva, BT, Birmingham City Council, London Underground, Royal Mail and Ernst & Young.

At CAPP Nicky and the CAPP team deliver work spanning the employee life cycle. Her area of specialist expertise is in Strengths-based recruitment, People Management, and Reorganisation. Nicky’s approach to consulting combines Strengths and Business Psychology with Organisational Development.  Nicky is a member of Occupational Psychology Division of the British Psychological Society, a registered Healthcare Professional and a certified NTL Organisational Development Practitioner.
Along with Alex Linley and Sue Harrington, Nicky has edited the Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology and Work which was published by Oxford University Press in 2009.

Jessica Pryce-Jones - Jessica Pryce-Jones is CEO of iOpener, a human asset management consultancy operating in the UK, USA, Dubai and South Africa.
She thinks that lots of people, teams and organizations would achieve more and manage better if they understood the connection between productivity and happiness at work. Recognizing this would mean that they’d truly achieve their potential while enabling their own – and their organization’s – success. Her book, ‘Happiness at Work: Maximizing Your Psychological Capital For Success’ was published earlier this year in the UK and in the USA.
Jessica founded iOpener to help people to recognise and extend their capabilities. She believes that everyone has the ability to do more: the secret lies in inner momentum and formulating practical solutions. She is a frequent speaker and media commentator, having taken part as an expert in the BBC series ‘Making Slough Happy’, featured in a CNN special and written many articles about iOpener’s work.
She lectures and teaches senior executives at London Business School, Chicago Booth, Oxford (Saïd) and Judge Business Schools. She also works with senior executives and leadership teams. Her career started at Rothschild’s Bank in Paris and she then spent seven years in the insurance market before starting working as a consultant.

All proceeds will go to the Training for Life Charity. So the event will be guilt free also!

For EPWN members please log onto www.europeanpwn.net/london

More details and to book your place, click here as tickets are selling fast!!

The post Happiness at Work Luncheon appeared first on Vanessa Vallely.

I remember when LinkedIn first started.  My general opinion was this would never gain enough legs to spring around the City.  Needless to say I was wrong.  There is not one person I know of a senior status who doesn’t have a LinkedIn profile, however, there are so many juniors early on their careers that don’t see the benefit of a LinkedIn profile or just view it as a mechanism for posting your on line CV.  So what do our seasoned professionals realise that the next generation of talent doesn’t?

LinkedIn has slowly become the defacto place to fact find about professionals.  So who uses it :-

• Recruitment agents
• Headhunters
• Interviewers
• People looking to enhance their social network
• People looking for expertise requests
• Past colleagues looking to reconnect

So what if you are not on LinkedIn.

Then you are missing a massive opportunity.  Our advice would be to invest the time and join up.  It is free and is as simple as just copying and pasting your CV.  How are people going to find you if there is no mechanism to contact you and they have no way of knowing your success to date?

Once I am on it, what do I do?

Raise your profile.  Copy your CV and connect with individuals you respect for their professional integrity.  Remember, once you accept an invitation from LinkedIn you cannot then drop them at a later date – you are connected for lifetime of your profile – so think carefully about who you connect with.  If you chose to ignore an invite the recipient receives no notification back that that is what you have done, so no harm done.  There is no poking or writing on walls like there is in Facebook.   Although its fairly well hidden, there is a way to remove accepted connections, see comment from one of our readers below.

Connect with your senior network.  Think about your circle of association. If you are working with senior individuals within your firm, ask to connect with them.

The Do’s and Don’ts of LinkedIn

• Treat your LinkedIn connections like your front door – would you let someone in if you didn’t know them?
• Apply the same thinking to who you approach via LinkedIn.  If they don’t know you, they are unlikely to connect with you – don’t be offended, people in the know protect their LinkedIn profile like they would their own professional reputation.
• If you meet someone at a forum or through work and you feel that connecting would be worthwhile, ask them if they would mind connecting with you via LinkedIn and then send them the invite the next day.
• Keep your profile fresh – update it periodically, more often that you would your CV.  Try to aim for a 95% completion of your profile, a photo is always a good idea and make sure it’s a professional shot, not one where you are out with friends.
• Bang your own drum in your profile – a bit like your CV, this is your chance to publicise yourself and your past/current success.
• Sign up for updates – keep abreast of what your contacts are doing within their careers.  If someone gets promoted or achieves something of significance, drop them a comment – keeping in touch is key – it’s not just about the connection, its keeping the connective alive.
• LinkedIn is fantastic for hearing about job opportunities as well, as people tend to advertise to their networks direct.  If you are hiring, this is great way to avoid agency fees.  Post your roles out to your network.
• Connect with your senior network.  Think about your circle of association. If you are working with senior individuals within your firm, ask to connect with them.  Remember, people who view your profile are very interested in who are connected with.
• Use the update feature to let your network know what you are doing.  This feature is a little like twittering (and can be connected directly to your Twitter account if you have one).  Whatever you post as an update will be distributed to your entire network as part of a weekly or daily bulletin should they have that option selected?  Remember, always keep it professional.  No one is interested if you are washing your hair or out drinking with friends!
• Join groups – if you are interested in certain forums or industry specific groups, search via groups and request to join.  This will connect you to groups of other link minded individuals and enable to you take part in one line discussions and forums.
• Connect with your previous employers Alumni.  Most firms have Alumni groups that allow past employees to keep in touch.
• Always create your unique web address.  This is an option in LinkedIn and will help head hunters and recruiters find you.  This also provides you with your own professional personalised website.
• Recommendations, Recommendations, Recommendations – there is power in the written word.  Once you are connected to individuals, you can ask them to recommend you.  The polite thing to do is to then recommend them back and LinkedIn provides you with a mechanism to do so.  Recommendations speak volumes when people are trying to find out about you, so don’t be afraid to ask to be recommended.  Recommendations have to be authorised by you before they are published on your profile.  It you don’t like what’s been said – don’t publish it.

To add yourself to LinkedIn, visit www.linkedin.com

The WeAreTheCity LinkedIn group is also available for you to join here

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