One of the things I love the most about traveling around and speaking at conferences and meetings about Perfecting Connecting ® is the conversations I have afterward with audience members. They often start with, “I really would like to be a better networker and connector but I’m so bad at it!” People have a very warped idea about what true networking really is. Most people have been victims of transactional networking or as I like to call it “drive-by networking” where the person is only talking to you to get something from you, which is not about connecting. It has turned off a lot of people to networking and this approach will kill your social capital with your network.
True connecting is about standing at the intersection of your life and looking for ways to connect people, opportunities and ideas. When you can communicate your value-add to your network and you’re always looking for ways to be a resource, you will have high networth with your network. This will increase your Access Intelligence™ which everyone needs in order to be able to access and influence your network to help you do your job faster, better and easier. People with high Access intelligence are the most valuable employees to have.
One of the most important first steps to being a person people want to connect with is by honoring your true authentic self. I refer to this as connecting in before you can connect out. Check out this short video clip to hear my thoughts and ideas on connecting in and why it’s so important in today’s fast moving business climate.
[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCeKvS_Z028′]