Presentation about how (not) to network, and the underlying principles that define success in the professional arena.

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Networking

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Who am I?
Benjamin Ball - YourCoach
Speaker – Job Coach

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What is Networking?
• Meeting important people
• Being ‘social’
• Selling yourself

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What DON’T you like about networking?
• You can't be yourself
• It's forcing yourself upon others
• Only for loudmouths
• I hate selling myself
• The really important people don't come
and/or don't care.

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I don’t want to come across as…

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Pushy

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Suck-upy

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Over-
Eager

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Sleazy

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Another definition of Networking
Making yourself and your work
known.

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Networking =
Personality + Skill
IN + OUT

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• Personality (IN)
– Your work, interests
– Your communication preferences
– What you believe and value
• Being able to communicate, market (OUT)
– Being able to start, carry and finish conversations
– Presenting oneself

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Find
Your
Style

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How I DON’T network…
• Receptions every night.
• ‘Working the room’.
• Talking to stranger after stranger
• Advertising my services.
• Spamming my business card.
• Sending friendship requests to strangers.
• Busting into conversations and taking over.

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How I network
• Organise my own events, and speak at events.
• Publish regularly: blog, e-books, newsletter
• Ask my best clients to recommend me.
• Proactive with leads and information.
• Know who I am and what I stand for.
• More and more selective in my contacts.
• Don’t try to please others.

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How TOM networks
• Dislikes ‘events’, he prefers insider gatherings.
• He doesn’t do Facebook let alone Twitter, or
receptions, or calls.
• Knows few people, very well.
• They’ll do anything for him, including
recommending him to everyone they know.
• Pleasant and accommodating.
• Has a hard time stopping conversations.

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Introverted – Extraverted
• Preference and energy; not behaviour
• Extraverted
– Group talk
– Needs attention and social time
– Speaking > Listening
• Introverted
– One on one talk
– Needs time alone to think, and recharge batteries
– Listening > Speaking

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Other Networking Styles
• Push - Pull
• Organising - Attending
• Deep - Broad
• Hoarding – Cutting
• Formal – Informal
• Specialist – Generalist
• Offline – Online
• …

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Ball’s Networking Axioms
• Value
• Vision
• Purpose

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Ball’s VALUE Axiom

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Ball’s Value Axiom
Value <> Networking effort
• Creating Value: Fun – Content – Power
• Situational – Positional

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Creating Situational Value (1)
Sell yourself and others
• Elevator pitch
– Don’t try to be complete
– Be memorable & ‘juicy’
– Newspaper article: roll it out

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Ball’s VISION Axiom

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If one does not know
to which port one is sailing,
no wind is favorable.
- Seneca

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Ball’s Vision Axiom
Decision
Vision
Energy
Attraction
Network
• Weak vision = weak network
– “See what happens” = “I’ll take whomever”
– “THIS is what I want”= “I want YOU!”

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Planning
Vision

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“Finish my doctorate” is just planning, NOT a
vision!
People connect to and buy vision, not planning.

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Clean up the
oceans

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Question Time
VISION – Who cares? Who/What am I doing it
for? What’s the eventual use of this?
ACTION/PLANNING – What’s the first concrete
step towards my vision? Which difficult
task/decision should I tackle now?

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Define your vision
• My vision is that one day people will
(values/benefits) have all the food they need
• My vision is that one day (metaphor) the
world will be a full and healthy orchard
• My vision is that one day XXX will be
transformed into YYY. Energy into dinner
• My vision is that one day (specific example)
everyone will have a food converter.

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My vision: I want to play a role in how people
adapt to new ways of working and living.
How?
By training and coaching them in a personalised,
concrete way.

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Ball’s PURPOSE Axiom

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Ball’s Purpose Axiom
• Talking to strangers is uncomfortable for
everyone, yet people do it all the time – why?
PURPOSE
• Everyone has it, no-one talks about it
• Great networkers make use of it
• Creating purpose is about giving yourself
permission to be relevant.
– Ex. Ask for a pen, the way to the food…
– Ex. Having a common goal, interest…
– Ex. Sharing something valuable, funny, interesting

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The Axiom of Purpose: How To Use It.
• Forget about your own fears and needs.
• Give yourself permission to be useful and
relevant.
• Think: “What do these people need?”
• Think: “What can I do to help them?”

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Give & Take
Give Receive

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Reciprocity

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What can you GIVE RIGHT NOW?
• Be Useful
– Organise things: drinks&food, coats, welcome…
– Introduce people to each other.
– Share your knowledge and insight.
– Give stuff away.
• Be Likeable (think Carnegie)
– Remember names and greet people you know.
– AND greet people you don’t know
– Be interested.
– Learn to speak in group (eye contact, body…)

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A parting thought

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Thank you!
www.yourcoach.be/en/
benjamin@yourcoach.be