203,720 people laid off to date this year. More than 68,000 yesterday alone. “Bloody Monday” accounts for one third of all layoffs this month!
WOW.
Last week I lamented not knowing what “the silver bullet” is… got some great comments. I can’t get networking out of my mind.
It’s not the silver bullet, but in networking, even building “intimate relationships,” magic happens.
MAGIC.
Don’t think of networking as a transactional encounter. Think of it as a process whose value increases over time.
As your value becomes apparent to your network contacts you’ll find that you start getting leads and tips and ideas from your contacts.
It probably doesn’t happen on the first encounter, but as your “relationship capital” increases, you see more magic.
Neglect networking at the risk of making it through this recession, and the rest of your career.
(hint: whether you are in a job search or not, get on JibberJobber today, and start managing your relationships.)
One big mindshift that has helped me and many of my clients when networking is this: What can I give in this relationship? It is so powerful to enter a conversation or a room and to take the focus off yourself and put it entirely on them. It takes away the nervousness and frees you to be yourself.
As they say in BNI, “Giver’s Gain.”
Kim, I agree. One of the things I got from Never Eat Alone was to figure out how I could help people… that isn’t the statement I remember in the book, Ferrazzi talks about building “intimate relationships,” as I mentioned above, and as he describes this it really hit home for me 🙂
As a former BNI-member (been a member for 6 years) I’ve never regretted the step to become a member. For our particular business – retailer in wooden floors – it didn’t bring that many sales in, but……
the amount and value we received in the form of contacts, advice, help etc is incomparable – in the right meaning of the word, if I say something stupid here, blame my double Dutch English – with the fee we paid yearly.
Now, not being a member since Jan 08 we still ‘profit’ from all the contacts we’ve made over the years.
Can I redirect to Kent Blumberg, who’s holding tele-seminars on ‘Networking for the shy and not-so-shy’:
https://kentblumberg.typepad.com/kent_blumberg/2008/12/class-networking-for-the-shy-and-the-notsoshy.html
Karin H (Keep It Simple Sweetheart, specially in business)
Hi Jason. This is EXACTLY what I needed today. Thanks for the post.
Shocking. I don’t think we have heard the last of the bad news. I’m feeling a sence of desparation with executives in career transition.
Hi Jason. As I read your post I thought of the “Flywheel Effect” in Jim Collins’ book Good to Great. It takes a lot of work to get the flywheel to turn over the first time, much less spin on its own. It’s not unlike building relationships through networking. Nice job.