The other day I was at a networking meeting and decided to do a little bit of people watching. As I looked around the room I saw clusters of people everywhere. Some were engaged in conversation with 1-2 people almost the entire time. Others skipped from group to group as quickly as possible and handed out as many business cards as they could. Still others stood off to the side and tried to blend in with their surroundings.
I had to ask myself, how many of these people even knew who they wanted to meet? And out of those who knew the person or group they wanted to meet, did they know how to go about meeting them in an efficient and timely manner? Was their target even in the room? What about their referral partners?
Did they come to these networking meetings with a plan or did they simply show up just to be able to tell their boss or business partner that they had networked?
After watching for a minute or two longer I came to the conclusion that most of the people in the room were simply going through the motions. They were "networking" because some business coach somewhere told them it was the thing to do. But they had never been taught what it really means to network.
They had never been taught what it means to leverage the relationships of those around you. They had never been taught how to develop a strategic networking plan which included the specific people and the specific industries they wanted to be introduced to, as well as the types of people that made the best referral partners.
They had merely been told, "Go forth and network!"
As my eyes continued to roam the room I caught site of one of my strategic partners. I stopped my people watching and made my way across the room to them. Our eyes met in understanding and I said, "Let's get down to business."
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