One of the first lessons they teach at a b-school is the power of networking. This is one skill that can make the biggest difference between striking it big and just landing up with whatever gets thrown at you.
Networking comes naturally to most of us, though we may not be aware of it-we all like to have good company right? Some people just wait for people to come to them and talk while others just can't stop talking:). Now some people have taken this simple natural instinct and made a whole science out of it.
I am a pretty sociable person, or so I thought until I had to meet these huge set of people from the corporate world in an alien culture. Now for the first time in my life, I am just tongue tied, extremely self-conscious, searching for the right words, struggling with finding common interests with the person in front of me! This is bizarre.
Though I am a strong advocate against using "influencing" techniques with people (they are just manipulative most of the time), there are some basic things that get us off the ground quickly...(these are things I keep telling myself every time I have to meet a new person and am going "ewww..not another one...")
1. Get out of your comfort zone. If you never wanted to meet people, you could have done that pretty easily back home (with a decent paycheck as well!!). You came here for a new experience and here it is...its not comfortable the first time, but nothing ever is. So just push yourself (literally many times:)) and go out and talk to new people.
2. Quickly find common ground. With Indians it is so easy-which state are you from gets the discussion along for half hour maybe, with people from other cultures, it might be difficult to start a discussion-asking them about their country/background/company might be a great way to start. I have been amazed at how candid people can suddenly get when they talk about things dear to them.
3. Do some research. Yesterday we had a meeting with representatives from about 10 companies and I didn't know about even one of them! I failed miserably in finding common ground:(. If I had known about their companies I could have asked more insightful questions about their work and probably learnt much more from the discussions.
4. Just go up and introduce yourself. Chances are that they won't pull out a gun and shoot you (you might want to be careful in Texas though:)). Many people want to be talked to-they are just as shy as you are-so if you don't get it off the ground the plane shall never take-off!
5. Practice, this might sound gross to some people, but I am going to say it. If you dont think you are good at it and it is a life-saving skill there is only one way to get better-Practice. There was a senior manager at one of the Big 4 consulting firms who impressed the hell out of us with his talk (he looked like he started talking right from the time he was born!!) and his final caveat? "I used to practice 15 hours a week in front of the mirror when I was in b-school!" You might want to think about that.
And some minor ones...
Never forget to exchange business cards.
Send out Thank you notes, they did take out time to meet you and you learnt a new perspective-thats a lot to be thankful about!
Keep in touch in a non-intrusive way (unscheduled phone calls/visits, too many emails etc are no-no).
STRICTLY NO PERSONAL QUESTIONS.
Use http://linkedin.com
Finally all these are just starting points, what stands out in any relationship is true character. I will close this with a wonderful quote from Emerson-"“What you are shouts so loudly in my ears I cannot hear what you say."
If any of you can add more items to that list, I would be delighted!
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