Follow Up is the fifth core principle of relationship-based networking. It is the secret sauce to maintaining strong, reliable, and productive professional relationships. Without effective follow up, your efforts to make new connections and to network amount to one-off transactions. Without effective follow up, your networking practice will become unsustainable. As a practitioner of networking, I believe that all [read more]
I am embarking on a six-part blog series on effective networking. I will share stories, tips, mistakes, and insights that will hopefully get you thinking differently about networking. I believe that networking is not merely an event or activity, but a strategy for a successful life. Networking can help you advance your career (and that [read more]
Yesterday I was teaching a networking skills training class to employees of my client BlumShapiro, the largest regional business advisory and CPA firm based in New England. This training is part of their Dare to Lead company-wide talent development program. During the class which was entitled Networking 301: Success by Association, we discussed the importance of follow-up in [read more]
I’ll never forget the time in my early 20’s when I went on a journey of career exploration and fully leveraged the power of informational interviewing. I had been working at Levi Strauss & Co in the advertising department. I wasn’t quite sure that was what I wanted to do for the rest of my [read more]
I had a lovely email exchange this morning with Beth Pite – a person who has had a profound impact on my business and professional career. She paid me a very nice compliment (see quote box) and inspired me to write this blog post. “I had forgotten how we met. In fact, I forgot about the person who introduced us. You, [read more]
I had an awesome day last Friday as the guest speaker at a staff retreat at Goodwin College. I was invited by their motivated leader, Sandra D Wirth, Dean of Students. Goodwin College is an open enrollment institution of higher education, and is located in East Hartford, Connecticut. Having been on campus twice now, I have to [read more]
“The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.” –Ken Blanchard, consultant, author of The One Minute Manager For the past two months, I’ve been studying the topic of influence without authority. I find it fascinating… and to be honest, frustrating, too. The topic is extremely relevant to how work gets done these days. It’s integral to how change and [read more]
We are fortunate this week to have a guest contributor – my colleague and dear friend, Rahna Barthelmess. Rahna is an expert in branding and personal branding and today’s guest blogger. She and I first met when she was a brand manager at LEGO. We both attended a “Train the Trainer” program for personal branding [read more]
Frequently people in my network reach out to let me know about open job positions. They ask for my help in sharing the opportunity with people that I know who might be qualified and interested. They need help in finding talented, motivated people to join their team. And they know that one of the best [read more]
When networking with people at business meetings, conferences, association meetings or conventions, learn to ask more interesting open-ended questions to get the conversation going. Rather than the standard “what do you do for a living?”, why not ask a more creative, open-ended question to prompt a more meaningful discussion, and to enrich the human exchange? It all [read more]
