Survey after survey and workshop after workshop have all established that networking is really important for your career and your business; A survey by The Non Exec Hub a year ago discovered that you are 80% more likely to hear about a Non Executive Director or Trustee vacancy through your networks rather than through an Executive Search Firm.
Andrew Shipilov, Associate Professor of Strategy and Akzo Nobel Fellow at INSEAD, writes in his new eBook ‘Network Advantage’, “ …alliance networks affect your firms ability to achieve competitive advantage” meaning, key relationships change business and enhance career opportunities.
Alan MacKelworth is an expert in High Value Networks and on his Linked In page says; “By working with a much wider range of internal and external parties, those leading change in their organisation can significantly increase their revenue growth, knowledge base, effectiveness, and overall responsiveness to new challenges.”
The message is clear – building both internal and external relationships is key for both maintaining and growing your business and career.
These days most people accept that networking is important and make some effort to build relationships but how effective are these activities? Do you have a plan of some sort that enables you and key relationships to create collective result?These should be long term relationships so how do you sustain the connections?
Effective networking brings real results so by asking yourself a few simple questions you can determine if your efforts are paying off, for example,
- Are you invited by colleagues and clients to networking events?
- Do you get calls from others asking for your advice or opinion?
- Are you invited to be part of a key project or join a committee?
- Do people refer you to opportunities?
Smarter Networking have designed a networking effectiveness survey to not only find out how people are doing but also to give them ideas for increasing their effectiveness and success.
To complete the questionnaire just follow this link: https://www.research.net/s/Networking_Effectiveness
When the survey is published we will come back to you with thoughts on how others are doing and some suggestions on how to be more effective at networking.
Good luck and keep on showing up!!