Someone to lean on: Developing Business Networks
Appeared in: MyCareer
Author: Sue White
Date: July 10th 2010
When developing business networks, giving is as important as receiving.
When Jennifer Dalitz moved to the city from a small town in South Australia, it took her a while to realise there was more going on in the world of work than initially met the eye.
"I saw people around me getting noticed and promoted," says the chief executive of Sphinxx, an organisation focused on advancing women as leaders. "They weren't as senior, skilled or experienced as me. Then I realised they were finding out about opportunities through the grapevine. They were using their networks."
Dalitz eventually realised that successful networkers didn't simply lean on their contacts but supported their networks in return. Enrolling in an MBA, she used study as an opportunity to develop the skill herself.
"I had a real goal of networking. I have won so much business-consulting work through that network, including a $200,000 contract through a recommendation from a peer," she says.
Dalitz believes her targeted entry into the world of networking worked for a few reasons. "You've got to form deep enough relationships with people so they know exactly what you do, otherwise it's not really possible [for it to be effective]," she says. "Studying or working with someone is great, so are professional associations."
Dalitz believes people who go to one networking event expecting immediate results are missing the point. "Networking is about relationships," she says. "I believe you need to give before you get, so I aim to help others before I expect them to help me.
Recently, I gave two referrals to someone I wanted to work with. After the second referral I got a phone call saying, 'Let's have a coffee to figure out how I can help you'."
While Dalitz sees value in social networking and finds her list of 1500-plus connections extremely useful, she says you don't need the numbers to network well. "You just need a small mastermind group."
As a national sales manager with IT company Interactive, Melbourne-based Charlie Sutherland agrees with Dalitz that giving back to your networks is vital. Where most people fail, he believes, is in the basic social niceties that are often forgotten in our time-poor week.
"Today's online tools make it easier to network but old-world behaviours are still important," he says. "To build a network you need to turn up on time, write thank yous - even if they are via email - and maintain a strong sense of social awareness. People get lazy and forget these fundamentals."
Sutherland believes the fundamentals are important because, for him, networking is most effective when the two parties like each other.
"Of course, there has to be a mutually beneficial outcome but it works so much better when the people get along and want to work together," he says.
"I am always being asked to align with other people but if I don't like someone, it'll never get off the ground. You want to build mutual trust and hold shared values and ethics, including the view that helping each other requires a genuine two-way approach."
Like Dalitz, Sutherland has been impressed when people new to his network show they understand the value of giving. "People get so focused on what they want to achieve that when they interact with others they don't think about how they can help instead," he says.
"At a recent meeting one of the attendees came up afterwards and asked me who were the three top people I was trying to connect with in business at the moment. When I got back to my office he had organised introductions for me."
The national chief executive of IT recruiter Peoplebank Australia, Peter Acheson, says the way you perceive your networks is key to this approach. The goal is to use your contacts effectively without getting anyone offside.
"Think of them as alliances: valuable as bouncing boards, allies and a source of useful information," he says. "But don't forget your networks are working on a volunteer basis; they're not obliged to help and are less likely to support you if they suspect your motivation is to use them as a stepping stone."
Dalitz says good networkers won't blast you with newsletters and requests after one meeting and will be clear in what they are asking. Overall, she says, men are still better at professional networking than women.
"I think men understand the exchange element better than women," she says. "They aren't shy about leaning on each other or talking directly about their problems. I think women can learn a lot from that."
If, like Dalitz, you don't know where to begin, her advice is to start small. "Identify five people you want to get to know professionally and offer to do things for them," she says. "Send them a helpful article or a list of books you think they'd find useful. Remember, it's about helping others first."
