When you are in a business or
professional world, people more focus on being likable, power oriented and
trust. You have the power to increase the company’s image into a certain level,
it all depends on your hard work, punctuality and smartness, now a days it does
not matter how much work you do but it matters how smartly you can do the work.
Your professional network is always an open door for you ,it depends on how you
can built a network and how far it can go, for better or for worse, it’s not
just what you know or are capable of doing, it’s who you know, that’s important
for career advancement and business development. From our childhood days we
learnt “slow and steady wins the race but as per time race now that
rule don’t matter , now how fast and how smartly you can run so that you can
win the race , but in case of networking the only thing that matters most is
HOW SMARTLY YOU CONNECT THE PEOPLE” . Don’t
set the boundaries to connect the people, set yourself free and see the result,
one day you’ll find everyone useful in certain period of your life.
How to Build Your Professional Network
Now social media becomes an easiest
platform to connect with many even in professional world. I realize the
importance of professional networking when I was in engineering and I had a
B-PLAN to work out even I was busy in social work through that I connect with
many but for professional network I connect with people through social media ,
websites , personal life connections and events.
I found difficulties
to maintain professional relationship as it is quite difficult than general communication,
I tried to research on it, how to build a successful professional relationship.
I began asking everyone I know who has had a successful career, built a
successful business, or career advisers on how to build a professional network.
After compiling the best advice I received, researching I could find,
experimenting, and practicing, I learned a lot about how to effectively make
new contacts and build relationships.
I am poor in communication skill, but
I always try to practicing and testing new techniques and strategies, making a
lot of avoidable mistakes, and meeting and building relationships with lots
awesome people to overcome my weakness and turn it into my strength.
How to grow your professional network
1. Be Helpful to
everyone you meet
James Mattes
quotes:
“In this age, I don’t care how tactically or operationally brilliant you
are, if you cannot create harmony — even vicious harmony — on the battlefield
based on trust across service lines, across coalition and national lines, and
across civilian/military lines, you need to go home, because your leadership is
obsolete. We have got to have officers who can create harmony across all those
lines.”
“Be
polite, be professional, and have a plan to kill everyone you meet.” This is
most often cited by those who work in combat arms profession. It goes a long
way in the real world. The more you sweat in training, the less you’ll bleed in
combat. This applies to concealed carry situations as well as it applies to the
combat mind-set. Work your brain. Maintain your professionalism and decorum,
but evaluate everyone you meet. So it’s important how to help someone without
doubting on them or their doubt on you as there relation in business world and
real world is quite different.
When people
in your network get stronger, you get stronger. Share your expertise and ideas, Share
information. It’s a two way communication , here you are helping yourself by
sharing knowledge and building god relationship and another person who is
getting help from you .If you can connect two people you know who would benefit
from knowing each other, you can help two people as well as improve the
strength of your network.
2. Build a
Reputation
Be
careful in this filed , your one bad image can ruin your entire life hard work
, that’s the main reason I really scared of rumors and bad image , as it has a
great power to ruin my 23 years of hard labor building my own image and
personality , in professional world it matters a lot especially when you are in
a social work and some prestigious sector , people always take you as a
ideology but if your image is ruined then it’s very difficult to build the same
image again as image and reputation are like glass , once it break it’s very
difficult to join it and create a looks like before that’s the main reason I care even I SUFFER a lot for this too . It's no difficult to
maintain ,still if one want then he/she can do it also, it’s not a rocket
science but for this you need hard labor and super consciousness so that you
can control your mind . In a professional setting, people prefer to build
business relationships with people they see as being valuable. By building a
reputation as someone who is talented, helpful, and valuable, people will be
more motivated to meet you and stay in touch with you. Let people know
what you’re accomplishing and learning through blogging, emails, and
conversations. I also love to connect with people who loves me and help me to
rise , when it comes to professional world it always symbiotic relationship but
without harming my image as I am dreaming about to become a BUSINESS AS WELL AS
SOCIAL WORKER .
3. Be Visible
If no one knows what you’re doing,
it’s like it never happened. That’s the reason people now a days do something
different to get attention, simple it is called as attention seeker, but this
is really good when it comes to marketing and branding your product. Maintain
regular and consistent with people you want to stay in touch with.
4. Meet Lots of
People!
Don’t create any boundary , make it
free with no bias , try to connect people as much as you can so that you
can be always profitable as you don’t know who will act as your luck in your
future .The best way to make lucky things happen, is to make a lot of things
happen. Go outside. Ways to meet new people include conferences, events, meetup.com,
asking people you know for introductions, reaching out to people directly,
personal interest groups, classes and workshops, parties, happy hours, alumni
associations, Twitter, and LinkedIn groups.
5. Think
Long-Term
Connections open doors, but
relationships close deals. Networking is not just about exchanging business
cards and connecting on LinkedIn. Networking is most valuable when
long-lasting, mutually beneficial relationships are formed. Relationships
take time to build. Be patient. Stay in touch with people you like.
6. Get Rejected!
“If you aren’t getting rejected on a
daily basis, your goals aren’t ambitious enough” – Chris Dixon
In networking, you will face a lot of
rejection. People may ignore your calls and email, they may decline meeting
invites, and requests for introductions or can laugh at you and criticize you.
Trying and failing is much better than not trying at all. At least when you try
you have a chance to succeed. Learn from
your rejections and grow stronger for when it happens again.
7. 3 simple
rules (Listen, ask and follow)
Listening is
one of the most valuable, yet commonly overlooked and most important skill to
have in networking and in business. People love to talk about themselves and
appreciate themselves, Listening will help you to get to learn about peoples’
challenges and get to know them better, which can ultimately lead to more
productive professional relationships.
Ask
open-ended questions, be genuinely interested, and express interest and
curiosity. You never know until you ask, and more often than you think, you
will get the answer you want. 3 simple ask rules – “Ask for introductions, Ask
people you want to meet to meet with you, Ask for advice.”
Follow up with
on people who promised to do something for you. Follow up on on emails you
send that get ignored. Do what you promised to do for others.
The purpose of professional
networking is to gain information, increase your visibility in your field, and
establish personal connections that will help you advance in your career.