Networking - Essential to your job

Networking pops up all of the time with business owners, but they're not the only people for whom it's essential. Think about people in your company you admire most. Aren't some of them the best networkers you've ever seen - or should be?

Christopher Laurance of Town Development in Westlake Village, Calif., has worked with people inside of Fortune 500 and 100 companies, and universities. He explains that the reason many people don't network is that "once you're in a company, you typically forget that you need to continue to network for your own job knowledge to be successful. Often, people fail to take advantage of resources within the company because they don't know the skill sets and knowledge bases of the people who work there." He maintains that task-orientation among middle-managers gets in the way.

"Unfortunately," Laurance adds, "'completing the task' doesn't translate into 'best solution.'" He's observed fiscal waste among employees who don't network. One organization with 450 employees engaged a consultant for hundreds of thousands of dollars before realizing that internal talent could have handled the assignment. He also saw automobile companies invest $100 million in a useless database.

Executive recruiter Dwain Celistan, who leads the office of Gunderson Partners in Chicago, works with senior executives across a wide range of industries. He would agree with Laurance about the lack of internal Networking. "Most people only network when they're in between," he says. "It's not a muscle that gets much use. They tend to network with people they know or are forced to work with. Direct contacts are almost forced relationships."

'Survival Technique'

Celistan considers Networking "a survival technique" for people in positions that require them to seek out opportunities and generate revenue. That requirement compels them to hone the skill. John Dnyprowsky, vice president of Sales for Advantage Payroll Services on Long Island, manages five sales representatives marketing payroll and HR solutions to small and mid-sized businesses. He sees a lot of people in networking distress at networking events.

"A lot of these events are being sold out because of the economic climate," he reports, "Those new at it are doing it because of the economy. Many aren't seasoned enough to do it well." However, he does see some who are good at it.

One deterrent to networking is its high cost, but look what Celistan says: "The cost of not networking is more opportunity cost, because you don't know what you missed out on. You learn about more possibilities if you're networking with the right people." Laurance says that people who do network might expect a return of about ten percent: "one out of ten people you meet will be useful." Dnyprowsky mentions that targeting will likely reduce your cost, but remarks that "cost is irrelevant."

Effectiveness

Networking involves much more than making contacts. "In order to get the full benefit of that information from the one person," Laurance comments, "you have to do the complete exercise with the complete networking of the other nine." He advocates "network mining" of the other 90 percent, whose information might be useful down the road.

According to Morten Hansen, author of "Collaboration" (Harvard Business, $29.95), networking effectiveness depends upon working a "diversity of connections" while not getting distracted from other responsibilities. "Diversity" here means combining "weak" (infrequent contact with little-known people) and strong ties to achieve the best results. Hansen considers weak ties "bridges . . . long-tenured people who have worked in different places in the company and who know about a broad range of topics."

Laurance sees opportunity in weak ties, "the people you wouldn't naturally be drawn to, who may have the information you need." Celistan agrees, citing the 25 close ties who will open doors nonetheless. Dnyprowsky doesn't, because current relationships -- close ties -- bring him the most business out of trust. Overall, a full 90 percent of his revenue comes from networking and subsequent relationship-building