Amsterdam, 12th July 2008
Networking is one of those activities you really need to start as early as possible. It is also something you need to engage in consciously, knowing WHY you do it – as I discussed in my E.Factor blog titled: "Why Networking" a few weeks ago.
This time I’d like to raise the question whether you really have a network, or whether you merely think you have one.
I have noticed over many years that in particular directors of large companies, have a network based primarily on their role. Quite often, they boast about the fact that they have such a mega-network, friends and contacts all over the globe. The big question is of course, have they made these contacts because they are director or board member of Shell, Bank of America or News Corp, or are these REAL connections they have made and which will last. When you listen to interviews and have personal conversations with these individuals after retirement or worse, when they are fired – it turns out that a large percentage of these contacts are company-bound, rather then a true personal contact. Being a board member is a dangerous profession – you only have to read the papers to realise that, especially being a board member of a large financial institution these days. Once the board member, or director, leaves the organisation, he or she may find that getting invitations for golf days or concerts and other events is quite a bit harder then it used to be, and I have had several contacts that indeed got quite lonely as they had never spent the time to build a personal network, merely mistaking their address book full of business contacts, for personal ones.
Albeit on a much less serious scale, I encountered this myself on selling one of my companies. On the evening of the transaction, and when the announcement had been made about the changes in directorships and management team – I noticed that almost all involved immediately turned their attention to the new Board. My "importance" and "popularity" had been purely due to my role in the organisation rather then my person. The same is true with many suppliers and customers. Investing in relationships is an absolute necessity. If you manage to generate and maintain 100 close, personal relations (see also our catergorisation in the book "The N Factor") then that is truly a major achievement. Particularly when things are going well for you, it will be hard to answer the question of whether a network exists around your person or your title or power, truthfully. But those that do, and are honest in their self-appraisal, will be the better and richer for it in the long term.
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