Introduction

The Eight Must-Have Skills for Strategic Connections

NETWORKING IS recognized as a professional competency you need no matter where you work, what your job title, or what your level. As the Network-Oriented Workplace emerges, you will be called on to use the power of your networks in a new way—to influence and impact the growth and success of your organization.

Strategic Connections helps you answer questions like, “What does this mean about the way I approach my job? How does this change the way I build relationships and collaborate in the workplace?” Have you heard the call for collaboration in your organization? If you haven’t yet, it’s sure to come in the not-too-distant future.

“Interpersonal skills of collaboration” was ranked number 1 by 75 percent of the 1700 CEOs queried in IBM’s 2012 Global CEO Study. Their 2013 study reiterates the importance of collaboration.

What does this growing focus on collaboration mean for you? What do you need to start doing, stop doing, or do better?

Strategic Connections gives you the answers—the skills and concepts you need for personal career success in the new collaborative workplace.

What’s the Back Story?

What has caused organizations to recognize the value of your networks? Old ideas about how the business world operates are giving way to new ways of working.

The proliferation of the technologies for communicating has resulted in “power to the people” and is largely responsible for ending the command-and-control mentality of organizations. Replacing that old military model are openness and transparency. In today’s complex and hyperconnected environment, your interpersonal skills of collaboration become the foundation of organizational success. Instead of focusing on running their organizations, CEOs must now focus on letting their organizations run. And the way organizations run, it turns out, isn’t depicted by the organization chart.

“Although in the past, network performance behaviors have been seen as admirable but not required for employees—and leaders—they are becoming essential to success, as they reflect how work gets done in the new work environment,” says a 2013 Corporate Executive Board publication, “The Rise of the Network Leader.”

What are these “network performance behaviors” that have become so essential? The 8 Competencies for the Network-Oriented Workplace include everything you need to know to establish the trusting relationships necessary for collaboration. The 8 Competencies are the “interpersonal skills of collaboration” CEOs want. These skills are anchored in trust and activated through what’s traditionally been called networking. The value of these face-to-face relationship-building skills has never been higher. They are one of the essential professional skill sets for the 21st century.

To take collaboration off the CEOs wish list and make it “the way we do things around here,” you need a thorough understanding of a new kind of networking. That’s what you’ll get from Strategic Connections.

You’ll soon be—if you haven’t already been—(in the words of that IBM Study) “encouraged and empowered to develop a diverse and extensive network of contacts.”

Of course, if you know anybody at work or in the world, you already have networks. Until recently, network building has happened without much encouragement from organizations. In fact, often organizations have policies and procedures that discourage networking. Calling for collaboration without addressing these barriers is counterproductive. It will take companies a while to synchronize the systems and develop a support structure for the Network-Oriented Workplace. There are a lot of things companies need to do to make it easier for your networks to flourish. Our ideas on this topic appear in Chapter 9.

But all the barriers aren’t out there in the organization. Contacts Count’s research indicates that only 20 percent of employees are networking at anywhere near their potential. If you are one of these “natural networkers,” you are good at building relationships and believe in the value of networking. The remaining 80 percent of employees have beliefs that keep them from being the best they could be. If you’re in this group, you need not only the skills embodied in The 8 Competencies, but also a new mindset. Asking you to collaborate without giving you the tools is, again, counterproductive. In the new work environment, everyone will need to develop networking capabilities. Even the 20 percent who are the best at networking have a lot to learn.

Why Put Face to Face Out Front?

In recent years, most organizations have invested heavily in people-connecting technologies. Thanks to technology, your ability to connect is a given. You can reach out to anyone with the tap of a finger. You reap the benefits of instant 24/7 access and vast stores of online information at your fingertips. But, what’s just as important is your ability to forge face-to-face relationships both inside and outside your organization.

Our advice: Take a blended approach. Although this book teaches the skills of face-to-face networking, these same skills will enhance your ability to build relationships electronically. Electronic and face-to-face modes can do more than coexist: You have unprecedented opportunities to incorporate technology into your close contact networking for maximum effectiveness. When you reach out via technology, the use of these trust-building tools and techniques takes you beyond connection to relationship.

Make judicious use of all the technologies for connecting—but also realize their limitations. Having the ability to access fellow employees’ profiles on LinkedIn, for example, is useful, but having a list of someone’s interests and expertise is not the same as having a relationship.

“People with extensive face-to-face networks are roughly twice as productive as people who keep to themselves or only communicate over email,” says Ben Waber. He’s CEO of Sociometric Solutions, a management consulting firm that uses sensor ID badges to measure workplace interaction. He’s also a senior researcher at Harvard Business School and a visiting scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab. “Face-to-face interaction accounts for nearly all boosts in job satisfaction, while email communication has no effect,” he also points out in “Forget the Office: Let Employees Work from Home,” on BusinessWeek.com. Both productivity and job satisfaction are powerful reasons to choose face-to-face networking when you can. That’s the way to build trusting relationships faster and more easily. That’s what will pay off for you (and for your organization).

What Are the Benefits?

Your advanced networking skills will open up opportunities for you to:

   Make sure your talents and expertise get used and your ideas get heard.

   Impact the big issues your organization is grappling with.

   Feel more energized, satisfied, and engaged.

   Advance your career.

As your networking expertise expands, you can influence your organization’s evolution into a Network-Oriented Workplace. You’ll be able to accomplish not only your organization’s initiatives, but also your own career goals. It’s obvious that as your organization prospers, so do you. Networking used to be seen as a “soft skill.” As you learn how to align your networking to the big goals of your organization, these skills become not just “nice to have,” but “must-haves.”

Look at these brief overviews of The 8 Competencies. You’ll get an idea of the scope of these skills and what you can do with them.

COMPETENCY #1: COMMIT TO A NEW NETWORKER IDENTITY

Taking on the role of a strategic networker may be easy for you or it may be a huge change. As you become comfortable with that role, you will:

   Rid yourself of any misconceptions and outdated ideas about networking.

   Believe that networking is valuable and that you can learn to do it.

   Analyze your attitudes towards networking and recognize any reluctance that might hold you back. Take charge of managing your mindset.

   Learn techniques to make networking less stressful.

COMPETENCY #2: TAKE A STRATEGIC APPROACH

Goal setting, planning, and evaluating help you avoid the haphazard, scattershot, passive networking that wastes time. As you set goals, you will:

   Create the networking road maps for success.

   Construct Agendas that make even random, hallway conversations valuable.

   Choose the right networking groups to join and know exactly how to make the most of them.

   Put together comprehensive networking projects.

COMPETENCY #3: ENVISION YOUR IDEAL NETWORK

Having a clear picture of your networks—your WorkNet, OrgNet, ProNet, and LifeNet—means that you can spot both opportunities and deficiencies. As you clarify your mental image of your Four Nets, you will:

   Strengthen them, fill in the holes, and learn how to leverage contacts.

   Experience the power of pulling together a KeyNet to help you accomplish a specific project.

   Know how to enrich, rev up/start, and repair relationships.

   Build high-functioning and balanced networks that are even more valuable to your success and well-being.

COMPETENCY #4: DEVELOP TRUSTING RELATIONSHIPS

Trust is all-important, in networking as in life. When you know how to establish trust, you will be able to collaborate in more meaningful ways. You will:

   See how relationships intensify through six Stages of Trust.

   Know how to teach people about your Character and Competence—the two building blocks of trust.

   Understand the criteria for determining what Stage of Trust you’ve reached with any contact.

   Be able to plan the next steps to help that relationships evolve.

COMPETENCY #5: INCREASE YOUR SOCIAL ACUMEN

You can feel more comfortable, competent, and professional in all kinds of networking situations. You will:

   Have tried-and-true methods for remembering names, teaching your name, and joining groups.

   End conversations graciously and professionally.

   Boost your likeability, so others will seek you out and want to include you in their networks or participate in yours.

   Avoid awkward moments.

COMPETENCY #6: DEEPEN INTERACTIONS

Conversation isn’t something you learned in school. You will:

   Ask questions and explore “iceberg statements” to find out about your contacts’ expertise, as well as their Character and Competence, so that relationships can move forward.

   Discover how to listen for the right things.

   Look for “the Give” to position yourself as a “go-to person.”

   Use a variety of techniques for following up to maintain and intensify relationships over time, so they become even more valuable.

COMPETENCY #7: COMMUNICATE EXPERTISE

Telling stories builds relationships. You can showcase your expertise… without bragging. You will:

   Answer “What do you do?” in a way that begins to establish your Character and Competence, directs the conversation to topics you care about, and makes you visible and memorable.

   Find the stories that best teach your contacts about your organization’s, your team’s, or your own expertise, experience, and interests.

   Craft stories that stick in people’s minds and make you stand out so that opportunities find you.

COMPETENCY #8: CREATE NEW VALUE

Using networking skills, you can increase your contribution to and impact on your organization. You will:

   Have a new understanding of collaboration.

   Reframe networking.

   Risk reaching out.

   Boost your BringBack.

   Reinforce the collaborative culture.

   Put the tools of networking to work to benefit your organization as well as yourself.

How to Use This Book

Dog-ear the pages, highlight it, mark it up, write in the margins, use sticky notes and tabs. Talk about the ideas with your colleagues. Argue with us. Jot down your own examples and make note of your own experiences.

Work through it. Have paper and pen handy—or your laptop or tablet. Take these skills off the pages and make them your own. Draft several answers to that inevitable question, “What do you do?” Yes, you’ll have multiple answers—not just one—so you can relate to the various individuals you meet. Your answers won’t just recite the information on your business card. They’ll provide bridges to topics you want to talk about and begin to teach your conversation partner what to come to you for. Work on your stories—most need a lot of editing—so they make your point without losing your listener in a morass of extraneous details.

Start anywhere. Although there’s a logic to the order of The 8 Competencies, you can open this book to any page and learn a specific skill or grab a new idea about how to use your networks. You can customize what you learn and how you learn to serve your own needs at the moment. Of course, all the skills are important and useful. As you take all of them in, you’ll be able to accomplish more with your networks.