When Networking Is a Waste of Time
When you are new in business, you tend to jump on anything that smells like a business opportunity and you tend to think that networking is the way forward to success. When you get more experienced, you get wiser.
You learn that networking efforts too often are a waste of time if you are looking to grow your business. Once you have reached a certain level and people know who you are, I argue, that you can cut down drastically on the time you spend on networking activities.
This is good news because we all know how time consuming networking can be.
There is in particular one kind of networking activity that is not worth the efforts. This is meetings with “brokers” as in someone who are well connected within a given industry or geographical region. You tend to think that if you network with this person then you might be able to tap into his or her network and exploit some business opportunities.
I have tried this so many times. I have initiated lots of such contacts myself and I have been approached by lots of people who think we can make things happen if we connect. In theory, this makes sense, but I just don’t see any value in such meetings. They only rarely lead to real business opportunities.
Some networking activities are a waste of time. However, there are still situations in which I think networking is valuable. This includes:
• Get new insights and inspiration. This is the key reason I still attend some conferences and interact with relevant people.
• Efforts to build my personal brand. Although much of personal brand building – or the brand of your innovation team – is done through social media today, you still need to put a face on your activities and here good, old networking might work.
• The soft sale. I invest quite some time in building relationships with corporate innovation teams. This takes me back to my first point – new insights and inspiration – as such interactions with corporate innovation teams definitely bring me this, but the key reason is that I hope this will bring me some business opportunities in the near or midterm future.
I can also note that I have shifted most of my networking efforts from the real world (meetings are too time-consuming) to the virtual world (e-mail exchanges, social media interactions and in some cases phone talks). Perhaps you can free up some valuable time by doing the same?
You might also be interested in these blog posts on networking and personal brand building:
Introverts and Innovation: Unlocking the Full Potential
Great…But in regards to the effort invested regarding Corporate building and soft selling, sometimes they are not worth the effort as they seem to collect information to apply to internal Corporate development, which is understood. I have discovered over time that many are aware of the good of your service and accept you as their personal needs start showing on the horizon.
Interesting perspective oddly, it is the very same information I try to get employees to apply within their own company. Not all employment growth comes from out side.
If you utilize Stefan’s strategy within your organization first you will be surprised what is available for career growth and secondly how quickly those outside your company hear about your initiative.
I actually find networking in areas that are unlikely to generate business the most productive. Connecting across disciplines provides more opportunities to surface the 'adjacent possible' and while the broker's dance card is full, there are limitless avenues for interdisciplinary exploration that your competitors won't be thinking about.
Hi Jerrold, I like looking a different / new intersections myself as they tend to bring out more interesting outcomes. I think one of the key requirements for successful networking is that you know what you are looking for. It might be that you are "just" looking for something new, but this is still a purpose and then you can look across disciplines as a way to seek this out.