I spend a lot of my professional time giving out advice about networking. I
frequently talk to experienced lawyers about using networking as a business
development tool. Every day, I coach lawyers about using networking to uncover
hidden job opportunities and interim assignments. I write articles giving
practical tips to lawyers and other professionals who want to improve their
networking skills.
But I also continue to be a student of the subject. In my view, it is easy to
learn the basics about networking; but networking is a subtle and difficult
skill to master.
While my networking skills have grown considerably over time (like most of the
readers of this publication, I knew little or nothing about networking when I
finished law school), there is still one tenet of good networking that continues
to challenge me: finding ways to keep networking reciprocal.
In "Networking 101," you learn that it is important to find ways to help the
individuals who take the time to meet with you. Networking is not supposed to be
a one-way flow of help from the networkee (who has contacts, leads and
information) to you, the networker. Networking should be a symbiotic activity.
While this may sound simple in theory, in practical terms finding ways to be
helpful to someone you hardly know is a challenge. This is particularly true if
you happen to be in a job search. After all, you are the one who needs a job.
Presumably, the people on your networking list already have jobs. You are
contacting them because you want to learn more about their job, their firm,
their company or their industry. You also want to know if they have any other
contacts for you.
But if you really work at it, you can usually find some way to reciprocate —
even when you feel that you are the one in need. By taking some initiative
before, during and after a networking meeting, you can usually identify
something of interest to the contact and use that knowledge to be "helpful."
Come Prepared, Be A Great Listener, Ask Probing Questions
Preparation is an essential part of uncovering ways to reciprocate. Before
meeting a contact, find out whatever you can about the person. Where did they go
to school? Where else have they worked? Learn what you can about their company.
Have they had any major press releases in the past six months?
If the company is public, you should be able to get a lot of information off of
the Internet. But many private companies also provide ample information on
company websites.
Check major national, regional and local periodicals to see if there has been
any information about the company or individual in the past year. In addition to
"Googling" the person and their firm, you might benefit from a trip to your
local library. Not everything is online.
If you were given the name of the contact by someone else, find out what they
know about the person (accomplishments, personal interests, personality, family
status, age, where they live, where they grew up, etc.) and how they know them.
Once you are at a networking meeting, you want to demonstrate great listening
skills. Come with the mindset that you intend to be helpful to the individual
(i.e., in addition to coming to the meeting hoping to receive some help.) This
will greatly color the questions that you ask.
Ask a lot of open-ended questions about their work, their achievements, their
company and what they would like to improve at their firm. Find out if there is
anything they are doing to further their own professional development. Ask them
directly how you can be of help to them.
If you feel comfortable, ask them about their family. Do they have kids? How old
are they and what are their children interested in? What does their spouse do?
If you meet in their office, look around for signs of any hobbies they may have.
Ask them if they really skied the beautiful mountain in the photograph on the
wall. Talk about sports or golf if these subjects are of interest to you.
Inquire about any volunteer work they might do or non-profit causes that are
important to them.
If the focus of your meeting is gathering information about the other
individual, you are bound to identify something you can do for them. While it is
impossible to script this out beforehand, below are some examples to get you
thinking about the kinds of things that you can do for the other person.
10 Ways To Reciprocate.
What you end up doing for the other individual depends almost entirely on what
comes up during your meeting. "Helpful" is in the eyes of the recipient and no
checklist can help you determine in advance what might be considered helpful to
a particular individual.
Nonetheless, it is useful to think of general categories of "helping" as you
probe for ideas. The following list is only intended to stimulate your own
creativity. You will have to decide what is appropriate.
1. Buy them lunch. Commentary: Nowadays, it is harder to get someone out of
his office for lunch. But if you do manage to set up a lunch meeting, make sure
to grab the check when it comes. Even if you are unemployed and worrying about
money, offering to pay is the proper etiquette and an easy way to immediately
reciprocate for the individual's time.
2. Flatter them. Commentary: While this may seem like a superficial way to
"help" an individual, the truth is that most of us like to be appreciated. As
long as the appreciation is sincere, flattery is actually a mild form of
"helping" another professional.
3. Send them an article. Commentary: If you listen carefully to the contact
and find out what you can about their professional, volunteer and personal
interests, you will increase the likelihood that you will identify an article
you can send them after the meeting. This, of course, requires that you be an
avid reader of professional and trade journals and general interest periodicals.
Online content has made forwarding articles easier in some instances (as long as
you have the individual's e-mail address).
4. Introduce them to a service provider that you have used. Commentary: The
service provider can be a personal service provider (e.g., a great carpenter or
plumber) or a professional service provider (e.g., a therapist they can refer
their difficult client to).
5. Offer to be helpful to their family or subordinates. Commentary: If you
are much younger than the contact, it may be hard to find some way to be helpful
to the person directly. But maybe you can be helpful to their children or their
associates. Is their son applying to your undergraduate college? Maybe the son
would like to speak with you. Does the contact have an employee who needs help
with time management (something you are good at)? Offer to meet their employee.
6. Provide health information. Commentary: While this is a more sensitive
area of inquiry, if the contact mentions a health problem he is dealing with and
you have a lot of experience with this health problem, offer to be a resource.
For example, if the contact has back problems and you have tried a lot of
alternative remedies, offer to share your experience.
7. Demonstrate genuine interest in getting involved in a non-profit cause of
theirs. Commentary: Are you interested in a non-profit cause that is of
interest to the contact? Ask if there is any way you can support the cause
through volunteer activity.
8. Teach them something about technology. Commentary: If you entered the
workforce after 1985 and the other individual is on the other side of the
digital divide, maybe you can help them to understand something about the
Internet, e-mail or computers in general.
9. Introduce them to someone who could be a source of business for them.
Commentary: Find out if there are any categories of individuals that they are
trying to meet. Perhaps you have a friend or relative who can be a business lead
for them.
10. Answer a question they have or offer to get the answer for them.
Commentary: If the individual is not an attorney, you may be able to answer a
legal question they have (or get the answer from one of your colleagues). While
you have to be careful about your ethical responsibilities as a lawyer (as well
as any policies that your firm may have in place about this), providing free
legal advice is a great way to reciprocate and build good will.
Networking is a subtle art because it is all about relationship building. In
some cases, it is not possible to build a relationship because the other
individual is not interested. But if you keep the word "reciprocal" in the
forefront of your mind, you will begin to discover that there are more ways for
you to be helpful than you realized.
The key is to keep asking probing questions and show a sincere interest in the
other individual. If you do, your networks will become stronger and you will not
have to work as hard to build them.
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