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Professional Development for Career Practitioners

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Networking – Ewwww…

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EWW

Why does the word “networking” conjure up such negative thoughts for people? Many of my clients and the students I have worked with seem to believe it is only for “professionals” dressed in suits, playing golf, and smoking cigars. That image is not MY image of networking. So I asked myself, “What do I need to do to help explain networking to my clients?”

I searched LinkedIn for articles on networking and I found 214,500+ articles and the majority are focused on “What NOT to do”. Whew! Where to start? So I decided to post a discussion in the NCDA LinkedIn group and to email some key people in my network. I picked up many great ideas as well as confirmation on a number of my thoughts on this topic.

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Developing Your Network One Drip – One Drop at a Time.

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Career development is all personal. People do not hire resumes. People do not connect with texts or emails. It’s always been, and probably always will be, human contact that matters. Paper and electronic communication should be tools to create human contact or to maintain relationships.

Notice I did not say that evil word, networking. Not sure why but the word networking causes anxiety with some people. Maybe it is too stuffy or old school. Regardless of why it doesn’t resonate with many people, I have begun calling it “relationship building”.

Think of relationship building as the drip on your faucet. You can fill a sink with a dripping faucet but it will take awhile. Relationship building does not happen by “turning on the faucet”.  The friends you have today did not happen because you walked up to a perfect stranger and HUGGED them 🙂 Oh my…that is a visual, isn’t it? I can only imagine my hockey buddy Pete running away from me the first time we meet and I hug him. [Read more…] about Developing Your Network One Drip – One Drop at a Time.