You've Got Contacts
By Mitch Thrower
A few weeks ago, I found myself in front of a classroom of MBA students at UCLA’s Anderson Business School giving a presentation titled “You’ve got Contacts – Secrets to Powerful Networking.” A few themes from my lecture:
1. Be trustworthy - the key word here is “worthy” because it takes actions and activities to gain or loose the trust of others. Maintain trust by being honest, straightforward and in constant contact with the people who are important to you. Trust has a half life of 12 days.
2. Listen - People don’t listen to others, so when you do, the impact will be tremendous.
3. Connect the dots - Help people get what they want and they will help you get what you want. If you come across something that will help someone you know or a person who can help them, make the introduction.
4. Avoid hidden agendas - Ask people what their goals are in business and personal situations. Ask yourself, what is your agenda with the people you are interacting with – then, whenever you can, tell them.
We can not avoid stumbling a bit through this ultra-connected world, but we need network proactively. The daily juggle of texts, conversations, thoughts, e-mails, phone calls and other people is part coordination, part circus act. How wonderful it would be if our mobile phone providers would send us analytical cell phone bills that provided call detail of who we talked to and for how long in a simple pie or bar chart. If we could see the patterns of our interactive behavior, would we change? During my lecture, I asked the students to take a visual scroll thru their last forty phone calls and think for a minute…I asked them, is that really who you wanted to talk to?
Mitch Thrower is an author, financier, triathlete, entrepreneur and philanthropist living in La Jolla, California and New York City, he can be reached at [email protected]
Blog back: Is there anyone you want to delete from your phone? How much of your daily communication is a mere distraction from achieving your career and personal dreams?