Graces and Protocol of Networking Learning

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Scenes like this were a frequent occurrence when I lived in Dubai.  I'm an extravert by nature, and I love meeting people, socializing and talking with them.  But you can be an introvert as well, and find networking a meaningful, productive event, that is, if you are interested and willing and if it can truly serve your purpose. One of my purpose was simply to learn.

I detest the practice by some colleagues, or some organizers, of exchanging as many business cards as possible.  They've even made a contest of it, and maybe it works perfectly for them.  But I prefer to have a conversation, instead.  If I leave such an event with a handful of business cards, from people I actually took the time to talk to, then that's been a successful effort.  I've been accused by some friends of spending too much time talking to one person, and truth be told there have been occasions when a colleague, new or otherwise, and I found ourselves engrossed in whatever we were talking about.

But a conversation doesn't need to take a long time: It simply has to be grounded on the ask-listen-talk algorithm I wrote about in the preceding article.  I've encountered some people who were so keen to flit around the networking hall that their eyes shifted away from me.  They barely asked, and their talk was self-centered.  More than two or three times of that, and it's "Thank you, good to meet you, see you later."   

So pay attention, and keep good eye contact.

By saying hello to people, then asking, listening and talking, I was invited to (a) give a talk on social media by two different colleagues, (b) meet with another colleague and her senior management about leadership assessment, and (c) have coffee with yet two other colleagues to talk about their international work.  All of these, in recent months of networking.  I learned what they were doing, what they were thinking about, and what they were needing, and we took it from there.