Shortlist: 6 tips for networking success

Billy Dexter and Melissa Wilson, authors of Making Your Net Work: Mastering the Art and Science of Career and Business Networking, provide six tips for developing meaningful business connections.

1. Network down as well as up.

Networking down is about being the mentor. All people are worth the time it takes to let them know they’re important and to provide them with guidance as to how to grow successfully.

2. Treat each person you meet with uncompromising respect.

Great networkers are zealots of respect and integrity. They care about creating relationships of honour.

3. Suspend judgement when you meet someone new.

Make it a rule to give each person the opportunity to move toward the possibility of a partnership.

4. Be creative when thinking of people to contact.

Start with people who really like you and brainstorm with them. Get them to give you a few names of people they really like but who, for one reason or another, you have never met.

5. Connect the unconnected.

Research on human networks shows us that the real secret to creating a diverse, continuous, and ever-growing flow of new business or career opportunities is to look for people who have yet to be connected.

John may be looking for information about Company B and for an introduction to someone who works there. You know Susan, in Company B's events department, who John has yet to meet. By linking the two together you create value for John and very likely Susan, who can benefit from knowing someone who may very well become a new team member at her organisation.

6. Help people feel wanted.

Recognise that most people want attention. Search for the uniqueness in others. Help them to feel significant.

Do this by finding just one or two things about what they have said that you find most beneficial to you. Disclose your thoughts in a blog post or in person, or mention them on Twitter.