Business Networking and Sex - Ivan Misner [92]
Our study shows that the more time a person spends networking, the more successful they are. Therefore, if the hours a woman can work are limited by her lifestyle, it follows that her potential for results would be limited also. Her only alternative is to find better ways to utilize the time she has, choosing groups that fit her family life. Necessity is the mother of invention, right? Predominately, women in this predicament have chosen groups that meet midday since mornings and evenings are traditionally family social time reserved for attending to kids out of school, household obligations, mealtimes, etc.
Most business professionals spend a lot of time running from one networking event to the next, meeting more new people in hopes that they’ll sell a product or service to someone in the room. This time-sucker becomes frustrating to women when their ambitious intentions position them behind the eight ball, partially because they cannot make it to as many meetings as they feel would be appropriate to fuel their business with. Contrary to this frustration, when women focus on quality over quantity networking they find their double lives as busy moms and business owners can work together and produce positive business results.
THE TORTOISE AND THE HARE
Women take the slower, steady path to networking, stopping along the way to invest time in building their relationships, while men sprint the mad dash straight to getting business fast by skipping some of the developmental, middle steps in networking. At the finish line, men seem to have a quicker return for their time, but it is the women who are winning the race, breaking through the ribbon with deeper, and more fruitful, connections.
Potent networking requires planning. It’s important to stay organized with your time and decide which groups you’ll get involved with and how much time you’ll allow for each of them. Keeping a dedicated calendar to parse time, just like with a financial budget, helps keep time expenditures on track. This kind of organization seems to allow most of us women to manage our options. Women are very adept at juggling calendars with multiple priorities on it.
The next step after budgeting time is to set goals to accomplish in our groups. This requires follow-up time post events, which we also budget for.
The more systems we “install” into our networking credo, the more success we’ll generate with limited time. Most people know vast numbers of other people, but actually spend a lot of their time trying to meet even more new people, thinking ever larger numbers of acquaintances will be good for their careers, but we know now how that is not the most productive use of our time.
Most of us remember the caution from our parents to choose a few things and do them very well, rather than only being a little skilled at many things. Relationships work the same way!
We are far better off concentrating on adding people to our networks systematically, limiting the system to numbers we can manage in a quality way. Allowing us to do what we have always done for our families, remembering birthdays, anniversaries, and other important relational information about our network.
Speaking to quality, people are far better off concentrating on adding people to their networks systematically, limiting the system to numbers they can manage in a quality way. Ask yourself if you can remember the birthdays, family members’ names, hobbies, previous conversations, and life desires of the number of people you currently are socializing with. If the answer is no, it’s time to get more organized, assess your numbers, and step up the quality in your relationships with people already connected to you.
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