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Article from Central, Hong Kong, December 2001
Happy Networking Holidays!
6 Easy Steps to Building Your Professional Network this season
Networking! Some love it; others hate it; and yet others think it warrants no special attention. Whatever your response to networking may be, there’s a simple truth you will have to acknowledge: in a world short of jobs and long on competition, only the well-networked thrive. Networking is a leg up in your job search, your cutting edge in your workplace, and your safety net in times of trouble. And despite the gloom cast by the ongoing global economic crisis, the irresistible festive cheer of December provides the ideal opportunity for you to mix, mingle with the crowd, and grow your network. What follows is a guide to network very naturally this season.
Central take this opportunity to wish you Happy Networking Holidays!
In the film Six Degrees of Separation, a well-to-do New York family opens their home to a handsome young working class con man just because he claims to be a friend of their children. Although the film itself is concerned with various social issues, the act of opening up a home to a total stranger illustrates a stark truth about networking – the right connections will open doors for you.
The film takes it titles from the theory proven through the research of renowned psychologist Stanley Milgram. His studies revealed that all it takes to get a message across from one person to a target recipient picked at random from across the globe is a network of six significant contacts. It works like this: You pass the message on to a contact knows someone who knows someone else who knows perhaps a relative of someone, who is, say, a very good friend of someone who is plays golf with a person who works very closely with the intended recipient. The secret of making the connection here is to start with the right connection.
Networks get you the best jobs. According to research conducted by outplacement firm Drake, Beam and Morin worldwide over a period of 10 years, networking has consistently proved to be the most effective career transition strategy for senior executives. Results of the DBM study reported in 2000 that 57 per cent of the individuals surveyed secured new positions through networking.
Says Paul Heng, managing director of NeXT Career Consulting and author of Jump Start Your Career: The Essential Guide To Career Management and Job Search. “It’s a proven fact that networking is the most effective way to find jobs, and anything at all in life for that matter whether it be business or corporate life. It is the key to success. It’s very powerful. Say, if I come to you for information as a network, you may give me three names. I will go to them, and each may give me three more names. So the three become nine. If not for networking with one of my past outplacement candidates, my book would not have been published by Prentice Hall.”
Anna Fang, former regional corporate communications manager with Motorola Asia Pacific‘s 15-country operation based in Hong Kong, says every position she has held in the past 10 years was found through networking. These included the post of Public Relations Manager first with Hutchison Telephone and then with Motorola Asia Pacific, and finally as Regional Marketing and Communications Manager with Motorola University Asia Pacific’s regional operation also based in Hong Kong. “The positions were never advertised,” she says.
Your network can also be your support group when launching a new business or shifting careers: Ivy Ning was in IT marketing for ten years when she switched careers and launched a corporate coaching and training business PeoplePlus Training and Consulting. At the beginning, Ning needed to develop a whole new network of contacts. She found, somewhat to her surprise, huge support from people she had got to know through activities connected with her leisure pursuits such as her involvement with politics, voluntary work and public speaking.
Hong Kong-based career coach Angela Spaxman has this to say about the value of networking: “There are so many spin-offs from a network, that it is hard to put a value on it: firstly, there are potential customers, and potential referrals to other people. People get to know me, and then it goes a step further to their contacts. Secondly, there’s general goodwill. People might not know you, but they might they may have heard something second-hand and its positive. Even at a distance, you can build people’s trust. Thirdly, there are contacts and connections that my clients and my potential clients can make within my network that benefit them directly. When my contacts win, I gain from even more goodwill.”
Ivy Ning agrees. “The majority of my business is through referrals. I seldom go out and advertise or anything. It’s mostly by word of mouth,” she says.
Yet, many executives tend to look down on this powerful tool: “Some people feel it is a waste of time and unnatural. I say it is survival in the corporate world of the most networked guy in town. Networking is not a “do-it-when I have the time/need” activity; it needs to be part of your life, a habit. And it needs to go on and on… whether it is business, work, friendship or whatever we do in this wonderful world of ours, everyone revolves around who you know and who knows you,” says Paul Heng.
An outplacement firm, NeXT assists managers find new jobs. Part of their services includes helping executives build their networking skills. “We impart to them why they need to network, how do they sustain and build their network, and I think that’s very, very crucial. In Asia, people have a face issue, especially about asking others for help. To me, networking is not about asking people to help you, but sharing information. So, people need to do away with that mentality – the sooner the better. Some mid-level managers who come to us have forgotten to network because they were too busy. When they are laid off, they find that their contact base is very limited. My advice to them is: henceforth make networking a part of your life,” says Heng.
If you belong to the category of people Heng is referring to, then pause awhile. Networking is as natural as going to work each day. In life, we all network to a certain degree -- when you ask a colleague to recommend a good restaurant, or when you recommend the travel agency that arranged your annual vacation, you are networking. When you smile at the parking lot attendant every day and become so familiar with that person that he lets you drive in on the day you forget to bring your parking card, you are networking. Being social creatures, human beings are natural net-workers. Believe it or not, you are a net-worker, and all you need to do to grow your network is take it a step further.
Bearing this in mind, we talked to a number of people who network regularly to learn from their networking habits. This step-by-step guide draws from their experiences. Like the six degrees separating you from your desired contact, all it takes is six easy steps to build a network in a way that will give you strength and support in the future. Read on.
Step1: Reach out and get in touch
“It’s not easy to network. It doesn’t just happen, unless you are like a magnet, like a glamorous movie star, attracting everyone to you. But how many of us are like that?” asks Heng.
You have to make an effort to get to know people. The place to start building your network is to reach out to your existing contact base -- your family, friends, colleagues, as well as former and present classmates. “Start with everyone you know. When I started coaching, I sent an email to everyone I knew and told them what I was doing and what it was about, and that I was looking for people that are interested in coaching. I just did it that way,” says Angela Spaxman.
Some people confine their networking efforts to this circle. “I network with my university alumni. We meet regularly and keep each other updated on what we do. Because we are all from the same field, we are able to help each other, says Belinda, a marketing executive in the publishing industry, who did not want to be named here.
But limiting your circle of contacts is not advisable. “Those people who do not make an effort to reach out to wider society are missing out on something. Some of the managers who come to us have been so involved in their jobs, the people around them and their customers, they forget about the professional associations and so many other avenues from which they can gain networking contacts. These associations and clubs offer you an opportunity to grow your contact pool, advance your knowledge. Some may provide an avenue for socialising, and when you go away from that formal environment, you really get to know people,” says Heng.
Heng, who is based in Singapore, is President of the Rotary Club of Bugis Junction there. “There are 19 Rotary Clubs in Singapore. My club is six years old, and has a membership of 32. But there are 19 different Rotary Clubs in Singapore, and 1.2 million Rotarians worldwide. As a Rotarian, I can visit any Rotary Club anywhere in the world, where I will be treated as a member. You can just walk in – without an invitation. This is a powerful network. There are so many different organisations you can join – the Lions, for example. Groups like the Rotary Club build fellowship among members and the wider community.”
Spaxman is a member of one of Hong Kong’s 25 Toastmaster Clubs. “Toastmasters is a great way to start networking. It’s a good environment for building up your communication and leadership skills. Members develop their public speaking skills, and you get to know each other because you have to talk about yourself and you get feedback. There are also plenty of opportunities to take on leadership roles within the club. And because members come from a wide range of areas, you gain exposure to a lot of new ideas and fields. It’s also easy to follow through to more Toastmaster clubs in Hong Kong and worldwide and there are hundreds of people you can meet. It definitely helped me a lot because I know a lot of people there, they know me and they have seen me in action,” she says.
Anna Fang is an avid networker. President of the Hong Kong Association of Business and Professional Women (HKABPW) – a chapter of the International Federation of Business and Professional Women (IFBPW), Fang also heads her own business, Anna Fang public relations. Fang was awarded a “golden parachute” when Motorola closed down in its Motorola University regional operations from Hong Kong. Her three-pronged approach to networking is aimed at gaining exposure for BPW, winning business for her company, and getting back into a corporation. “I take networking very seriously. I go to lots of events, such as activities organised by groups such as HKABPW, FCC, HKGCC, IABC, Women in Media, Best Practice Management, and Amcham. I wear many hats, and so for certain people I give my HKABPW card, and to others I give my anna fang public relations card. From my point of view, potential clients for my PR consultancy would be people who attend Amcham events. Like today, I went to an Amcham HR conference – so there were actually a lot of potential clients there, and although the market is down right now, it’s good to get to know who to approach when the time is right. You never know when these contacts might come in handy,” says Fang.
She adds: “Ultimately, I want to get back into working in the corporate world, and so I am targeting certain companies. I have no problem calling them up and asking for an opportunity to present my portfolio. But networking makes it easier: the other day, I was talking to a friend who is active in the American Women’s Association, and she just asked me for a list of services that my new PR consultancy will handle and she would pass it to her husband who is the Director of Corporate Communications for a financial firm.”
Rule 2: Turn strangers into friends
Networking is more than exchanging name cards and making small talk. You have to establish a slightly deeper relationship. “Try to make an impact. Take, for example, the Amcham function I attended today,” says Fang. “I met the vice president of an international television network. I gave him my namecard, but I remembered that he lived in Beijing at the same time that I lived there. I happened to take care of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Beijing as the Public Relations Manager of an international hotel, so I brought that up and, then we got talking and suddenly he went: ‘Oh, you are in public relations and corporate communications’, and a sort of light went on. The way I would follow up on this meeting is to send him a soft copy summary of my resume and with a phone call.”
In the October issue of Central magazine, President of the Hong Kong Institute of Human Resources Management Virginia Choi shared her networking strategy. At every function she attends, Choi tries to get to know five new people well. “You can’t greet everybody, so I make it a point to greet my clients because they are my clients. Then I focus on a few people I have never met before. I go around exchanging name-cards and talking for a few minutes, and if I meet someone I want to know better, I stay longer with them. You can’t be greedy – if you flit around from one person to another, people may think you are a butterfly. Try to mingle with a few people and focus.”
Often, the most supportive of contacts are those you meet on a social basis. Before she went into career and business coaching, Spaxman was in corporate training sales: “I would be making dozens of cold calls and trying to get into companies. It was really, really difficult. Then, sometimes on the weekends, I would go on a junk trip or something like that just for fun and there I would be sipping a beer and eating some chips beside a human resources manager of a company or someone even higher. And then, strictly on a social basis, they would give me business. Those contacts were so much more valuable than cold calling. That’s how I built up a vast database of training contacts -- from making social contact with people who could use the services that I had to offer.”
Business contacts are a by-product of Ivy Ning’s efforts to follow her interests. “I only attend functions if the topic interests me. I have a natural interest in people, and so when I meet people there who share my interests, I become very curious about who they are and what they do. And I try to find out more about them – usually if it is about me, I would tell them what I do and just have a general sharing of information. If I meet someone with whom I can connect with very well, I may perhaps arrange to meet up after work to have a conversation, and that we can share together. I have met a number of business associates who share common interests and we just follow up with each other naturally,” adds Ivy Ning.
Esther Lo, administration manager of the Women Business Owner’s Club, says she finds that when small talk enters a personal level, the person you are talking with tends to remembers you better. “If I meet a new person, or chat with a new member, I ask about them and we make small talk. If, and only if, that person begins to talk about her personal life, then I may follow up and ask about that. I have noticed that people I chat with about their personal life always tend to remember me, even after we have met,” says Lo.
Step 3: Always follow up
Remaining visible to those you have met and keeping people informed about what you do is an essential part of networking. “I believe the most challenging part of networking in regular touch,” says Heng.
Email is a boon for keeping people connected. “In my opinion, the most wonderful invention of the 20th Century was the Internet and e-mail. If not these, I would not be able to keep in touch with the hundreds of people I know around the world,” says Heng.
Financial Analyst Peter Cohan keeps in touch with his global network of contacts daily by sending out commentaries on current issues or investment tips to everyone on his mailing list. The information he sends is often welcomed by recipients such as this writer because it is current. Furthermore, if the information is useful, this writer passes it on to others, thereby increasing Cohan’s visibility.
Both Ivy Ning and Angela Spaxman use email widely to keep in touch with their contacts. “You have to follow up. Usually what I do is send an email after a couple of days saying ‘it was nice to meet you, I notice you are interested in coaching and I’d like to add you to my distribution list. It is important to make sure it is a benefit to them,” says Spaxman.
‘If you plan to continue to email constantly, then give recipients a way to opt out. Let them know that if they don’t want to be included on the mailing list, they can ask to be taken off the list. Make it easy for them, and so they don’t feel guilty or anything. That way, you don’t have to exclude anyone – you don’t have to decide dor them if they interested or not. Let them decide whether they want to hear from you,’ she adds.
Meanwhile, there is nothing like meeting up face to face. “When I meet a potential client, I always invite them out to lunch. With Asians, this is a must. So I invite them out to lunch. With Westerners, its drinks,” says Anna Fang.
Step 4: Nurture your network
Networking is not a one-way street. “You cannot just use your contacts and then forget about them, because one day you may need their help. Networking is about giving and taking. ‘Two common networking mistakes that most managers make is taking but not giving, and calling or getting in touch only when you need help. One golden rule for networking success is to give as well as receive. You must let your network ‘ride on you’ as well as you ride on them. Not every network conversation needs to be to your advantage, or to address another one of your needs. So offer to help,’ says Paul Heng.
Heng says he makes it a point to value add to the business his contacts are in. “If I see something useful in the papers or a magazine, I scan it and send it along to my contact, with a “hello, how are you doing?” email. People appreciate small gestures like this,” he says.
“One of the best ways to network is to give something away for free. It doesn’t have to be something that’s difficult to do. Make it easy for yourself. For example, I run hiking trips on Sundays because I want to do it, anyway. And it’s a benefit for me because I need people to go hiking with, and it’s a benefit to the people I am networking with because it is an opportunity to go hiking which they will not do otherwise,” says Spaxman.
Ivy Ning oftens conducts free seminars and workshops on topics related to self-development. She invites those on her mailing list to attend. A recent series of workshops entitled “In Search of Wisdom” that she organised, drew about 30 participants from both the local and expatriate professional communities. These events also help people to network with each other.
Ning also shares information about her industry with her professional contacts. “If I meet them, I will share new information I have learned about the training industry. I not hard selling, but just sharing information,” says Ning.
Step 5: Use your network
If you want help from your contacts, you have to ask for it. In Asia, there’s a stigma attached to asking stranger for help, says Heng. He advises us to discard this misconception.
“It is best to let people know your intentions. Just be open about what you want. In this way you can get inside information on areas of interest to you. If your intention is just to build a network of business contacts – say to help you with your work, tell them what you want to do, and ask for their help. For example, if you are looking for information on a specific field, you could send everyone an email saying ‘I am looking for people who can tell me a bit more about such and such an industry,” says Spaxman.
Most people react when you reach out for help. I think asking for help is a very attractive thing to do, she adds.
Meanwhile, there is nothing like meeting up face to face. “When I meet a potential client, I always invite them out to lunch. With Asians, this is a must. So I invite them out to lunch,” says Anna.
“With Westerners, its drinks,” says Ivy Ning.
“If you don’t ask, you won’t receive,” says Heng, adding that the worst thing that could happen to someone who asks, is refusal.
The free workshops that Ivy Ning organises also serve to showcase the services that she provides. “There are many cost-effective ways to present yourself creatively – you can do it free of charge, or minimum charge, then people return to you. I occasionally go to Rotary Clubs to give free talks on subjects such as Conflict Resolution – practical solutions for work, for example. Then people say, ‘Oh, she’s not just a trainer, but she can help our problems.’ People then see how I can help them, rather than think about ways they can help me. They may see that what I am offering is something they could use. So I always see these activities from a service point of view: letting people know how you can help them, rather than trying to find out how they can help you.”
Step 6: Become a networking natural
As with anything else, networking becomes easier with practice.
Hong Kong is a small place and once you start moving around, you begin to bump into the same people over and over again. They start to recognise you and if you get talking with them, you find you have more and more in common. If it was six degrees of separation in the US, I would say it is two degrees of separation in Hong Kong. If you close up yourself and you have only a few friends, how will people know you? says Ivy Ning.
It’s really important to build networks for whatever reason – be it work, friendship or anything else. Your networks can extend to other countries.
Milliner’s studies on networking were conducted in 1967. Since then, technology has brought the people even closer in Cyberspace. Today, your connections can grow with just a mouse-click away. Today it will probably take less than six connections to reach your desired goal.
So go out there and mix and mingle with the crowd. Indulge yourself, this season. Reach out and connect.
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