LinkedIn, Twitter, Classmates.com, Facebook, Google+. Pinterest… “networking” opportunities are everywhere. Wikipedia lists OVER 200 current “major active social networking websites” excluding online dating sites.
Ironically, with all this “interaction” I still believe that technology is actually making people LESS sociable and destroying our social skills. Seems that particularly the younger generation has forgotten (or never learned) the “art of conversation.”
So when I saw this article on “How *NOT* TO Network” by Whitney Johnson, famed author of “Disrupt Yourself: Putting the Power of Disruptive Innovation to Work” and recognized as one of the world’s fifty most influential management thinkers in 2015, I knew I had to pass this along. Please take a few minutes to read the article in its entirety and share your thoughts with us!
Real relationships, in business as in life, are based on reciprocity. Our real advantages, both concrete and less tangible, are gained through humility, through putting ourselves in one-down relationships with those who know more than we do.
We all need to feel that we belong. A sense of belonging gives us the confidence to climb a new curve. But if we’re too comfortable with our place in the world, it’s easy to believe that the way things are is the only way they should be. We battle this mindset as we open up our network, especially to people who are unlike us, and ask questions, solicit opinions, and entertain new possibilities, rather than focusing inward.