Networking for introverts
You can't tell yourself not to care
“Networking” brings all kinds of images to mind for me, such as swapping business cards, standing in awkward circles with some kind of beverage, or introducing myself to the stranger standing next to me at a conference. None of those are happy images for me, but my network has been critical to most (all?) of my career moves.
For me, effective networking includes both meeting new people and maintaining connections over time. Meeting new people is all about knowing what I’m going to talk about with the person. It’s uncomfortable for me to say hello to people I don’t know (sorry if that’s come across as rude), but once I know that they also grew up in Iowa, or like board games or rock climbing, or, heck, like talking about people analytics, I’m much more likely to say, “Hi, what part of Iowa did you live in?” and take the conversation from there. The key is that I have to be genuine — I don’t do well pretending to be interested in a topic.
This can work virtually as well. Some of my very first contacts in the people analytics community were people who posted about people analytics, which gave me the courage to reach out and ask if they could tell me more about what they did. Since I was legitimately curious, this also felt genuine and natural, and not like “networking.”
Along the same lines, I’ll be playing a game of Twilight Imperium this weekend with seven strangers. How did I meet them? I reached out online looking for people also interested in something I was interested in. For me that’s always been the key — be genuinely interested, and the connections come much more naturally than when I’ve tried to force it.