Advance

CHAPTER 11NETWORKING WITHIN:Find Your Champion

Extroverts think they’re pros at it. Introverts dread it. Most people end up somewhere in the middle. “It” is networking. Some people think it’s as easy as working a room and chatting up everyone they see. They’ll dive into a networking event like a hungry seal in a school of fish. Or they approach it like a 1950s door-to-door salesman trying to sell vacuum cleaners to everyone he meets. This is not networking; it’s stalking.

The fact is, networking mystifies people—and the reason, I’ve decided, is that they dread it so much. People feel awkward asking for help, and the idea of reaching out to someone has all the appeal of cold-calling to sell those handy slice-and-dice-it knives you see on late-night infomercials. This raises an even bigger point: networking poorly is worse than not networking at all.

NETWORKING POORLY IS WORSE THAN NOT NETWORKING AT ALL.

You have to know how to do it—and not just to get your next job. Networking is also crucial for advancing in your current job. Within your company, you’re looking to connect with people who can open doors and teach you how things get done in the organization. Every organization has an informal network of “influencers” (see Chapter Six, “Building Political Capital”) who work largely behind the scenes. These are the people you definitely need in your internal network.

Just ...