Networking: Now A Survival Skill and a True Core Competency

Recently, (I confess — I don’t remember the source) I read an article about how to find a job in this tough economic climate.  The author argued strongly that this is the time to get out there and network — as often as you can, as much as you can, as consistently as you can.  One key point was this — once you find your job, you can’t quit networking.  Because no job feels very safe or permanent these days. Thus, if you have to ramp up your networking the next time you lose your “new” job, it is already too late.

I hear from people everywhere that networking events are setting attendance records.  At our own event, the First Friday Book Synopsis, which is a great networking + content event, this is certainly true.

Why is this so important?  Because most people do not find jobs through their good friends — they find jobs through their “casual acquaintances.”  And the more of those you have, the better off you will be in your job search.  And the more networking you do, the more “casual acquaintances” you will have.

In the good and truly useful book, Never Eat Alone, Keith Ferrazzi quotes Margaret Wheatley:  “Relationships are all there is.  Everything in the universe only exists because it is in relationship to everything else.  Nothing exists in isolation.  We have to stop pretending we are individuals that can go it alone.”  The book is worth reading for its wisdom, its sugestions, and its inspiration from his “networking hall of fame” profiles interspersed throughout the book.  Here is one piece of advice he gives:  never keep score.  Help all the people you can, and you will find such help coming back to you… (You can purchase my synopsis of the book, audio + handout, here).

We have some great networkers who attend our event.  I always think of Jim Young, who I am fully convinced knows more people in more places than any human being could possibly know — he must have Jim Young clones out there reporting to him!  And I am learning that Bob Morris, our blogging colleague, may be a close second.  He is a master at developing relationships through e-mail with people, especially authors.

Yes, networking skill is a survival skill, and a new core competency, in this business and economic climate.

What about you?  Are you connected — to as many people as possible?  With apologies to John Wesley, maybe we should adopt this for a personal networking philosophy:  “Do all the networking you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, with all the people you can, as long as ever you can.”

Q #120: Who is Ernest Becker and what is his relevance to today’s business world?

In this series, Bob Morris poses a key question and then responds to it with material from one or more of the business books he has reviewed for Amazon and Borders.

Ernest Becker (1924-1974) was a cultural anthropologist and interdisciplinary scientific thinker and writer. He is probably most famous for one of his nine books, Denial of Death, published in 1973 and awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1974 (for general non-fiction) two months after his own death from cancer at the age of 49. During the past 20+ years, I have met only three people who have read all or portions of Denial of Death. So, what is Becker’s relevance to today’s business world?

His relevance is explained by what I consider to be his most important insight. Briefly explained, Becker acknowledges that no one can deny physical death but there is another form of death than can be denied: That which occurs when we become wholly preoccupied with fulfilling others’ expectations of us. Presumably Becker had a strong sense of his own mortality while writing Denial of Death. He fully understood the importance of meeting one’s obligations to others. In other books as well as articles, he discusses human duality in terms of man’s simultaneous awareness of both physical existence and symbolic significance. So what? Actually, in my opinion, a great deal. These three questions raise issues that many (if not most) of us in the business world contend with each day:

1. What is the value to me of what I do? Hundreds of major research studies involving millions of people throughout the world confirm that feeling appreciated and believing in the value of the work they do are among the needs that are most important to them. At work and in our personal lives, we need to feel we feel (and be made to feel by otgers) that we are appreciated and have value.

2. How can I meet all of my obligations at work and in my personal life? This question raises balance issues. Experts on this subject point out that some obligations are more important each day than are others and thus require more attention. Relative importance can change, sometimes suddenly as when there is a crisis. The best advice suggests trying to balance only what is most important at work and at home and focus on those obligations of greatest importance to both.

3. When meeting those obligations to others, am I also meeting obligations to myself? If not, then we are demonstrating what Henry David Thoreau describes in Walden (1854): “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.”

Comments, questions, requests, or suggestions? Please share them. They will be most welcome and I thank you for them. Best regards, Bob