Networking for Dummies: 4 Habits Your Contacts Hate

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Networking not working? Here are four common networking sins, and suggestions for mending your ways before another valuable connection is lost. I attend a lot of networking events--so many that I can now spot a disingenuous, disinterested, unsuccessful networker from across the room. And I'm not alone in my avoidance of those people. Here are four common networking mistakes, and strategies for making more meaningful connections moving forward. To read the rest of this post, which just went live on Inc.com, click here: Networking for Dummies: 4 Habits Your Contacts Hate.

Change Leadership Challenge 4: Meaningful Employee Participation

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This is the fourth in a series of posts about change leadership. Previous posts covered active, committed leadership, building a compelling business case, and embedding change. Remember when you first learned to ride a two-wheeled bike? It took some work to find your balance. You wiped out a few times and scraped some knees. But you did it: You figured out how to steer, brake and fly like the wind down a hill. When you did, you felt exhilarated, proud of yourself and pleased with your accomplishment. Now compare that experience with how change often works in organizations...

Three Things HR Should Not Do

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Strategic HR is a mindset and a philosophy. But it also depends on action. I spoke with several HR leaders to get their advice on how to move HR departments in a strategic direction. They have three powerful recommendations for what HR should not do.

To read what they had to say, check out 3 Things HR Should Stop Doing Today, which just went live on the American Management Association Playbook.

Change Leadership Challenge 3: Embedding Change

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This is the third in a series of posts about change leadership. Previous posts covered active, committed leadership and building a compelling business case.

Everyone has a story about a flavor-of-the-month management fad that was abandoned before completion. Going through fire drills for some business trend the CEO read in an airline magazine is frustrating and draining for employees. Unfortunately, employees have enough negative experiences with aborted initiatives to be cautious when leaders hype a new change.

The Introverts’ Networking Survival Guide

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3 Ways to Build Genuine Relationships

Despair that you’ll never be gregarious or outgoing enough to succeed at networking? Never fear, introverts. Here are 3 strategies for making connections using your own unique gifts.

I am an introvert. My consulting business blooms or withers largely on the basis of my networking prowess. Fifteen years ago, this painful dichotomy kept me up at night.

I signed up for a networking event in Washington, D.C., and the anticipation proved nearly as damaging as the networking itself: What was I going to talk about? How would I start conversations with complete strangers? What if everyone ignored me?

Four Rules of Leadership for Tough Times

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The leaders knew bad news was coming as early as 2002. As with many other companies, First Allmerica Financial had been damaged by the post-9/11 stock market plunge. After much consideration, the company decided to stop writing new life insurance policies, which caused the first round of layoffs.

In 2005, the inevitable occurred—the company sold its life policies. This created a unique challenge: The 250-plus remaining employees had to service existing business while transferring knowledge to the acquiring company. Managers needed to motivate and retain staff members, even though they had been given tentative lay-off dates up to 12 months into the future.

3 Ways to Network Your Way to Genuine Relationships

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Feel like you’re collecting names, not building meaningful relationships? Then chances are your networking strategy needs an overhaul. Here are three strategies for concentrating on quality rather than quantity, which is ultimately how you’ll land that new client or gig.

This post, 3 Ways to Network Your Way to Genuine Relationships, just went live on Inc.com. Check it out!

Change Leadership Challenge 2: Compelling Business Case

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This is the second in a series of posts about change leadership. The previous post covered active, committed leadership.

What motivates you to change? I’m pretty easy; cake does the trick. Image by YvonneL on flickr.

Here’s a hypothetical question: Which of the following would better motivate you to rearrange your entire schedule for the day?

(A) Your boss says, “Our most important client is coming in from France and we need your product expertise at the meeting,” or

(B) your boss says, “Would you to look into software as a service? It may help improve our bottom line.”

You’re probably drawn to A.

Are You Neglecting Your Most Critical Contacts?: New Blog Series Launches on Inc

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Check out Maya Townsend’s new blog series on Inc magazine’s website. The series focuses on using relationships and networks for individual, team, and organizational success. The first post, “Are You Neglecting Your Most Critical Contacts,” went live on January 8 and, in its first hour, received over three hundred social shares.

Stay tuned for more posts covering all things network:

  • 3 Ways to Sustain Genuine Relationships Through Networking
  • Need Some Alone Time? How to Succeed When You’re Not an Extrovert
  • Business Ecosystem Basics: What It Takes to Thrive in Complex Markets
  • The Restructuring Junket: Don’t Shuffle the Boxes, Make Real Change
  • Digital Ties that Bind: We’re More Connected, but Are We Better Connected?

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