10 Good Reasons To Build Efficient Networking Strategies and Treat Networking as a Mindset.
Updated on July 26th, 2023
May 9th 2022
This text was fully written by humans.
SUMMARY / KEY TAKEAWAYS
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Most professionals start strategic networking only when in need.
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However, successful people tend to build careers in a relational way. They treat their network as their main asset, and nourish it regularly.
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In this article, we list 10 main reasons why you should treat networking as a mindset – and spend time on building your network every single day.
Table of Contents
- Networking as a Mindset: Why Most Professionals Take The Wrong Approach.
- Why Most People Are Afraid of Networking and Use No Networking Strategies.
- Reason #1: Your Social Capital Is Like Money In The Bank.
- Reason #2: Your Social Capital Is Your Only Asset That Only Grows In Time.
- Reason #3: Your Profit From Networking Grows Like Compound Interest.
- Reason #4: We Live In Times When The Well-connected Are Privileged.
- Reason #5: By Hanging Around People Who Are Different From You, You Learn More About Yourself.
- Reason #6: Some Jobs Never Get Announced To the Public.
- Reason #7: Statistics Don’t Lie! Strategic Networking Is More Efficient Than Submitting Job Applications.
- Reason #8: Networking Is a Way of Reducing Uncertainty and Protecting Your Mental Health.
- Reason #9: Networking Is Fair.
- Reason #10: According To Science, Better Connected People Live longer, Are Healthier, and Happier Than Others.
- Conclusion: Some Solid Reasons To Treat Networking as a Mindset.
Networking as a Mindset: Why Most Professionals Take The Wrong Approach.
Most professionals start strategic networking only when in need. Whenever they need to find a new job or change their profession, they finally find a while to reach out to people. They pick up the phone and start calling friends after years and years of silence — pretending that they care.
And then, after two minutes of exchanging greetings, they proceed to ask about opportunities… only to find out that this doesn’t lead to any results. In other words, most professionals treat people in their extended network instrumentally and only reach out to them if there is some problem to fix.
But this is a highly sub-optimal way of building careers. Successful people tend to build careers in a much more lean and relational way. They treat their network as their main asset, and nourish it every day.
In this article, we will talk about why it is already too late, and why you should rather treat networking as a mindset – and spend time on strategic networking every single day.
Why Most People Are Afraid of Networking and Use No Networking Strategies.
The fact that most people don’t network enough is not rooted in laziness or procrastination. It has roots in human neurobiology. Due to limited time and limited capacity of our working memory, we are naturally capable of maintaining up to 150 connections (also known as the Dunbar’s number).
If we start making extra connections beyond this circle, we start losing control over what is happening in our network. And in most people, this causes anxiety. We are naturally scared of this cognitive asymmetry that occurs when more people recognize us than we can recognize. We feel like we were under constant observation, and that’s not good for our overall feeling of safety.
However, it is worth getting over the fear and keep on building your network! In this article, we’ll list 10 different reasons why building healthy and efficient networking strategies is your best shot at a successful and happy professional life.
Reason #1: Your Social Capital Is Like Money In The Bank.
Your social capital is a form of capital. When you think about this, you could even estimate the value of all your contacts. for example, if you know 100 people who would agree to give you a couch for a week once every two years, then in theory, you don’t need an apartment anymore. Of course, no one would like to couch surf for life — it’s just mental exercise.
So, social capital is just like any other form of capital — it is there to support you and fulfill your needs when necessary. And it is better to do have some capital rather than an empty account, just in case. Just imagine that you suddenly need to go to a dentist and you don’t have any cash — you need to earn it first. Well, that hurts.
Also, similarly to money which “likes hustle” and usually comes to those who don’t need it anymore, opportunities also like the hustle.
In graph theory, a “minimal viable network” is a minimally connected network that can connect all the nodes in the network (even if the connecting path is very long and inefficient). Most people end up building such a “minimal viable network” in their lives — a minimal network that caters to their emotional needs.
While in fact, there is no such thing as a “too big network.” The more the better, because every new contact creates a new opportunity. While investing your time and effort in building a network, you invest in an asset that will pay you dividends later on.
Reason #2: Your Social Capital Is Your Only Asset That Only Grows In Time.
Let’s be real: your health will derail in time no matter what you do. Regardless of how healthy you eat and how much time you spend in the gym, you will get weaker and slower at some point. Your money can also be taken away, either eaten by inflation, burned by bad investment decisions, theft, or the alleged Great Reset coming up.
Yes, you can lose literally everything in life— except for your network. Your network is the only asset that will only grow in time if you nourish it properly.
Reason #3: Your Profit From Networking Grows Like Compound Interest.
People talk.
If they have good experiences, they don’t hesitate to share them with others. And when the topics of weather and sports get exploited, they tend to look for contingencies in their personal networks and start gossiping about people. We all love to gossip, no question about that.
So, you can profit from the fact that people gossip. The more people whom you know (and whom you leave with a good impression), the more gossip, people suddenly knocking at your door, and new contacts you can expect.
At some point, you will experience the snowball effect: your network will stop growing linearly, and start growing exponentially. You won’t need to do much more to keep it growing — similarly as money produces more money, contacts produce new contacts. The contacts will have an impact on your personal and professional development.
Reason #4: We Live In Times When The Well-connected Are Privileged.
We have a natural fear of being exposed to others. In the old days, we used to live in small tribes and the main reason for standing in front of the whole tribe was to get publicly punished. The best you could do for yourself back then was to fly under the radar and make sure that the tribe leader doesn’t even notice your existence.
This is the main cause why, until this day, more people fear public presentations than death. (73%, according to the National Institute of Mental Health) But, in the past few thousand years, our environment and culture have dramatically changed.
Now, people who are exposed are privileged not punished. The well-connected and the visible are the ones whose opinion is more respected, who get paid better, get higher positions, get invited to every event, or even get paid for attending! In fact, you can even become a professional networker, for instance, by taking a role of a Community Manager.
Therefore, it’s good to realize that your fear of strategic networking is an atavism: it’s a reaction that helped us evolve and survive in the old times. But now, the rules of the game have changed — and your strategy for navigating in society should change too. If you don’t go out to people today, you self-sabotage yourself and your personal development.
Reason #5: By Hanging Around People Who Are Different From You, You Learn More About Yourself.
Other people are like a mirror. Once you spend time with them, you get a better view of your unique characteristic. How can you really learn your boundaries, strengths, and weaknesses if you do not encounter people who are very different from you?
People often don’t realize their own talents just because they assume that whatever is easy for them, is also easy for everyone else — which is not true.
Reason #6: Some Jobs Never Get Announced To the Public.
This sounds obvious, but you might be surprised at how many jobs are handed in over the counter. The open announcements are just the tip of the iceberg. According to Business Insider, 70% (or more!) jobs are never listed.
Moreover, in many areas of the job market, like in public institutions (including universities), many jobs are only announced because they legally need to be — while in fact, the preferred candidate is already known. Without a network, it will be impossible for you to get in.
Moreover, in many areas of business, deals are only handled via personal contacts. There is a ton of scams and fraud online, so people don’t trust publicly available information anymore. They only trust their friends and friends of friends. The higher the stakes, the less likely they will be to let people from outside their network in.
Overall, you can safely assume that without using any networking strategies, you skip on at least 90% of all the opportunities. Can you afford this?
Reason #7: Statistics Don’t Lie! Strategic Networking Is More Efficient Than Submitting Job Applications.
In marketing, the term “conversion rate” is used to describe the efficiency of a given action, in terms of how often it leads to the desired response. As a type of action, strategic networking gives a much higher conversion rate on the job market than submitting job applications or networking via online or offline communities.
As a matter of fact, most people spend most of their job search time browsing through open job applications and writing application documents, and then, somehow, they still end up finding jobs due to their personal connections.
The truth is: one hour of strategies networking will give you much higher odds of landing an actual job (or even creating a new position for you!) than an hour spent applying online.
Reason #8: Networking Is a Way of Reducing Uncertainty and Protecting Your Mental Health.
Due to unstable dynamics caused by a sequence of black swans, today’s world is higher uncertain and unpredictable. We live in the times of VUCA: Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity. And this is going to change any time soon. No wonder mental illnesses have become a global problem.
Skillful networking strategies provide you with a safety net, make you better informed, reduce uncertainty, and make your future safer and more predictable. If not for your professional opportunities or professional development, do it for your mental health!
Reason #9: Networking Is Fair.
Some people were born physically stronger, healthier, prettier, and more wealthy than others. But, no one was born with deep, healthy relations with other people. We all start with a tabula rasa, and we need to build trust and bonds with other people by caring and putting in an active effort.
OK, some people were born into better-connected families than others, but they still need to work on the quality of their contact with people or otherwise, their lives are just empty. Isn’t it tempting to network knowing that life is fair here, and you will get what you deserve?
Reason #10: According To Science, Better Connected People Live longer, Are Healthier, and Happier Than Others.
Lastly and perhaps most importantly, networking as a mindset leads to longer and higher-quality life. In the Harvard Study of Adult Development, running for over 75 years, 724 men enrolled at the point when they were reaching adulthood. They were then tracked for decades with respect to their health, relationships, and overall life satisfaction.
According to Robert Waldinger, the chief researcher in the study, it turns out that it is not fame, wealth, or cholesterol level at age 50 that best predicts health at age 80. It is the quality of relationships with family and friends.
The study by Hilbrand et al. (Evolution and Human Behavior, 2016) also referred to this point. Namely, according to Hilbrand’s study, elderly people who are casual caregivers—both within and beyond their family—live longer than their counterparts who don’t carry out similar activities.
It’s hard to disagree with this finding—people met on the way often become the only capital that you gain from your projects. For more information on how we can foster happiness, please check out the article “How To Be Happy? The Only Justice in the World.”
Conclusion: Some Solid Reasons To Treat Networking as a Mindset.
In conclusion, what else do you need? Networking is an art that you need to learn over time, so better start today! In fact, skillful networking is much harder than it might seem at the first sight.
For instance, one of the most efficient networking strategies is “netweaving:” giving first in order to receive. In netweaving, you focus your attention on finding creative ways of helping others instead of seeking help. You could call it “spreading good karma.”
In the long run, that karma goes back: you build a name as a great person to be around, and everyone wants to have you in their corner. This is why it is such a successful networking technique in the long term.
However, it is worth all the effort. Everyday strategic networking will make the quality of your life better on every single level. Networking is one of the activities that Eisenhower would place in the “important but not urgent” category — the category crucial for your personal development and overall life success.
Since non-urgent tasks will always lose the competition with urgent tasks, you need to actively find time for them and put it on your agenda.
What often discourages people from networking is the patience necessary to succeed. There is a setup, and there is payoff. It might take years before you start connecting the dots, introducing people to each other, and enjoying your impact and new opportunities coming from your network. But once you do, networking turns into a fascinating game!
Hopefully, we see each other in person at some event and join each other’s networks! And don’t be a little cheat – just attending events is not enough if all you do is sitting in the corner… Only shaking hands and real talk matter. Best of luck!
PS: For more of my personal advice for how to effectively network in business circles, please check out my article “If You Are Going To San Francisco… My 22 Tips and Tricks on Networking in the City.”
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Please cite as:
Bielczyk, N. (2022, May 9th). 10 Good Reasons To Build Efficient Networking Strategies and Treat Networking as a Mindset. Retrieved from https://ontologyofvalue.com/10-good-reasons-to-build-efficient-networking-strategies-and-treat-networking-as-a-mindset/
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