So far this month you’ve identified people you’d like to meet to expand your network, and discussed ways to make initial contact with them. This week focuses on deepening the relationship. It’s one thing to meet someone, shake hands, exchange cards and a few words, and then continue on with life as though you’d never met.

The next step with networking is to actually get to know the person.

Besides knowing what they *do*, *who* are they?  What are their interests, passions, long term goals?  As you get to know more about people, you connect in a more meaningful way.  Do you both like giving to animal charities? Hiking? Have insatiable curiosity about human behavior?

Envision living in a foreign country?  Like team sports? Have kids? …

The more facets you know about someone’s interests or values, the more opportunities there are for a deeper connection.  When you have shared values, there’s a sense of instant rapport and camaraderie. We tend to remember people with whom we have rapport.  Furthermore, you will now be able to re-engage and stay in touch more effectively moving forward.

As you know, when getting to know people, ask open ended questions to get them talking and share.  Caution: don’t be an ‘interrogator’ asking question after question.  Make sure you share too.  What kinds of things are you pondering?  Any interesting trends you’ve been reading about that might interest the other person?

By showing interest in the other person, and sharing snippets of yourself and ways that you can ‘add value’ to the relationship, you will strengthen the connection.

To your success,
Gwyneth Anne

This entry was posted by Gwyneth Anne Freedman on September 17th, 2007 under Career with keywords .

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