The Networking Family Tree

Submitted by Mitch Seigel on Wed, 1/05/2011

This morning I was having coffee with a friend and I was explaining how everything was connected in what I do, i.e. Six Degrees of Separation. It is so true! It inspired me for this blog to discuss this even more, for those having challenges in networking, both personal and professional.

If you take a look at your friends (and I don’t mean your Facebook friends!), and think about how you met them, how your relationships developed, and how they have flourished in time, you will see that they all started somewhere. You met through a person at work. Another friend introduced you to them. An organization to which you belong gave you a networking opportunity where you met some of the friends you have. It is some and possibly all of these combined.

This will continue to happen organically and will accelerate if you take a proactive approach to its growth. What that means is essentially paying attention to the sources of the relationships, and following them all the way back to their roots, just like the seeds and roots of a tree. It is very easy to forget where things got started, and yet, if you were to make a plan, based on the roots, you would increase your networking capabilities immediately.

Also, always remember who got you started and continue to show your appreciation for the direction you received. Guess what? This will be another way to increase your relationships. As in an actual tree, the roots go in many directions. You may have had success with one direction, and there may be no reason at all to be equally successful in building another part of the networking family tree, by going back to its roots.

What are your challenges when it comes to building your network? I look forward to hearing your comments.

Until next time…