Your Network Piggy Bank
When you were a child did you have a “piggy bank”? My guess is that you did or at least some type of bank in which you tried to save some of the money that you parent, grandparents, or tooth fairy gave you. But why did you save the money? Well, beside answering “My parents made me” you may have decided to save up in order to buy something that was going to cost more money than you had in you hot little hands.
As you dropped the coins into the slot you hear them “clink” against each other and the side of the bank and you dreamed of the special thing you were going to buy … when you had save enough. Week after week, month after month you squirreled away your nickel, dimes and quarters all the while thinking of that object you wanted.
But time passed, you grew impatient, and at some point you lost sight of goal of your saving. You may have stopped saving. The thing you were saving for seemed too distant. It was taking too long. Perhaps some other thing caught your eye and became the focus of you attention, something that you could get NOW with the money you all ready had.
You may have taken the plug out of the bottom and took a little of the cash, you may have turned it upside down and slid a butter knife into the slot while shaking the bank to get some coins to drop out. After all, you thought, “I’ll only take a little of the money” and you wanted what you wanted NOW!
BUT …taking the money put you behind in your savings goal and now the thing you wanted was even farther away. It would take even more time to get it. You’d have to save more money. You’d have to wait longer to get what you wanted. So, in frustration, you gave up on the idea of saving up for something and just took money from the bank and spent it on anything and everything you wanted.
If you can’t identify with this story because you were the type of kid that was determined and not deterred in saving for the special item, good for you! But keep reading any way. If you were the kid that regularly hit up the piggy bank to go to the movies, or buy some candy, or ice cream, keep reading.
Networking is a lot like saving in a piggy bank. Each time you make a contact, and then maintain the contact, and then nurture that contact by building a relationship with that person and then seek opportunities to be of service to that person, “clink”, you have dropped a coin into your “networking piggy bank”. “Clink”, another network relationship established and you’ve grown wealthier in your network of relationships and you are saving for the future.
Most people are poor “savers” when it comes to networking. Some may underestimate the value of networking because they believe that their education or experience should be enough to get them the job. Others don’t understand how to network or they are not comfortable with it so they end up doing it poorly. Some individuals make the mistake that of thinking that networking is meeting as many people as possible, passing out and collecting business cards as possible and hoping for the best. Or if they do understand networking, they ask for a return on an “investment” they haven’t made yet by asking for a favor too soon in a relationship or they may try and make withdrawals too often for amount they don’t have on deposit. Then run the risk of ruining the relationship if the other person feels used.
A network, especially your network has to be tended. You must make regular deposits to it. You have to nurture and grow the relationships in your network. Your goal in networking should be to serve, not to be served and when you have served you have “saved”. You goal with your “networking piggy bank” should be to gather up people, build relationships, and to seek to be of help to people. For each time you do, your “networking piggy bank” and your resources grow.
If you have followed the analogy this far you will see that there are two benefits of a “network savings bank”. First, you need to seek to be of service to others. It moves you beyond yourself and helps you to grow as an individual. Seeking to serve, rather than be served broadens your perspective on life and individuals. You may begin to understand that helping others brings a certain amount of fulfillment to you. The second reason for making deposits in your “networking piggy bank” is so that you will have what you need when you have to open the bank and use the resources you have saved … when you need others to be of service to you. We all need a little help at one time or another. This is especially true in times of seeking employment and job search since a high percentage of positions are filled through networking … it is all about who you know.
What to learn more about the ins and outs of networking? Contact Emmett at emmett@baxendell.com