Effortless Networking

If you’re reading this article, you probably read a fair amount in general. And at this point I think you probably know a lot about business networking and what you should and shouldn’t do.

So the question is, are you doing everything that you already know?

We often know exactly what we need to do — like eating healthily, exercising, and so on — and yet, we don’t do it.

Can you relate to it? Yes, me too!

Well, the same thing happens in our professional lives also.

This is the “knowing-doing gap”, as described by the authors of the book by the same title.

A lot of my work with private clients focuses on helping individuals close this gap.

So instead of giving you yet another tip on how to network better, how about I share with you a simple process to help you use what you already know?

Here it is:

1. Pick ONE thing that you’ve been meaning to do, but haven’t done yet — for whatever reason.

   Make a commitment to do it this week.

2. Then, as the week progresses, pay attention to whether or not you actually do it.

   Either way, you will get useful information to help you close the “knowing-doing” gap for this one particular thing.

   So don’t worry about “failing” — just go through this 3-step process.

3. At the end of the week, answer these questions for yourself, and see what you get:
   
   - Were you able to do what you intended to? If yes, what allowed you to follow through? If no, what prevented you from doing so?
   
   - What did you learn about this particular “knowing-doing” gap? And how will use this information?

The last step of looking back at what happened in specific detail, and generating ideas about how you might leverage this information, is critical — so don’t skip it!

Let me know how this works out for you — you can post a comment below or email me. Either way, I’d be curious to hear about how doing this exercise affected your networking efforts.

Also, more about how to close the “knowing-doing” gap in specific networking topics — such as relationship management, asking for what you want, etc. — is covered in the Effortless Networking home-study program.

Till next week,
– Sri

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 19th, 2006 at 12:05 am and is filed under Improving Effectiveness, Getting Results. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.