Tips to Excel at Networking in 2022

The business world involves more than just ideas and work, to enter this world, building your network by meeting people in the industry is your key to opportunity. This can be a challenge, going out to events and introducing yourself to strangers is not in everyone’s comfort zone. However, it is leaving the comfort zone that will help you succeed in any area of your life. 

Building connections opens up an array of opportunities in business, not only can it lead to partnerships or job opportunities, it can be a great teacher. Networking with experienced individuals can allow you to learn a bit about how they think, the path they took, challenges to expect, and mistakes to avoid. It can also be the first step to getting leads on job opportunities.

The most sought-after skill someone in business can have is the ability to communicate effectively and build relationships. These are reflected in your ability to sell yourself, to sell people on your vision, and to connect with the people you meet. 

So we know networking is necessary for our success, but it can leave us confused on how to get started. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to get started and help you build a network that can lead to opportunity.  

Join Associations Related To Your Field

Networking can be the difference between you hearing about a job before someone else. For whatever industry you’re interested in you should join a networking association. For example, someone who is interested in fashion may join something like Fashion Group or someone looking to start a business can join Entrepreneurs Organization. Joining associations can allow you to meet people in the industry, even those who have decades of experience.

Also, meeting someone in a social setting as opposed to a formal meeting will allow your relationship to genuinely build itself, leaving the opportunity for it to become more meaningful. 

Be Prepared

Have an understanding of the point you are making by meeting people in the field you’re interested in. You should be able to answer the basic concepts of what it is you do (or want to do) and why it’s important. Don’t make it so you are walking them through your entire origin story, but be able to casually converse about what you’re doing. This will come with practice and a good understanding of your purpose. 

Be Open 

In social settings, nerves can set in making us feel shy but this is counterproductive to the purpose of networking. Don’t shy away from small talk, although it is commonly talked about negatively, you should embrace it. These conversations may turn into a bigger conversation, networking isn’t all business discussion from the jump. As well, be ready to give people your contact information (a business card is most useful) you never know what could come.

Approach Appropriately

Read the room from the jump, look for who seems open to talking (so that you are not interrupting) and introduce yourself or make a comment. The nerves can kick in when you get there and are looking for an opportunity to talk to someone. This is when using your body language to appear open and confident is useful. Remember that you are in a space where people are there to be social, there is unforeseen opportunity in these situations. 

Ask Questions

Talking about your goals and small talk can only go so far, remember you are here to build a network that involves people beyond your circle. Asking people questions about themselves and their careers can teach you a lot and express your genuine interest. You’re not interrogating the person, but make sure to always be curious. 

Be A Listener

We all love to talk about ourselves and all the success we’ve reached. However, we want to treat networking like a normal conversation, we must realize the opportunity we have to learn. Don’t always look for ways to bring the conversation back to yourself, listen to what they have to say. Being an effective listener will not only allow you to learn, but it is a skill that people notice and value. 

Conclusion 

Networking doesn’t have to be something to be nervous about, preparing yourself and knowing what you want to gain will serve you well in your confidence. Every time you meet someone in your field, online, or in person, it is a chance to build your network. You can never know what building a relationship with someone will do for you. It can lead to relationships that stretch beyond your professional life which is especially valuable. Take chances, take risks, give yourself the chance to meet someone.

We work with successful companies to increase their net profits using exceptional custom software solutions, contact us here to see how we can help your business grow!

Effective Decision Making Guide For Leaders

Owning and running a business is the most fulfilling feeling one can experience, bettering people's lives while also creating jobs. This position does not come without its share of responsibility, enough of which can make decision-making and advancing the vision difficult. The toll this takes on business owners will wear them out over time if they take on the responsibility alone. As well, It’s hard to make decisions as a leader without frustrating others in the organization. For these reasons, it is extremely useful for leaders to have a support system that will guide them and the organization to success. 

Constructing a support crew to assist your ability to lead the team effectively involves surrounding yourself with the right people. You don’t want these people to be ones that just simply agree with what you say and don’t provide a lot of feedback. You want individuals with edge, experience, people who are going to challenge you to think differently.

A common mistake of leaders is not being open to feedback, as a result, they involve people who would be classified as a “yes man”. Openness to feedback is the only way anyone can improve at anything, unfortunately, many associate critiques with negativity. The position of a CEO, President, VP, etc, requires decision-making to be based on applying systems that can be trusted to benefit the organization. 

Analysis of what works and doesn’t work can only be identified by individuals directly working with the systems in place. For this reason, it is best for all business leaders to have an open-door model where those working for them can freely voice their opinions.

Now, the decision-making process should not be left solely up to the one person in charge, they need a crew to weigh options and outcomes. This is not to say that every decision made should be left up to the top of the chain, it is best to give responsibility down the chain when necessary. Different situations require situation fitting responses from leadership to assist.

With that being said, let's look at how leaders can involve others to assist with decision making:

Involve The Right People

Analyze the situation, identify the key stakeholders as well as those who will be involved in carrying out the task. With these individuals having heavy involvement in the situation, their opinions will come from having worked directly on the front line. It is not useful to make decisions without weighing the opinions or needs of the people being impacted by these decisions. They will tell you what resources they need and a timeline of when the task can be completed. 

Analyze The Input

Once everyone has expressed their feedback, leaders can weigh the risk, potential benefits, and logistics behind the requests. Leaders must take into account the level of resources available to them (budget, time, team size, etc). Remember to communicate when and if requests cannot be fulfilled, decisions should be made in the best interest of the organization.

Mitigate Risk

Identify the areas of risk, review them with those involved in the task and prepare them to be able to handle issues that may arise. This can be done by scenario-based training where individuals run through simulations of a problem arising and practice handling them. Using situations that are likely to occur whether it be an upset client or a resource failing, managing their quick response time will be beneficial. How they do in the simulation will help leaders to decide who to put in what position when executing the task.

Of course, it is impossible to anticipate everything that will or could go wrong, but preparation nonetheless will translate into readiness for other situations. 

Post Task Review

After the team has completed their task, hold a debriefing and highlight what went well and what needs improvement. This will be a useful tool for leaders the next time they go into a task to see how their decision-making benefited or limited the team. It will also help leaders evaluate which of their team members to delegate certain tasks to. Input from employees can only help so much, experience-based outcome analysis is the cherry on top for leaders' decision-making development. 

Conclusion

Making decisions is the main duty of leadership, these decisions of course are to guide the organization towards a collective vision. To be successful in doing so, leaders need the help of those working for and with them. This is to ensure that everyone in the organization is capable of doing their best work with all the necessary support.

We work with successful companies to increase their net profits using exceptional custom software solutions, contact us here to see how we can help your business grow!

Entrepreneur Guide to Problem-Solving: Failing Forward

Having the courage to start a business takes a lot of optimism, to begin with, having the courage to dedicate yourself to it is much different. When taking on the responsibility of starting a business, the pressure can be overwhelming. Wouldn’t it be great if you could start a business and generate profits the next day? Unfortunately, this is not the way it works, nor will it ever be, great businesses take time. They involve a lot of planning, setbacks, complete failures, and the continuous will to learn.

Deals will fall through, team members will give up, funding may not be received, the list goes on. You must believe in what you’re doing and have a reason for doing it that will prevent you from giving up. Oftentimes, when we make a mistake, we question ourselves with questions born out of doubt. The ability to answer those questions at the moment will come from your reasoning for success. No success story doesn’t involve failure, successful entrepreneurs only became successful after learning from mistakes.

The first key to overcoming business failure is to accept that it will happen. As a business leader, you must try everything you can to succeed, but not everything will be perfect. Once you have grounded yourself in the vision of the organization, build a team that will hold you accountable. A great team will be able to help you find solutions to problems, complete tasks more efficiently, and create cohesion in your development process. To prepare yourself to find these great people who will help you on your quest for success, here’s some advice:

Have A Vision

It is important to know what you’re after, what goals do you want to reach in 5 years with your business? Once you understand what you’re setting out to do, failure will become a useful tool to highlight where you need improvement to reach your goals. Failing can be hard and it’s normal to get frustrated at the moment. You must try to stop looking at failure as failure, look at it as an opportunity to get better. Implementing this will make you unstoppable and attract individuals to your vision that can help along the way.

Failure Isn’t Personal

Just because something didn’t work out, doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea or that you’re in over your head. Entering any market is a matter of careful research and lucky timing. You can analyze your audience as much as possible but, it is impossible to predict for certain if something is going to stick. Leaders must look at what went wrong and take measures to mitigate it for the next attempt.

Take Accountability

Failures cannot be blamed on individuals, if the team attempts something and it goes wrong, the whole team is at fault. As a leader, you must recognize yourself in the areas that went wrong and improve your approach to mitigate. This is another way to lead by example, if your team sees you reacting to a crisis with open-mindedness to do better next attempt, they will do the same.

Remember the easiest thing to do is point fingers at everyone but yourself. This will get you nowhere in the development process and only ensure the likelihood of failure again.

Post Failure Analysis

As we’ve covered, learning from failures and using them to do better is important. For the sake of an organization, after you’ve set out to complete a task, successful or unsuccessful, meet as a team. When you meet, highlight what went wrong and what went right, without applying blame. Make this a habit so that the team reflexively looks for ways to improve and also learn what they’re good at. The accountability with no blame tactic will also create further cohesion within the team and make development processes much smoother. 

Conclusion

Failure generates negative emotions, our natural inhibition will always tell us the bad things first. As an entrepreneur and a leader, the most important skill you can have is emotional intelligence. Of course, when something goes wrong, you will want to shout and tell everyone who contributed what a mess the situation is. No good will come from handling situations this way, instead, we must not lose sight of the vision.

Remember why this business is important to you, what kind of life it will allow you to live, and the people whose lives will benefit from it.

We work with successful companies to increase their net profits using exceptional custom software solutions, contact us here to see how we can help your business grow!