Transcript
Well, networking inside an organisation to better your career is a critical thing, and I don't mean sucking up to the boss. I mean understanding how an organisation works.
And the first thing you've got to do to be good network within your organisation is to be interested in that company. Be interested in the products that the company produces, understand where it fits in the business cycle. So understand and take an interest in where you work, that's the very first thing.
The second thing you need to do is you need to be really interested in people. I see a lot of people walk into their business every day and say "Hi!" to the person on the front desk, "How're you going?" and just keep walking.
They actually are not interested in that person, it's just a reflex action. They could stop for 15 seconds and say "Hi Mary!", "Hi Bill!", "How was your weekend?" or "What did you get up to?", "How're things going?", "Everything going alright?" and just that little moment where you take time to look into that person's eye and say "I'm interested in you as an individual" is what networking is all about.
And networking, people get distracted sometimes, they think networking's about "up" networking. Networking is networking all over the organisation, to the "little" people and to the "big" people. Everybody's equally important. And so, being interested in the business, being interested in the people in the business, shows that you're passionate about your workplace.
And you can do extra things, you can think about people, you can bring in articles, you can know that someone likes mint in their tea. So one day you can bring mint out of your garden, or your parents' garden, and bring that in and give it to them. Just those little extra things that nobody else does.
It's sure not sucking up to me, the boss, that makes me feel someone's a great networker. It's someone who is interested in everybody in the organisation and what we do.
