Posted 9:36 AM by Blah blah

Secrets of a Master Networker

I think I'll let Pjammer do the blogging for me and just link to him. He always brings up the most thought-provoking and useful stuff.

Navigating the Corridors of Power - Meet Keith Ferazzi.

10 Secrets of a Master Networker (Inc):
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"It's about a personal connection that makes you feel a sense of reciprocity," Ferrazzi says. "Superficiality is not networking. There are people who have lots of superficial connections, and people call that networking. But that's not successful. You feel dirty when you talk to someone like that. The outcome of good networking is the capacity to have a conversation with anyone you want to have a conversation with and then to leave that conversation with a lasting connection of some sort."

The best sort of networking occurs when Ferrazzi can connect two people who don't know each other. Which drives home a surprising implication: the strength of your network derives as much from the diversity of your relationships as it does from their quality or quantity. Most of us know the people within our own profession and social group, and little more. Ferrazzi makes a point of knowing as many people from as many different worlds as possible. The ability to bridge those worlds is a key attribute in managers who are paid better and promoted faster, according to an influential study conducted by Ron Burt, a professor at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.

The care and feeding of contacts is a relatively new concept for the business networker. In Power! How to Get It, How to Use It, a 1975 self-help screed on the secrets to becoming a corporate chieftain, Michael Korda advised that "masters players ... attempt to channel as much information as they can into their own hands, then withhold it from as many people as possible." That is, 30 years ago old-style connectors attained power through a monopoly of information, whereas today people like Ferrazzi view the system as social arbitrage, a constant and open exchange of favors and intelligence. It's a sort of career karma, too; how much you give to the network determines how much you'll receive....

"You, me, every one of us -- we have our peer set, and we can always have dinner parties with our peer set, but if you keep having dinner parties with your peer set, why would somebody two levels above your peer set ever come to your dinner parties?" he asks. "The point is, you don't randomly invite somebody two levels above your peer set to your dinner and expect them to come, because they won't. They want to hang around people of their peer set or higher. This is a crass way of talking about it, but this is the formula."

So Ferrazzi developed his theory of the anchor tenant. "What you do," he says, "is find somebody in your peer set who has a friend who is two levels above -- the big swinging dick of the group, the anchor tenant. You get them to come and, in all invitations subsequent to that, you use the anchor to pull in people who otherwise wouldn't attend."
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In some ways this sounds like what you do when you blog. I've always enjoyed bringing people from different worlds together. It's partly why I made Tiger Cafe a group blog in the first place!

For example, I introduced my college friend V to her boyfriend (my coworker) in 2000, and they are still together. I helped arranged a lunch for them to meet and watched how they got along. I'd become friends with this marketing VP girl in 1999 and so arranged a dinner for her, V, and other marketing type girl I knew.

The best Internet networking organization I have found is Ryze, founded by Adrian Scott. I met Adrian at an Asian party in San Francisco, and this incredibly accomplished guy is a networker par excellence! Ever since, I've tried to introduce people, especially business-minded entrepreneurial people I know, to Ryze.

Recently, I met this Indian guy named Moorthi at a salsa dance class. We've become friends. He is a rare guy, interested in both software (trying to start his own web services company) and film (trying to make small films). He also owns an Indian restaurant on the Peninsula. He invited me to a volunteer meeting of SVASE (Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs), which we had at Deloitte & Touche. This group is trying to expand internationally. SVASE's goal is to be a networking group for entrepreneurs, governments, and other groups worldwide to connect to Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. Now their international outreach group is working to build contacts in various countries with chambers of commerces, governments, companies, etc. so that if local companies here want to expand internationally, they will have an infrastructure of contacts in place.

In 2000 I was a tireless networker, and I have come out of my slump from last year and started hitting the pavement again, meeting more and more new people. V used to say it seemed like I knew half the Bay Area, which is a huge exaggeration. But I have never gotten tired of meeting and absorbing the essence of new people. At International House Berkeley, we'd have a big turnover of students, but I loved it and absorbed as much as I could. Each semester we'd get at least 200 new residents, and I'd be out there for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, meeting people. I never got tired of that initial interview, of that small talk that leads to the revelation that you two strangers are connected in some ethereal way.

Thanks, Pjammer! This article inspires me to hit the phones, the road, the party invitations, and the emails again. It's good to know that I'm not alone.