Colin Powell’s 13 Rules of Leadership

7 Powerful Networking Tips to Accelerate Your Career

Networking builds relationships and contacts to help you succeed. The easiest way to build connection and rapport with others is to have conversations with them and discover their interests. Because of technology, less face-to-face time, and an increase in shyness, many people have difficulty making small talk and engaging others in conversation. We have put together the following tips to make it easy for you to network and build quality connections that are vital to a successful career.

Tip #1: Keep the focus on them

When it comes to conversation it’s true that people don’t care about you until they know how much you care about them. Show an interest in the other person first before you launch into too much about yourself. We like to suggest that you ask three questions about them and then share a little bit about yourself based on what you’ve learned from them.

Tip #2: Use business cards for conversation

Many people when they get a business card from someone make the mistake of immediately stowing it away in their pocket or purse without even looking at it. When networking and someone gives you their card, always take a few moments to really look at it. This will not only help you remember the person’s name, it will often provide openings for conversation. Use what you see on the card to find out more about their career or business with comments like; “I didn’t realize you had offices in Hawaii” or “What an interesting logo, who designed that for you?”