February 2009 Blog Posts (6)

I'm sitting on a train heading out to another conference writing this blog entry. Thanks to technology, you can now get the internet while moving in a forward direction at over 100 miles an hour. Who would of thought! As I sit here looking around I can only imagine the number of social resources sitting in the seats. I've spoken to a few individuals, had some small talk and even met a gentleman that can help me out with an issue I'm having with my lighting at home. It truly is amazing where… Continue

My wife and I were wanting to get our trees trimmed on our property. We got a couple of quotes and due to the size of them, were looking at 2-3 thousand dollars. This was something that I did not want to do and even worse, pay that much money. My wife was talking to one of our neighbors who she rarely saw and asked them if they knew anyone who trimmed trees. She thought that these particular neighbors would be a good resource because a year or so ago, they had talked about the importance of… Continue

If we take a purely transactional view of networking and think about how many times we've converted an opportunity for a contact to help us out, it's probably a small number for most of us. There are some individuals that are naturally good at this, while the majority of us have a hard time. But isn't it the point of networking to tap into a social resource so that you can accomplish a goal. What good is social capital if we can't turn it into something that helps us. Of course, the key is to… Continue

Networking is a funny concept. It's not really tangible. We can't feel it, although we can see it in action if we're aware. This becomes even more apparent when we try and do it. Asking a friend for advice or getting directions from a neighbor could be viewed as networking. Defining networking becomes even more of a problem when trying to understand this phenomenon. Is it something that happens naturally or is it a conscious activity. We're all part of a network, whether big or small. The… Continue

The Thrill of Victory...and let's not complete the thought. The reason I say stop there is that it's important to focus on the victories in our lives. Some would say that it's as important to focus on our defeats so that we don't repeat them, but I think in these unpredictable times it might do us good to focus on what works out for us.



If we hold true to this thought process, then we need to start defining what we mean by success or victories. I asked this of a class of grade 9… Continue

Practice what you preach! That old adage is true yet we fail to comply by its simple logic. I work with practitioners of all sorts across the world and preach the importance of tapping into their networks. Well, I would like to share an experience of mine where I actually followed my own advice. It's simple, but I think it nicely illustrates the point.



I'm in the process of developing a new tool that walks individuals through the networking process. I had been using a printer for a… Continue