Quality vs. Quantity of Connections
Are you throwing spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks—or connecting with people for specific reasons?
Purposeful networking is critical for career management and business development. During a recent career transition, I learned how to cultivate meaningful networking relationships. These skills help me connect with ease and joy when I think we can help each other—now or in the future.
I believe it’s essential to aim for quality vs. quantity of connections. Each encounter is more meaningful and productive when I am thoughtful about who I connect with and why. Building a valuable network over time requires diligent preparation and follow through. In contrast, a scattershot approach to generating hundreds of random connections creates less value for everyone.
Here are three ways to build a more valuable network:
Always Customize Invitations to Connect. Rather than using boilerplate LinkedIn invitations to connect, I always write a personal note. I never downloaded my Outlook contacts to my profile because it would allow standard invitations to be sent to everyone in my database.
Responding to Boilerplate Invitations. When I receive a boilerplate invitation to connect with someone I don’t know, I reply with a message before I accept it. I thank the person for their invitation, then ask how they found me and how we might help each other. If they don’t respond, I don’t lose anything by not adding them to my network.
Prepare to Connect or Don’t Bother. It’s vitally important to respect the time and attention required to build genuine connections instead of aiming for large numbers by throwing spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks. Recognizing the time required to prepare and follow-up on valuable interactions means most of us have bandwidth to develop fewer, deeper connections vs. hundreds that lead nobody anywhere except to burnout.
With the thoughtful preparation required to network with purpose, I don’t believe super networking is possible to do well, nor beneficial to do less well. In job search, the further afield introductions are, without a clear reason for connecting, the less we can understand and help each other. In business development, contacting prospects with individualized intention is likely to generate more value than hundreds of random cold calls.
Networks are Treasures to Cultivate with Care. During my job search I heard many presentations about networking. One speaker boasted about having more than 400 face-to-face meetings in less than a year (and then crashing during the holidays). I was not convinced this odyssey produced much value for him.
What I considered “stranger networking” was likely to lead me too far from my sweet spot to be beneficial. This view is a departure from common networking advice. Some considered me foolish for declining introductions I thought were too far out of my wheelhouse and likely to point me toward places I had no interest in going. Instead of meeting with everyone I could, I connected when there was a clear purpose for doing so.
I continue to have mutually beneficial interactions with people I met in every stage of my career transition. I thoroughly enjoy meeting new people and making introductions to facilitate meaningful connections. I do this selectively and with clear intention. These interactions often lead to surprising and amazing ways to help each other over time. You never know who will lead you to someone or something valuable far into the future.
As I connect with purpose, my growing network is an invaluable treasure in my life.