Your success starts with you and it grows to a higher level as a result of your associations and relationships. Zig Ziglar said and I quote “You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want”.

When you develop the habit of thinking about others instead of you all the time, you will automatically attract others to you in return. Self-centred people are never satisfied but you get satisfied when you help others achieve their goal.

Not everything is monetary; you can help people with your time, skill and emotional support. The help that money cannot achieve is the greatest as far as I am concern. Money cannot buy joy, when you stand by someone through their trying times, you have saved a soul from total depression in which billions of dollars cannot achieve.

If you are positive and enthusiastic, people will want to spend time with you. I remembered an old friend called Mark who happens to be my coursemate and hostel mate in the university. I love to always spend time when I feel so depressed due to some circumstance because he got a very strong sense of humour. No matter how terrible the situation may be, Mark will always find a way to make a joke out of it and we all laugh profusely as if it wasn’t us that were involved in the situation.

Networking is a way to leverage your efforts and accelerate the pace at which you get results. Your success starts with you but it grows as a result of the association and relationships with people. This simply means you can’t succeed on a grand scale all by yourself. Among the benefit of networking yourself are;

• To generate new friends, clients or business leads.
• It serves as a way to increase employment opportunity or business engagement.
• It can also help in finding the right people to fill a critical position in your business.
• It also helps to discover valuable information and resources which assist in solving problems.
• It enhances your social relationship by introducing you to new friends or future spouse.
• It is also a way to grow you spiritually because iron sharpeneth iron.

The benefits of the right networking are enumerable but the challenge is how do you network yourself to partake of the benefit listed. Therefore, I will like to categories the process of enhancing the effectiveness of your network in the following steps.

Character and Action

Your attitude in life determines the altitude of your success. If you lose money, you have lost some things, if you lose a friend, you have lost many things but if you lose character, you have lost everything. I will like us to consider these few tips to enhance our character

Be a positive person: If you are positive and enthusiastic, people will want to spend time with you but if you are negative people will desert you.

Always volunteer: participate actively in groups and organizations with a great commitment. Participate in any task you know you are capable of being a positive contribution. This will enable people to know more about you.

Serve Others: Going the extra mile for others is the best way to get the flow of good things coming back to you. Getters don’t get only givers are to get. One of the few ways to serve others is by referring business leads or potential customers to your friends. This is the cheapest thing to do but it seems the most difficult thing for people to do because we are always the “me me me” type. Learn to serve others and great things will never cease from happening in your life.

Referrals

I can say referring simply means sharing the good news of what others are looking for or what they offer. A few tips for enhancing your network through referring is by;

Always making your referrer mention your name to whoever you are referring them to.

Always ask for feedback for whoever you referred someone to.

Please be selective in referring: referring unqualified leads will reflect poorly on you. The goal is quality not the quantity of the leads you supply

Communications

This is the aspect that always gets the most of it. Your communication is what determines your composition. Among the tips for a good communication skill for networking are;

Be a good listener: Don’t be the type that wants all the world to revolve around you. Learn to listen to others. One of the best ways to be a good communicator is to be a good listener.

Call people to care: try to know how your network is doing personally and professionally. Not every time you put what to gain first at everything you do. If business later comes out of the call then that should be a plus but not the main purpose of your checking up on your networks.

Take advantage of any opportunity to meet people: You never know from what seed your next valuable relationship will sprout. Your connection determines your collections. Don’t let your ego or pride rob you of potential clients, business leads or even future partner.

No preferential treatment: When it comes to networking, there is nothing like preferential treatment because you never know who might be the big lead for you. A particular person might not be the big lead but an indirect link to that jackpot of connection. Treat every person as important. This is very important; always give everybody you speak to undivided attention.

Go beyond your comfort zone: I was guilty of this because I am always scared of the word called Rejection. But note; if you are not rejected, you cannot be erected. And until you are erected, you can not be accepted. Rejections help to improve more on yourself and the more you improve yourself the more you grow and become a person to be recon with. Always force yourself to move forward and make contact.

Follow-Up

If you don’t follow, you cannot be followed. Follow-up simply means trying to preserve your network. Some of the sweet ways to follow-up can be by;

Sending prompt note after meeting someone for the first time within the space of 48 hours so the person can still be able to remember you and ask how you can be of help to the person or be of assistance to the person in the nearest future.

Send Acknowledgement: Always try to send a message appreciating what you read about a speaker or writer. Most will just read your writing or hear your presentation and never compliment even if it makes an impact in their life. Permit me to say it is a witchcraft attitude because witches never appreciate anything good even if it’s to their blessing. Even If you don’t have the spare time to message the writer, you can simply just comment on the writing and you have fulfilled your part.

Always use the magic word- Thank You: Thanksgiving always open us up for another opportunity to receive again. What you are not thankful for will diminish and what you give adequate and timely thanks for will always multiply. When you receive a referral or helpful written materials, always send a thank-you note or call to express your appreciation.

Send Congratulatory Cards and Letters: Everyone loves to be recognized, yet very few people take the time to do this. That little gift or card can go a long way in enhancing your network. If you are nonchalant about the success of others, people will see you as an antagonist thereby leading people away from you.

Conclusion: Networking is not a day job, it is built over time and that milestone of result usually doesn’t surface immediately. It takes constant watering and weeding before a seed can grow to yield fruit for harvest. Your watering is your commitment and weeding has to do with your positive mindset.  

Great networking skills are not a substitute for being excellent in your field. You might be very good at networking but if you aren’t talented at what you do and constantly learning and improving, your effort will yield disappointing result. So act as if it was impossible for you to fail because Your Network determines your net worth.

Jesus is Lord!!!