This is a “book in progress.” By this we mean that we are in the process of writing the book but would love your feedback and input and anything else you want to offer. The first book we are showcasing this way is one I have had in process for a number of years. Take a look. Share you insights. Use it to help you write your own book! Enjoy!
“This book makes networking easy and enjoyable. The authors understand that connecting with others who share your values and principles is more important than connecting with people who are simply in fields similar to yours. As business changes at an ever faster pace, it’s important to build a strong network—not only so you can thrive, but also so that others can thrive through you.”
—Ken Blanchard, coauthor of The One Minute Manager®
(Melissa here: note that we asked Ken for an endorsement even before we got the book published. He gave us one but decided that he would not participate in partnering on the book as he said he was not headed in this direction. We greatly appreciated his support. Larry Mohl, my co-author on this book, brought Ken into American Express when he was there as CLO. Today American Express is still working closely with Blanchard. Nice one-minute networking for Larry and Ken!)
Overview
According to a poll conducted by Execunet, a large online portal for executives, 86% of all executives consider networking very important. Yet only 19% think they do it well. One Minute Networking is built around the notion that most people understand the need to excel at networking yet feel they lack the tools or resources to become an effective networker. In our experience, we find that most people have fundamental misconceptions about networking. They believe it is about numbers – that gathering piles of business cards at networking functions somehow adds up to a powerful network. They believe it is about making as many connections as possible with people in the same line or related lines of work. They believe one can only be an effective networker if one devotes a huge amount of time to the effort.
As this book will show, these misconceptions stand in the way of building a powerful, productive, and meaningful network. In One Minute Networking, we dispatch with these notions quickly. Readers learn that “the power of 2 equals the power of 10” – that huge pile of business cards is worth nothing compared to the careful cultivation of the right connections. The Pareto Principle comes into play here and we show readers that, if they can learn to network with the 20% of their connections that have true value, they never have to connect with the other 80% in the first place. Readers learn that it is more important to connect with people who have the same goals than to connect with people who work in the same field. If people have the same values as you have, there’s a very good chance they’ll provide you with the opportunity to expand your career in unexpected ways. They’ll also learn the invaluable skill of the one-minute introduction. It’s possible within a minute, to learn about a person’s goals, to express your own goals, and to discern whether you would bring value to each other’s networks. In this book, we’ll show how.
Modeled after The One Minute Manager and the “One Minute” books that followed, One Minute Networking presents its lessons in parable fashion. It tells the story of Meredith and Lance, two talented individuals who feel that they’ve had less success than their skills warrant. They know they need to reach out to more people, but they don’t know how. They know about networking and they’ve tried attending networking functions, but they feel that these functions have been a waste of their time. While lunching together, they run into a friend whose career is blossoming. He tells them of a man who helped him extend his potential for opportunity – a man known as One Minute Networking. Meredith and Lance meet One Minute Networking and embark on a quest to learn his secrets to building sustainable, opportunity-enhancing networks.
On their journey, they learn the key tenets of networking:
¢ The Power of 2 Equals the Power of 10 – the quantity of connections you have isn’t nearly as important as the quality of those connections.
¢ If You’re going in the Same Direction, Why Not Go There Together? – Connecting with people with the same goals and values makes your network dramatically more powerful and can lead to surprising opportunity.
¢ Network with Purpose – When you explore how people can fit into your network, the power of your network grows.
¢ Master the Magic of Divergence – Networking in diverse ways creates magical connections.
¢ Be a Visionary of Connection – When you keep your eyes open to the possibility of making a valuable connection anywhere, you greatly improve your chances of having a first-rate network.
¢ Great Questions Lead to Great Connections – When you know what you’re looking for and you know what to ask, you can identify valuable connections quickly.
¢ Expand Your Horizons of Possibility – You need to take a proactive role in order to build a powerful network.
¢ High-Tech can Create High-Touch – E-mail, IM, and internet sites like LinkedIn can be extremely valuable networking tools as long as you implement them with your values and strengths rather than a transactional approach.
¢ Master the One Minute Introduction – You can learn a great deal about someone new and tell him a great deal about yourself in only a minute if you know how to do it.
Meredith and Lance come to understand that the preconceptions they had about networking were wrong and that it is possible to build a great network that helps them accomplish their goals and grow meaningful, valuable careers. The lessons they learn are clear, profound, and, most importantly, adoptable by anyone.
There is any number of books on the market about networking (among the bestselling are The Little Black Book of Connections by Jeffery Gitomer, Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi and Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty by Harvey Mackay). None, however, shares the format, action plan, or wealth of information provided by One Minute Networking. By presenting the keys to networking in parable fashion, One Minute Networking allows readers to see the techniques in action and identify with Meredith and Lance so they can envision a clear path toward bringing these techniques into their own lives. To be continuend . . .