Everything seems to be shifting: the way we work, connect, play, and buy. Staying in the game is a taxing demand.
Unless you learn to leverage networking.
Networking helps you pick up the weak and strong signals alike and benchmark everything you do in a manageable fashion. Yes: networking will help you successfully ride the tremendous change around us.
People sometimes dismiss the growing importance of networking. “Networking has always been crucial to professional and business success,” they say. “Cultivating human relations continues to be the cornerstone of development.”
That is absolutely right. I will be the last person to argue that.
But don’t miss the larger point: in today’s environment, networking is the only life and work style that can keep you afloat in the long term.
In a network, you are part of the change. It makes a world of difference!
You shouldn’t even try to control the paradigm shift that is shaking up the way we live. None of us should. With so many moving parts, there is no way to succeed. Setting out to take charge of the digital revolution through reading, studying, analyzing, reacting, and other techniques, will only burn you out.
Instead, ride it!
If you are connected to a living and versatile professional network, the network will carry you. The change around us will, of course, continue, but you will have an extremely effective mechanism for staying in the loop through all the senses, in manageable quantities, and brought by peers.
Networks and networking skills simply are more important than they have ever been. If you focus on your networks and hone your networking skills first, also your reading, studying, analyzing, and reacting to the digital revolution will fall in line. You will be in the know. You will understand the big picture.
It is not just about knowing people and having access; it is about being included and involved. It is about being one of the nodes through which energy flows and grows.
In a network, you are not observing or catching up with change, as you would if you used any other strategy. In a network, you are part of the change. It makes a world of difference!
Ready to be savvy and ahead of the curve also in 2014? See you soon!
For information on networking and business opportunities swing over to our event page.
Harini Chari