Networking Zoo

Which networking animal are you?

I have yet to meet a person totally relaxed and comfortable with networking.

For many of us, myself included, networking can sometimes be a challenge and seem overly transactional or artificial. And yet there are ways to make networking work, to transform a daunting ordeal into an enjoyable experience with a possibility to make meaningful connections. You never know which surprises life has prepared for you at an event unless you try…

It starts with a premise that to make meaningful connections, we need to look beyond job titles and see the real person, that we need to give before we take, be helpful before asking for advice. Shazaf Moonis from Linkked Consulting helps organize and facilitate networking events that help people get better at networking. I have attended a recent one at INSEAD.

I am not going to disclose all the interesting and funny things we practiced during that session, you’d better discover it for yourself. The only thing I wanted to share here is a funny and nice “networking zoo” we transform ourselves into when attending a networking event:

The Homing Pigeon: The person who sticks with own colleagues through the entire event.

The Rabbit in the Headlights: very nervous, limp and sweaty handshake - would clearly prefer to be elsewhere.

The Lounge Lizard: usually tends to frequent networking events regularly, primarily with the objective of meeting the opposite sex.

The Limpet: locates a friendly face and sticks with that person the whole evening. Very difficult to shake.

The Butterfly: Flits from one group to another without contributing too much. Tends to be unfocused and always looking for the next opportunity. Hard to engage in any meaningful conversation.

Did you recognize yourself and your typical behavior among the animals? Which other networking species do you know?

Image: Lara Hawthorne @larahawthorneillustrat