Networking Guilt? 4 Ways to “Get Over It!”

“When someone sees me leave the building, I always feel guilty. I’m sure they’re thinking that I’m heading off for some frivolous reason,” explained Jacqui at a recent workshop focused on external strategic relationships. If you share her feelings, it will help you to know that there 4 reasons your organization is paying you to develop and utilize external networks.

First, you have to understand that the higher you progress in the organization, the more you are paid to have strong external strategic relationships. Notice I didn’t say, strong external relationships. They have to be strategic. So what does this mean? It means that they have to meet one or more of 4 criteria.

An external relationship is strategic if it helps you:

1. Deliver Operational Outcomes: you are being paid to hit or exceed key goals that support organizational outcomes. Sometimes hitting or exceeding these goals requires strong external relationships. For example with suppliers, customers, business alliance partners. External relationships can also be strategic is if they help you deliver operational outcomes by enhancing your leadership or technical skills.

2. Improve Operational Performance: simply stated, as a manager or executive you are being paid to import innovation. That’s because a leaders job is all about change all the time. External relationships that help you do this might mean membership in professional associations, industry or trade groups that are focused on the future, publicize successful practices and share information about organizational improvement.

3. React on a Timely Basis to Changes in the Business Environment: these are relationships that enable you to keep your finger on the pulse of changes in the external business environment. For example demographic changes in your customer base, trends in capital availability, moves by competitors. Network connections that can give you a “heads up” indication of important changes can help you be ahead of the curve in meeting the related opportunities or challenges.

4. Improve the External Business Environment: being an ambassador for your organization, taking a leadership role in organizations that impact the business climate for your organization (e.g. regulatory or governmental), participating in business/industry initiatives to improve the business climate.

If you’re off for a round of golf or a spa day with friends who can’t help you with any of these 4, guilt is appropriate! But valid and important reasons to leave the office to extend or tap your strategic external network abound. For example:

• Attending an off-site meeting to enhance your leadership skills.
• Taking a key customer to lunch to discuss unmet needs.
• Playing a round of golf with a technology guru who can fill you in on the implications of a new technology for your business.
• Attending a professional or industry conference with a focus on the future.
• Taking your local congresswoman to lunch to talk about pending legislation (unless you have organizational approval, do this as a citizen – not as an organizational representative.)
• Convening a group of local economists to discuss trends over dinner.
• Participating on the board of a community-based non-profit.

Be sure that your external networking activity passes the “is it strategic” litmus test. If it does, leave the office with a no-guilt attitude.

Network ON!
By Susan Colantuono, CEO and Founder Leading Women and author of No Ceiling, No Walls