What Topics Do You Lead With?

When you’re heading out to business networking events, here’s advice about topics of conversation.

“We suffer from the same disadvantage,” Katje said about herself and Crystal. “We look young and we’re women and we aren’t taken seriously.”We talked about this for a while and I asked, “What do you lead with?” When you’re meeting people at business functions or before a meeting do you lead with personal content or business content? We spent a few minutes talking about how to seize every opportunity to demonstrate business savvy and professional expertise.

Darned if she didn’t grab the chance over dinner.

Talking with Don, an executive who had spent the day reviewing projects, Katje took the opportunity to describe key trends that were impacting the projects in her region and the industry, independent research she had done with customers to gain insights into their future needs and sprinkled in a few stories about her successes on key projects. Clearly she led with her business and strategic savvy.

In spite of her age and relatively junior position, there was no way for Don to NOT take her seriously…and he was absolutely comfortably speaking with her!

What do you lead with? Can you conduct a knowledgeable conversation about the business, about your marketplace, about key trends in the industry? Or, do you lead with more personal content?

Network ON!
Susan
Susan Colantuono, CEO and Founder Leading Women
Author of No Ceiling, No Walls and Make the Most of Mentoring. Underway is her new book, Network! What corporate women need to know about strategic relationships and success
Follow on Twitter | LeadingWomenBlog | Facebook | LinkedInGroup