Just Be Yourself Networking
From time to time you may have experienced people being less than genuine when they first meet someone new. When I was growing up we called it putting on airs. This is an attempt by some individuals to appear very important or accomplished in an effort to get people to connect with and like them. This is not networking and is the complete opposite of what I recommend that you do.
Be yourself. People are interested in finding out who you are. Not who you would like them to think you are, but who you really are. If you prepare yourself before hand to come to the networking opportunity with information that you may have researched or a topic that is current in the media of interest to the people in this gathering you will find it a lot easier to start a conversation with some one new. Spend the time to focus on one individual. Find out things about them. What things do you have in common? Take the time to expand the conversation and give yourself an opportunity to connect with that person. Do not rush the conversation along, or change the topic of the conversation from one thing to another. This may give the person the impression that you are not interested in talking to them or that you are not being genuine.
What is the risk of not being genuine? Connection, think about it, do you want to spend time with someone who is not genuinely interested in what you have to say? You begin to wonder, what their motive is for speaking with you. This places a barrier of mistrust between the two of you. Once this barrier is raised it is very difficult to overcome. Why place yourself at a disadvantage? Just be yourself. People will like you, if you focus on what is important to them they will want to focus on what is important to you and the connection between both of you is established. Listen to Keith Ferrazzi
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