“A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly…
- Proverbs 18:24
Building a strong network of professional friends is crucial to a successful career in the 21st century. However, networking successfully is not as simple as it may at first seem.
As you go about your networking plans, remember to avoid making these fifty-one common mistakes.
- Interrupt conversations
- Fail to introduce yourself to a new contact
- Fail to make eye contact
- Fail to give a good handshake
- Dress inappropriately
- Forget your business cards
- Be too busy to help you friends
- Try to take more than you give
- Position yourself over your coworkers
- Maintain poor posture
- Talk too much
- Listen too little
- Forget people names
- Forget people’s backgrounds
- Ignore people’s feelings
- Be a know-it-all
- Toot your own horn
- Dwell on your own achievements
- Turn the conversation to your interests
- Choose quantity over quality
- Rarely talk with your networks
- Never do anything that does not directly help you
- Take too much time
- Tell long-winded stories that don’t interest your contacts
- Only befriend people who can directly help you
- Rarely compliment your friends
- Never connect two friends who might help each other
- Talk behind people’s backs
- Complain to your contacts
- Promise more than you actually can do
- Overextend yourself
- Never create an elevator speech
- Be late to everything
- Rarely smile
- Never have a long-term plan
- Avoid focusing on your friends
- Treat your network as a secondary issue
- Answer your phone while talking with a friend
- Write text messages while talking with a friend
- Check your Twitter stream while talking with a friend
- Try to sell something to your friends
- Give advice… even when it is not wanted
- Forget to follow up on new contacts
- Do not use any social networking site
- Rarely update your resume
- Forget to build a personal website (i.e., www.YourName.com)
- Never talk anything but business
- Avoid attending meet-ups and gatherings because “they take so much time”
- Never ask questions that might make you look dumb
- Lose touch with your friends
- Desert old friends in favor of new contacts
What networking mistakes have you made?
Great post. It forces you to examine yourself (which is a good thing). God bless you.
I have a terrible, terrible memory for names. About the only way I’ve come up with to deal with it is to apologise in advance when meeting new people.
@Naquan – I’m glad you enjoyed it!
@Peter – I struggle with the same thing. On the other hand, I have a friend who, at ten years old. remembers everyone’s name. I wish I had his memory!
Being Helpy Helperton, giving helpful suggestions that were not requested (even if I really would have improved the situation).
@ Stormbringer – That is a great point! I have been learning that myself recently.