Networking 101 – Successful Leaders & Networking

 Networking 101 – Successful Leaders & Networking

By Nikki Viljoen of Viljoen Consulting (Pty) Ltd

In her “Networking Tips”, Dr Renate Volpe states “Successful leaders spend up to 48% of their time networking.  How much of your time are you spending building your business network?”

Some time ago at one of the Inner Circle meetings that I hosted in Cresta, there was this chap that sat quietly listening to what was being said.  When it was his turn to stand up and tell the audience who he was and what he did, he said something along the lines of “Only unsuccessful people network”.  

Needless to say, I was gob-smacked!  Why then would they have all of these “old boy clubs” that we so often hear about in the movies and that we know, from personal experience to be alive and well? Why would children in Private Schools make the kind of contacts that they are urged to make, from junior school?  

I have watched my Godson Bruce, grow up from being a little titch in Junior school at the Ridge, where he made friends with all manner and means of children, whose parents were well connected both politically and in the business field.  I watched him go off to Michael House, in the Midlands and heard the tales he told of which children he had befriended and who their parents were.  Then he won for himself a scholarship in one of the most prestigious schools in the world, Wharton’s Business School in the University of Pennsylvania (which incidentally was founded by Benjamin Franklin), I again heard who he is now connected with and which professors he works with for his pocket money or allowance – and what I hear most of all is why he chose to work for them.  

Don’t get me wrong, Bruce is not a snob, he never has been, but he understood how important it was to make the right connections, at the beginning of his working life.  

I wonder why he did that if only ‘unsuccessful’ people need to network!

Could it be that the chap who came to my meeting had it all wrong?  Perhaps what he meant to say was that “Successful people network”!

Do you network enough?

If you would like to know more about Dr Renate Volpe, please feel free to visit her on www.drrenatevolpe.co.za 

Nikki is an Internal Auditor and Business Administration Specialist who can be contacted on 083 702 8849 or nikki@viljoenconsulting.co.za or www.viljoenconsulting.co.za