Networking is a skill, isn’t it? It’s made me so jaded I regularly act on “best practices.” It’s certainly not worthwhile for me to practice what I observe in most networking events because – they aren’t the “best practices,” if you want the relationships you form to get stronger and better. There’s a new book out by Ivan Misner, founder of BNI (Business Networking International) about the gender differences in networking, Business Networking and Sex (not what you think). You knew there were gender differences, right? And this week a short video by one of the co-authors, Ivan Misner, explains how the genders differ in the way they learn to network.
One question posed in their survey of 12,000 people was, How have you developed your networking skills?
The choices were: reading books or articles, taking seminars or classes, being mentored by someone, working on my own and participating in networking groups.
More women tend to want to learn, maybe best practices through: books, seminars, mentoring and being active in networking groups.
More men want to: learn on their own.
If you had to answer the question, How have you developed your networking skills, what would you answer?