Networking: THE essential skill for employees, entrepreneurs, and job hunters

Now, more than ever, success depends not so much on what you know, but who you know. It's all about networking - probably the most important skill that no one ever teaches you.

If you're an entrepreneur, the best idea in the world means nothing unless you come across someone who's willing to invest in it. If you're a job hunter, having a great CV means little if no one is reading it. If you work for yourself or a consultant, how do you think you're going to find your way to new customers or clients?

But networking isn't merely a gift that some people have and others don't. It's a skill that can be learned. True, some people are better at it than others. But the truly successful networkers turn networking into a process.

So here are the five top behaviours of successful networkers:

1. They prepare and practise answers to common questions that others might ask about them.
2. They research both the event and likely attendees for every conference, seminar, or dinner they attend.
3. They spend over two-thirds of conversations listening rather than talking.
4. They demonstrate high levels of positive non-verbal communication such as smiling and nodding.
   
5. They record notes on new people they've met.

How do you rate yourself?

Achieving your goals: Scoring and the power of the pen

As France and Italy prepare to square off in the final of the 2006 FIFA World Cup this weekend, I thought I'd write about achieving goals.

You're a bright, determined person. So you've got goals in life, right?

Want to learn a secret about turning your goals into a reality?

It's very simple. But to explain, let's go back in time to the 1950s, when researchers asked a bunch of Harvard University graduates about their goals. As you might expect, almost all of them had goals. But only 3 percent of them actually wrote them down. Fast-forward 30 years to a follow-up survey. And guess what? The researchers found that those 3 percent had amassed as much wealth as the other 97 percent put together.

Have I got your attention yet? Tempted to write any goals down?

Because most people don't have real goals - they only have dreams or hopes that they wish might come true. Truly driven individuals have goals that they write down, talk about, and make solid plans about. Because the act of writing goals down helps people to think them through, helps them to analyse and plan the steps it would take to turn them into a reality.

Keep that wealthy 3 percent of the Harvard boys and girls in mind. And get writing.

Selection interviews: How to pick the right candidate

In a previous post, I offered up a snippet of advice on preparing for an interview if you're a candidate. This time I thought I'd offer some advice to managers and recruiters who are preparing to grill the candidates.

One of the keys to successful selection interviewing is to ask candidates questions that focus on how they had demonstrated skills in the past rather than how they would demonstrate them in the future.

If you're interviewing for a bodyguard, surely you want to hire someone who can talk about how they had saved the lives of their clients in the past. You wouldn't want to recruit some geek who could only talk about how they would do it 'cause they'd read stacks of books on the topic.

Sounds obvious enough when applied to hiring a bodyguard. But why recruit someone who can only talk hypothetically about how they would plan a project or convince a colleague about an idea? Why not recruit someone who has concrete examples of how they have demonstrated those skills in the past.

So. Questions about past experience = good. Hypothetical questions = bad.

And it's not just my opinion either. Bucket loads of research shows that the technique known as competency-based interviewing (sometimes called behavioural interviewing) is the most successful way to select strong candidates.

Anyway. If you'd like some in-depth reading on selection techniques, click the Talentspace logo below to download a pdf of an article on effective recruitment:

Meetings, problem solving, and the power of three

Meetings, meetings, meetings. Don't you just love meetings?

But new research in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology suggests that having more people in a meeting may actually reduce its effectiveness.

Here comes the science bit.

Researchers looked at whether groups of 2, 3, 4 or 5 people were the most effective at solving problems. They also asked individuals to work on their own to see if groups outperform individuals.

Surprisingly, what they found was that two heads were not better than one. 2-person teams were no faster at solving problems than combining the outputs of two individuals working separately.

The larger teams consisting of 3, 4, or 5 people were all faster than either individuals working separately or 2-person teams. But 4-person and 5-person teams weren't faster than 3-person teams - suggesting that the extra bodies in the teams aren't able to contribute effectively.

So. The implications are clear. When you're faced with complex problems to solve at work, two heads aren't enough. You need three members in your team to speed problem-solving. On the other hand, having more than three people won't make the team any more effective.

This has implications for large team meetings or even workshops too. If you have a big group of people, they won't be able to solve problems effectively - so it's worth splitting them into a small number of (ideally 3-person) syndicates for as much of the time as possible.

Oh, and for all of the in-depth analysis, click here to read the full article.

Prioritising your time: How much is your time worth?

Ever feel snowed under? So busy you want to scream - that there aren’t enough hours to the day or even days to the week?

Unfortunately, you can’t conjure up more hours to your day. Once you’ve wasted time doing something, it’s lost forever. But how much is your time worth exactly?

Here's a quick 'n' dirty calculation for you. If you take your salary and take off the last three digits, you’ll be left with a two- or three- digit figure. Then divide that figure by two to give you your approximate hourly rate of pay.

For example, David receives an annual salary of £56,350 a year. So, we drop the last three digits, leaving us with the figure '56'. And dividing that by two gives us an approximate hourly rate of £28 per hour for David.

So, now that you’ve figured out your hourly rate of pay, you should be asking yourself: 'Am I too expensive a resource to be doing some of the things – both in and out of work – that I spend time on?' If, for instance, our hypothetical friend David spends 2 hours a week doing his own filing, is this a good use of his time given that he costs his company £28 an hour? Perhaps he’d be better off leaving the task to his secretary.

You can apply the formula to value your leisure time too. If David spends three hours a week washing and ironing his work shirts, his three hours is actually worth £84 a week. So perhaps it wouldn’t be too indulgent to spend just £12 a week to send them to the dry cleaners to get them laundered and pressed?

As they say in the L'Oreal commercials, 'you're worth it'. But how much are you worth exactly?

Job interviews: 'What are your weaknesses?'

Interviews - love 'em or hate 'em, you can't get away from them. Of course you're ready to tell the interviewers about your strengths. But are you sure you're prepared for questions about your weaknesses?

In my experience as an interviewer, too many candidates bungle this question!

Being unable to describe any weaknesses suggests to the interviewers that you lack self-awareness or are a bit egotistical - are you really saying that you are completely perfect at everything that you do?

Whatever you do, don't fall into the trap of vomiting forth one of the tired old cliches about your weaknesses such as 'I'm a bit of a perfectionist' or 'I don't tolerate fools gladly'. It sounds rehearsed and could be interpreted as a failure to want to be critical about yourself.

Make sure you prepare an answer to this terribly common question. Pick a couple of minor weaknesses that are of little relevance to the job. For example, if a job involves a lot of contact with customers and colleagues, you could say that you get bored when you have to spend a lot of time working on your own. If you manage a team, you could explain how you ensure that at least one member of your team is strong where you are weak.

Oh, and be ready for the common follow-up question: 'What have you done to address your weaknesses?' Be ready to describe the actions or steps you take to ensure that your weaknesses don't affect your performance at work.