Give Your Career a Gift this December

Holiday Networking

Holiday NetworkingHere’s a short piece of advice to create an enjoyable as well as productive success: See your “connector friends” in December.

Let’s look at the key words:

Enjoyable:

Gratifying, satisfying, pleasurable.

Productive:

Find a link to a desirable employer or client.

Success:

Deepening your relationships and staying top of mind with the objective of receiving a delayed benefit. I’m not talking about making a late December sale to save the quarter.

December:

The best month to find important people who actually have the time and inclination to meet. Perhaps it’s the holiday spirit.

Would you rather complete that last project you’ve been putting off, spend time getting organized for the New Year or find an hour for an interesting contact?

Connector:

These are people who:

  • Have stories to prove why they respect you,
  • Know other people whom you want to know, and
  • Regularly introduce people.

Friends:

People you enjoy talking with. You take their calls even if you’re busy, and they do the same.

Connector + Friends:

Your “A” list. People are fortunate if they develop two dozen “connector friends” during their career.

See:

The objective is to see 100% of your connector friends who live within 2 hours of you this month. For those outside this radius, you can call and talk.

Emails and voice mails don’t count.

Please, no end-of-the-year recap letters. Your close friends should already know almost everything you’re going to list, and your networking friends won’t care (at least not enough).

Remember: your objective is to receive a delayed benefit. Don’t look to receive gifts of names, jobs or projects. This is the holiday season, so be sure to take a gift of knowledge or other benefit to help your connector friends.

(This article was originally posted at MENGonline.)

About Richard Sellers

Richard is Chairman Emeritus of the Marketing Executives Networking Group, founder of Demand Marketing consulting firm, and former Sr. VP of Marketing for three multi-billion dollar companies: CEC, WLP, and Service Merchandise. His early career was at GE, P&G, Playtex, and Marketing Corporation of America. He’s also a volunteer counselor for SCORE assisting small businesses in upstate New York. You can follow his communications about marketing, job search and careers here and at mengonlineENTREPRENEURS QUESTIONS, and on Twitter at @Sellers_Richard.

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