Author: WWPR

When I started out in my career, networking terrified me. What was this crazy idea of going to places where people I don’t know gather and try to talk to them? Who came up with this torture? What if I got laughed out of there? What if I embarrassed myself? How do I even begin?

I gradually learned that networking is the key to career development. How else are you to find new ideas to bring to your work, new business opportunities, or cultivate next steps in your career? It’s all about meeting people!

Here’s five tips for maximizing your networking time:

• Go in with an open mind. You never know who you will meet at a networking event and some will be more productive than others. Step through the door with no huge expectations other than to be open about meeting people and having some good conversations.
• Use eye contact, open body language, and questions to engage conversation. It’s all about conveying your interest in others, not necessarily about what you need. Ask others about themselves, and they will open up.
• In addition to being friendly, ask networkers what they are seeking and how you can help. The best conversations and contacts will come from making a connection on how you can help each other, with a problem, a resource, an introduction, and more. Look for ways to help others and follow up with those offers. Helping others will build a new relationship and come back to you in unexpected ways.
• Focus on collecting cards, not on giving them out. While it’s great to give out your card for future follow up, it’s even better for you to collect them, so you can be sure to have the information for people you want to follow up with.
• If you promised something, always follow up. Not only will your new contacts be impressed with your follow through, it will help create a longer term relationship with future reciprocity. Don’t let the ball drop when it’s in your court!

Walking into a room full of strangers can be scary, but remember that everyone has anxiety about meeting new people so you are all in the same boat! Think of it as an adventure that can lead to career opportunities and growth down the road. Don’t forget to have some fun and enjoy!

Kelly Mack is Vice President of WWPR and a vice president at Environics Communications in Washington, DC.

By Christine Brown-Quinn, The Female Capitalist®

Who doesn’t want to be more confident? We all have our personal levels of confidence, but it’s only human to have self doubts. And perhaps these doubts or fears go back to our primal brains when we needed to be in fright and flight mode in order to simply survive daily life. Regardless of why doubt and fear creeps in, one thing is for certain: Confidence is not something we’re born with!

The good news then is that we can teach ourselves to be more confident or re-wire our brains to think and act more confidently.  The first step in conquering your confidence quivers is to acknowledge and accept them and use those feelings to spurn you into action. At the core, confidence is really about having the courage to take action in spite of the fear, rather than the absence of fear!

One of my favourite tennis players is Novak Djokovic. He frames the issue of self doubt eloquently, “If you don’t have that self-belief, then fear takes over. And then it will get too much for you to handle. It’s a fine line. The energy of those moments is so high: how are you going to use it? Are you going to let it consume you, or are you going to accept its presence and say, ‘OK, let’s work together.’ ” Now who would have thought that a guy like Novak Djokovic has self doubts? He looks so confident, right? Novak’s message is a life message which goes beyond the field of professional sports.

When you start to hear that negative chatter in your head, give yourself a pep talk. Mine goes something like this, “Yes, I know this is a bit scary and I know there’s a chance it might not turn out the way I hoped or planned, but you might as well be quiet because I’m not going to let this negative voice stop me from taking action!”.  One of the best ways to gather up the courage to take that scary action is to think about a higher goal, a goal that’s bigger than yourself.  How is taking this action going to help others? How will it change things that matter to you and make a difference? Isn’t being all you can be, beneficial to everyone around you, whether that be your employers, your life partner, children, or friends? Holding ourselves back doesn’t serve anyone!

In the earlier years of my career in Finance I had a tendency to go to meetings and simply listen. It was a bit intimidating to be surrounded mostly by men with bigger physical presence, voices and opinions which seemed t have the ability to state as hard facts. A trusted senior colleague advised me well, “Christine, you obviously have a lot going on in your head, and you’ve got to be less shy and make sure that you’re saying something or asking a question in every meeting.” My higher goal was to be instrumental in building a team and a business which was successful and where people had fun. In order to have this kind of impact on others and feel part of shaping the culture and the business, I had to become a more confident ‘public speaker’. That higher goal helped me get over my fear of speaking in front of larger groups or audiences.

If confidence is learned, that does mean that “practice makes perfect”. The more you take action in the face of fear, the more you train your brain that things are going to be ok. You’re developing positive reference points that you can refer back to each time you’re faced with fear. You say to yourself, “I can do this, I’ve faced fear before. ” In fact, who knows you might even end up enjoying that thrill of “putting yourself out there”. The irony of course is that it’s precisely in those situations where we don’t quite feel confident which offer the best opportunities for personal & professional growth. Now over to you. In what way do you want to be more confident? Why is that important to you? Ok, time to start practicing!