For a couple of weeks our television was dominated by the European Athletics Championship. This was not necessarily my choice, but it could have been worse – in our household we managed to completely avoid the national obsession with Love Island!
What struck me most, watching the athletics, was the friendliness of the games. Time and again, I witnessed losers congratulating winners. In events with more than one round, I watched athletes celebrate other athletes’ triumphs - even when those triumphs made their own job of making it to the podium harder. Perhaps the best example of this wonderful spirit of camaraderie came from Katerina Stefanidi, the eventual winner of the Women’s Pole Vaulting event, who seemed genuinely thrilled every time another competitor matched her own jump!
Weirdly, this got me thinking about how we behave in business, when at ‘networking events’ for example.
It seems to me that ‘networking’ is often a thinly disguised competition where people are more interested in pushing their own agenda than that of the people they’re networking with. Where individuals are cagey when giving information but greedy for free information that will help them progress. Where the players are there to, essentially, win.
Let’s face it, we’ve probably all, at some point, been the victim of less than generous behaviour from our networks of contacts. There are always those who will take what they can without giving in return and that can make those of us who want to ‘play nicely’ more guarded. But pause for a moment and consider: What do those people really gain? Chances are they’re the sort you’ll avoid in future; opportunities to network successfully become narrower with every small ‘victory’ that involves someone else ‘losing’.
But what about generous networkers? When we become less guarded and more generous, we can create amazing opportunities for ourselves and others. Time and again, for example, I’ve witnessed people gain new contracts through being generous on forums like Discuss on this site and Trainers' Library's Talk, through blogging and sharing other people’s blogs and by effectively using more formal networking opportunities, like those presented at our Masterclasses.
Sometimes, an overly developed sense of competition can actually prevent us discovering and realising new opportunities to progress and grow.
Which leads to another question – who is our biggest competitor? When I thought about our own business, which (scarily) is rapidly approaching it’s 20th birthday, I realised that mostly we’ve been in competition with ourselves – simply striving to continuously learn, develop and be the best we can be. Because, ultimately, just like the athletes in Glasgow and Berlin, that’s all we can be.
Interested in delivering your own networking training? There’s some great materials in Trainers’ Library that may help.
Rod Webb
www.trainerslibrary.com
www.managerslibrary.com
