Building Networking Skills–Part 1: Identify Your Strengths

What I’m about to share with you is a very simple, yet very often overlooked networking step.

I’ve witnessed a lot of people jump straight into networking without taking the time to sit down and simply identify what their strengths are. And I’ve got news for you–if you don’t know what your strengths are, then you can’t outline an effective strategy. And without an effective networking strategy, you’re going to end up wasting a lot of valuable time.

Here’s the thing . . . before you can begin to be an effective networker, it’s crucial to first identify some of the strengths and skill sets that you bring to the table as a business professional.

The problem is, many people have no idea how to pinpoint their strengths because they’re not even sure yet what categories are considered networking strengths and weaknesses.

So to make it easy for you to identify your networking strengths and design a networking strategy based on the areas in which you excel, I’ve come up with five questions for you to ask yourself.

1. Are you a people person?
2. Do you enjoy public speaking?
3. What kind of professional background did you have before starting your business?
4. How long have you lived in the area where you do business?
5. What other natural skills do you have (such as time management, organizational skills, or keeping clients focused) that may not fall directly into your business expertise but that people value?

Your assignment for this week is to ask yourself these questions and document your answers.  Next week I’ll continue explaining how to build your networking skills and reveal what you should do after you’ve asked yourself these questions. So be sure to come back!