Networking importance

Why is so important to have a solid networking?

When we create social connections we refer to each people we know that can be helpful once in our lives. A network allows to handle a lot of different elements, we can relate to neuronal connections, information technologies, transports, telephonic, social among several others.

When you take time to construct a network, you take base on your personal values, expectations and accomplishments, the history that precedes your performance and the results you get.

Great leaders have a lot of useful connections that allows them to innovate inside their companies. Reid Hoffman, linkedin co founder, consider this ability as a must and it's one of the mail elements on this social network. Robert Kiyosaki (Rich father, Poor father) expresses that the investors and visionaries construct network that allows them to see beyond what it's evident.

How many contacts do you have on Facebook? Do you keep a certain level of communication with them? If you have the need to ask for a favor, do you have the level of confidence to ask for it?

Taking care of our friends and contacts translates in little details, likes at their publications, eventually organizing a sort of event to promote the bonding. It's easier to have a business encounter with a person you know and have permanent contact.

Keep in touch

You are visiting a city or a friend of yours came to visit, what do you do? How do you contact him?...

As I have told before, I have the opportunity to have friends that travel a lot and what I consider really interesting is the way we keep in touch. For this reason, my friends know that if they look up for me, they will find me. Skype, email, Facebook, Whatssapp, Linkedin, any social media is good enough.

One of the most important things related to Networking is the availability, when I have needed information from some people, I like to get answers really soon, and because I like to have this type of fast response, I always, always, always try to do my best and answer really fast too.

Innovación

 When I have traveled to Monterrey, if I have some spare time between events, I find the way to visit my former neighbors, the past 2 times I have commited with a friend to go for lunch to catch up, and the second one I visited my Innovation friends and get an invitation to a congress.

 Some of my former students know where my new office is and they had make some time between events to visit my office, or send me messages to meet at some spot in this city. It's very flatering to know they remember you and that they get some minutes to catch up.

Aldo

Viaje a Xochimilco

Another way to keep in touch with your friends and colleagues is given by the different events and promotional tours we have. The past week I was promoting at the MBA Tour and in my 5 minute break, I identified the stand of a different institution. I went by to say hello, take some pictures, and send greetings to our common contacts. Because of this fast track meeting I got some other invitations to different events at this city, this means more networking.

Jeff

So, here come my advice to get better and maintain your Networking:

1.- Make sure you know where to find your friends, and if possible visit them at their working places, a fast hello visit is always well recieved.
2.- If you have more spare time, make plans to have lunch or dinner, the people like to have special attentions from their friends, and also this little things can make you get forward on your personal proyects.
3.- If possible, make arrangements with time, so you won't surprise your friends and the contact will get better.

Distance Networking

Hello!

I have some friends asking me how to manage and keep in good terms a working team that lives abroad; that wants to keep communicated, and share their experiences among its peers. So this post is related to a strategy we applied to improve our team confidence.

On past December we wanted to have a Christmas party, but we were just 4 people on Monterrey, the rest of the team was on different cities: Mexico City, Guadalajara, Panama, Lima, Bogota and Miami

We had limited budget to make the trip and have personal contact, so we better organize a virtual video call, that means we had to use our cameras and microphones on the computer, connect using an operative system and start the communication.

There are several systems that allow virtual video calling, some of them are private, other have cost, other are 100% free and public, it depends on the needs for communication, handling confidential information or other needs.

We decided to use Skype, because it has good rates on the cities where the personnel lived. We organized previously the event agenda and share the information. The general idea was to learn a little bit more about the personal issues of the rest of the team.

We started and participated by turns, everyone can ask questions on specific matters on the personal presentation of each one. Some of the themes that were mentioned included, hobbies, trips, family and pets. Skype allows to share audio and video material so we shared pictures, videos and songs.

By the end of the party, the team told me that the experience was really motivating, and even though they where far apart, the possibility they had to share make them feel confident with their peers.

The following video includes a general description on how you can use this type of technology so you can learn on the advantages of it and try to keep your family, friends and peers closer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qulggXtg00