Leni Chauvin spoke to the ICF (International Coach Federation) coaches yesterday. The title of the talk was “Inside Secrets to Working a Room for Fun and Profit”. It was about networking; how to build relationships and create visibility. She suggested to know your target market first, go to where they are at, network with them, and show up prepared so that it is clear who you are and what you can do for them.
For some people, it is difficult to go to an event and start to network. Leni suggested that networking is a “should freeze” zone and conversation can be started freely without attachment. One can even wear certain outfits to attract conversations from a stranger.
After Leni’s talk and the question and answer section with coaches, I started to think that a key value of networking is trust. We need to develop the skills to build trust in order to build trusting relationships in a network. We also need to trust ourselves; i.e. having confidence so that we show up authentically and trust that we will attract the clients or power partners to work with.
Another skill to have is the ability to repair trust when it is damaged. In a new network, when people are just starting to know us, misconceptions from behavior and communication can happen. This happens particularly across differences in race, gender, age, and culture. When we sense mistrust starting to form, we shall have direct communication to repair the trust.
Learning In Action is a company that provides training and assessment on emotional intelligence (EQ). It will provide a workshop to teach “Building Authentic Trust” on March 21st. I attended the workshop a few years ago and learned a lot from it. I highly recommend the workshop. Please check out the detailed information here.
