How Do People Who Haven’t Gone to Business School Still Successfully Build Large and Valuable Networks? What Social Skills are Especially Important in Doing This?

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You do not need a degree to build relationships! Don’t feel slighted for not having gone to business school. There are so many ways to create large and entropic networks, but you need to know how to properly do it.

What is your motivation for wanting to improve yours? What are your goals? And who can help you reach them? When you know why you want to do it, and what you want to achieve, this will better map out the road you should take.

Believe it or not you’ve already begun to develop your own network: your family and friends, colleagues and classmates, your friends of friends, and so many other people in your life are part of your spheres of influence, which makes up your networks. You probably didn’t realize the potential of what’s already available right in front of you!

Assess your current relationships and take into account who you already know and how they could possibly open doors for you, and what value you can provide to them. Substantial relationships are built on reciprocity and mutual benefits, it’s not just about what you’re looking to get out of it.

If you’re looking to meet new people, consider going to events or social gatherings, participating in hobby clubs, or volunteering your time for a local charity. Develop your social skills such as asking good questions and being a good listener, preparing good conversation starters and ways to politely end a discussion, practicing good eye contact and body language. Show respect for others and always be genuine. Relationships are ultimately built on the know, like and trust factor—and you ultimately want others to want to get to know, like and trust YOU.

Get yourself in the right mindset and foster good networking habits such as delegating 30 minutes a day to only focus on relationship-building. There’s a lot to learn about nurturing your network! I would encourage you to sign up for our Get NetWorkWise Certified course which covers the basics and advanced fundamentals including all of the topics I’ve touched on here and offers our prestigious professional networking certification.

Make it a great day and remember to always NetWorkWise.

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