Have you ever experienced a touch of envy as you watched a practiced social networking expert flit from person to person, working those connections for all their worth?
While some of us are virtually born to shake hands and connect faces to names, most of us are not so blessed. Quite a few of us feel a bit nervous about striking up a new business relationship. What if the person is a competitor? What if we slip up in a conversation and reveal something that could jeopardize our company?
Those kind of thoughts can introduce some awkwardness into the relationship. Yet all business leaders need a safe sounding board. If we only depend upon our own insights and knowledge, we’re essentially handicapping ourselves from reaching our full potential.
So how does one solve that conundrum? Actually putting together a close-knit team of advisors is not as difficult as one might think. It begins with two business professionals who trust each one another. Trust comes easier when the other person is not a direct competitor. And that’s one of the weaknesses of the traditional networking model. You really can’t feel free to share those pressings concerns … to pick that person’s brains … to benefit from the exposure to new data.
The answer is surprisingly simple. Gather together with business leaders from non-competing industries. That’s when you’ll make those discoveries that could quite possibly change your future.