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The traditional mode of professional networking has become stale and outdated. A bunch of extroverts dishing out business cards seeking one-off transactions. People can smell this from a mile away. Transactional networking only focuses on what you can gain from the other person.
In his Best Seller Love Leadership, John Hope says,
“Many people view networking as a one-way relationship, but building meaningful relationships is two-way.”
According to John, influential people like Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Andrew Young, and Quincy Jones prefer building meaningful ties rather than attending networking receptions.
If you want to forge meaningful connections to outlast a transaction or two, you need to think long-term. Here are the top tips for moving from transactional to relational networking.
Successful relationships are a give-and-take affair, and networking relationships aren’t different. You may have time-limited needs, but so does the other person in your professional networking group.
Don’t be too quick to categorize other people by their work position, as is often the case in American corporate culture. You may do so in a business setting, but that would be unforgivable in an informal professional networking event. Everyone matters.
Ask your new connections brilliant, open-ended questions to learn about their journeys or present challenges. These questions open doors and can generate intriguing conversations and forge deeper bonds.
The pandemic introduced us to all-virtual networking, and we became barraged with multiple networking groups and various choices. People were jumping between different groups, trying to reach as many people as possible rather than developing intimate relationships with a select number of key players. The consequence was Zoom fatigue and networking overload.
A British anthropologist, Robin Dunbar, theorized that humans have a cognitive limit to the number of stable relationships one can maintain. This limit is 150 people, beyond which new sub-groups are created, forming new social tribes of 150 members.
This concept challenges the notion of having unlimited friends and underscores the need to prioritize quality over quantity in our networking circles. Smaller groups also create new perspectives, provide quality of thinking, and take satisfaction in supporting your success.
Young professional networking events and conferences are pivotal in growing the attendees’ connections. However, not all conferences are created equal. While most conference events offer some networking activities on their agendas, the networking sessions at many of these conferences often lack structure and intent.
For instance, most networking events revolve around food or alcohol. These “happy hour” events devolve into small, cliquish groups with superficial interactions led by an overly exuberant and unengaged facilitator.
The most successful networking happens during more informal settings, such as breakout sessions. These relaxed settings provide plenty of opportunities for quality conversations and deep connections beyond the confines of the conference itself.
By moving from transactional to relational networking at these events, you’ll soon have the professional community that you’ve always desired.
If you want to succeed long-term, focus on moving from transactional to relational networking. Remember what John Hope Bryant wrote,
“I learned by experimenting that if I treated my networks as relationships and not as transactions, I secured repeated deals and built a sustainable business."
And act accordingly.
