EMBAs: Seven Important People for Your Network

TopMBA.com looks at seven people every EMBA candidate should get to know as part of their network. 

Talk to any successful top executive and he or she will surely tell you, networking is key to mastering your career. It is through our relationships with others that we can enrich our own lives and take our destiny in hand. But, it is also our opportunity to give a helping hand to others. This reciprocal “how can I help you” approach to networking is a vital skill for any businessman or woman to develop and can be especially helpful as you go through an Executive MBA.

Expanding your network

Worried you haven’t yet honed your networking skills? Concerned you don’t have time to do anything about it?

The thought of being obligated to another hundred or so people—sending birthday cards, accepting dinner invites, and carrying out tasks we do for those close to us—may seem outlandishly taxing.

Only, for some, it’s not. These people are super-connectors. People like me who maintain contact with thousands of people. The key, however, is not only that we know thousands of people but that we know thousands of people in many different worlds, and we know them well enough to give them a call.
So here’s the good news for those of you who aren’t so aggressively social: Once you become friendly with a super-connector, you’re only two degrees away from the thousands of different people they know.

The superconnectors

Connectors can be found in every imaginable industry, but I’m going to focus on seven professions where they most commonly congregate. Each of these connectors provides me with a link to an entire world of people, ideas, and information that, in a very significant way, has made my own life a little more fun, helped my career along, or made the businesses I worked for more successful.

1. Restaurateurs

Being a true-blue connector is a requisite for most people who own restaurants. The success of their enterprise depends on a core group of regulars who see the restaurant as a home away from home. And it’s quite easy to get to know a restaurateur: become a regular.

2. Headhunters

Recruiters. Job-placement counselors. Search executives - they are like gatekeepers. Instead of answering to one executive, the really successful ones answer to hundreds of executives in the field in which they recruit. Headhunters are professional matchmakers, earning their wage by introducing job candidates to companies that are hiring.

Can anyone contact a headhunter? To be honest, headhunters prefer to be the one contacting you. But if you’re careful not to sell yourself, and instead offer them access to your network, they’ll be receptive.

3. Lobbyists

Well-informed, persuasive, and self-confident, lobbyists are impressive networkers. By virtue of their job, they are intimately familiar with the ways of large organizations and how local and national government work. They are almost uniformly passionate people, whose goal is to sway politicians to vote on legislation in a way that favours the interest(s) they represent.

How do they work? Lobbyists will often host cocktail parties and dinner get-togethers, allowing them to interact with politicians—and their opponents—in a casual atmosphere. Their more grassroots efforts involve long hours spent on the phone and in writing letters, trying to rouse the community to get involved behind an issue. All of which makes them a rather easy group to please - offer to hold an event for them, volunteer your services, refer other volunteers to their cause, and introduce them to potential clients.

4. Fundraisers

“Follow the money” are words fundraisers live by. They know where it is, what it will take to get it, and most importantly, who is most likely to give it away. As a result, fundraisers, whether they work for a political organization, university, or nonprofit group, tend to know absolutely everybody.

5. Public relations people

PR people spend their whole day calling, cajoling, pressuring, and begging journalists to cover their clients. The relationship between media and PR is an uneasy one, but at the end of the day, necessity brings them together like long-lost cousins. A good friend who works in PR can be your entrée into the world of media and, sometimes, celebrity.

6. Politicians

Politicians at every level are inveterate networkers. They have to be. They shake hands, kiss babies, give speeches, and go to dinners, all in the name of gaining the trust of enough people to get elected. The stature of politicians is derived from their political power rather than their wealth. Anything you can do to help them gain power with voters, or exercise power in office, will go a long way to ensuring you a place in their inner circle.

7. Journalists

Journalists are powerful (the right exposure can make a company or turn a nobody into a somebody), needy (they’re always looking for a story), and relatively unknown (few have achieved enough celebrity to make them inaccessible).

These are seven different professions tailor-made for superconnectors. Reach out to some. And there are others—lawyers, brokers, etc. Become a part of their network and have them become a part of yours. Seek out ideas from people you don’t ordinarily talk to who inhabit professional worlds you don’t ordinarily travel in.

In one word: Connect. In four better words: Connect with the connectors.

Keith Ferrazzi, No.1 NY Times bestselling author of Never Eat Alone and Who’s Got Your Back CEO / Chairman Ferrazzi Greenlight / Relationship Master’s Academy

Keith Ferrazzi is the Founder and CEO of Ferrazzi Greenlight. He provides market leaders with strategic consulting and training services to increase company sales and enhance team performance.

Ferrazzi and his associates are the world’s leading experts in the relational and collaborative sciences. Their research has proven the singular predictive importance of relationships to business success (sales, team performance, and individual career advancement). Their applied work, with thousands of the most respected organizations, has established clear methodologies for accelerating such relationship development.

A frequent contributor to CNN and CNBC, Ferrazzi has authored numerous articles for leading business and consumer publications, including Forbes, Inc., The Wall Street Journal, the Harvard Business Review, and Reader’s Digest.

Ferrazzi was previously chief marketing officer and head of sales at Starwood Hotels, where he oversaw marketing activities for global brands including Sheraton, Westin, The Luxury Collection, St. Regis, and W Hotels. He also served as chief marketing officer for Deloitte Consulting, a leading global management consulting firm, where he developed and managed the industry’s first globally-integrated marketing organization.
Keith can be found online at www.KeithFerrazzi.com or www.RelationshipMastersAcademy.com