I was interviewed for an article on networking recently and was asked when was the first time I used networking as a skill?? My answer.. I’ve been networking my entire life, I was brought up to value the people closest to me to maintain contact with them and to simply ‘be nice to everyone’ .
My mum (Delma) is the best networker I know and keeps incredible 
records you see she has a book that contains birthdays for our entire extended family, their partners, children and even some in-laws! She can tell you when they were born, engaged, married, died, anniversaries you name it, it is in the book. It lists all her friends and their
details as well, it can tell you where I have worked, lived and holidayed, who my friends are and what they do and yes even their birthdays.
When I was young I could never quite ‘get’ why my mum made friends with so many people, now I know – she simply talks to people and asks questions and takes a genuine interest in what they do. She has friends all over this great country of ours and knows exactly who to call for assistance for anything. You need to allow a good hour to visit the local supermarket with her as she knows nearly everyone that walks past!
The interview got me thinking about modeled behaviour and when I look back I had the best networking role model I could possibly ask for. She was was the one who taught me the valuable lesson of smiling at everyone you meet in Delma’s words ‘if you smile at someone, they can’t help but smile back’.
Who in your life models exceptional networking skills? and what have you learnt from them?
Cheers
Sue
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