Networking skills to make personal connections

Long-term care (LTC) professionals are well aware that our jobs, our facilities, and our patients’ expectations have radically changed in the past few years. Although the technical and medical changes in the LTC environment have been profound, our social mechanisms have evolved more slowly. (This is not a unique phenomenon!) With the expanding networks of local regulatory agencies, healthcare providers, community organizations, and fellow providers, to name but a few, we communicate with a wide variety of organizations and individuals in the course of doing our jobs.

What can you do to break through these somewhat impersonal, bureaucratic, or frenetic organizations to get what you need quickly and efficiently? Not surprisingly, you’ll find most people are responsive when they have a personal relationship with you. That translates as building solid networks to draw upon to get results. Connections are the coin of the realm, and the secret is to know how to make those connections work for you. In other words, develop your networking skills to make personal connections that can make your job easier.

What is networking?

Networking is really small talk with a target. Networking is one of the critical skills necessary to be successful on your job. Even if you would characterize your current networking abilities as effective, you may feel that certain areas could be improved upon. Some examples are: ways you communicate, how you handle personality differences, or persuade others. The secret is knowing how to turn casual conversations into useful connections.

Networking is…

• …the deliberate process of exchanging information, resources, support, and access in such a way as to create mutually beneficial alliances for personal and professional success.

• …building the right relationships with the right people to provide information, support, influence, and development.

• …creating collective environments where people learn from each other, share resources, and build positive working relationships.

Types of networks

Human beings are social animals and we engage in a variety of interactions with others. Therefore, we have several different types of networks to enhance our personal as well as professional lives. Here are the four types of networks that define our relationships with the many individuals on whom we rely, and who, in turn, rely on us.

1. Personal networks. Your family, friends, and close associates. You usually choose these types of networks through mutual interests, liking, and long-term connections. Personal networks are more social than other types of networks, and are based on exchange of help and support.

2. Organizational networks. Business teams, project groups, committees, and councils. These networks are focused on whom you need to know in your facility in order to meet objectives within a specific time frame. These networks are based on power, knowledge, and influence. One strategy when joining a new department or facility/provider is to identify as quickly as possible the organizational network-especially those with power (overt and covert) and influence.

3. Professional networks. Colleagues, peers. Professional networks are based on common work interests and tasks in the world of long-term care, and are about what people know. They can be internal or external, such as professional network organizations.

4. Strategic networks. External contacts and connections. With increased complexity, regulation, and patient expectations, look to form or join alliances with individuals from organizations as varied as community institutions, local regulatory agencies, nearby hospitals, or clinics.

To summarize, networks are…

• comprised of people and groups

• flexible and permeable

• powerful for generating solutions, seizing opportunities, and getting things done

• vehicles for professional development

• keys to dispensing high-quality care

Four stages of networking

Now that you are familiar with the different types of networks, it is important to understand how your networking relationships get established. Networking is a process; it is the opposite of an instantaneous or isolated incident. Networking takes time, effort, and careful nurturing of the relationship to bear fruit. That is, after selecting a group of people who can contribute to your professional life-and to whose success you can contribute-you work on building the relationship.

Consider the networking process as consisting of four different stages: Getting, Exchanging, Understanding, and Mutual Benefit. This process is a building block of four steps, with Mutual Benefit being the highest step, or stage. Look at each stage:

• STAGE 1: Getting

  Networking is not just about taking, although it is true that beginning networkers usually focus on “what’s in it for me.” Most people who begin to network focus, at least initially, on trying to get something for themselves. There’s nothing wrong with wanting your efforts to pay off. But that’s only part of the story. The best networkers approach the process from the point of view that they want something and they want to be a valuable contact in turn. Think of your own experiences with people. When someone helps you, don’t you want to give back even more than you got? That’s just human nature!

• STAGE 2: Exchanging

  The point of networking is to exchange something of value. Trades do accomplish that. The taking and trading stage usually produces a one time networking outcome-you gave and got something. For example, you may have created a simplified checklist for your facility which may be equally useful at a state association. The smart networker doesn’t stop here-she or he works to create a networking relationship out of this one-time trade.

• STAGE 3: Understanding

  This phase builds the relationship by teaching other people what you need-and learning what they need. Take the time to be interested in your person and his/her concerns. Put your antenna up for resources, ideas, tips, information, or access that you could give to the contact. For example, if your facility hired a terrific design firm to create a comfortable and practical recreation room in a small space, why not invite a peer with similar space challenges to see it?

  Remember the old adage, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” This is too simple for a savvy networker. What you know is important. It’s your skills, experiences, knowledge. Who you know is important, too. These people are your resources for ideas, referrals, references, and assistance in general. More important than what and who you know is who knows you. Networking is about making who knows you as important as what you know and who you know.

• STAGE 4: Mutual Benefit

  This is the stage when the relationship becomes most valuable. All relationship networking aims for mutual trust, so that when each party recommends the other, it can be done knowing that this contact will reflect well on the individual making the recommendation. For example, you can establish a relationship with an appropriate individual who works at a neighborhood hospital, perhaps working together on an issue that affects both institutions.

Conclusion

Now that you are familiar with the different types of networks, and the incremental stages that culminate in a win-win outcome for you and your networking partner(s), you’re ready to create powerful networks of your own. You, your facility, residents, and colleagues just may find some “angels” out there to lend assistance when it’s needed most.

Yael Sara Zofi is the Founder and CEO of AIM Strategies® (Applied Innovative Management®), a New York City-based people management consulting firm focused on bringing applied behavioral science techniques to managing businesses in healthcare and related fields. She recently published a booklet on networking called, “Work Your Network: Making Impactful Business Connections” which is available via Amazon or through the AIM Web site. Her healthcare clients include large pharmaceutical organizations as well as hospitals and medical facilities. Before establishing AIM Strategies® in 1998, she was the Global Vice-President of Performance Management, Leadership, and Organizational Development for J.P. Morgan. As a Professor at New York University, she designed and taught the courses “Leadership and Business Transformation,” “Leadership and Management Skills,” and “Management Principles and Ethical Practices.” Susan Meltzer has worked in the HR field for more than 25 years.

For further information, visit https://www.aim-strategies.com. To send your comments to the editor, e-mail mhrehocik@iadvanceseniorcare.com.

Long-Term Living 2010 January;59(1):42-43