Hate Networking? Here Are Four Tips To Improve Your Skills
About 8–9 months ago, I decided to join a Chamber of Commerce. Okay, full disclosure, a friend of mine highly encouraged me to join. To be honest, I wasn’t totally into it.
See, I am not much into all this self-marketing. I am more of an anti-marketing type of person. When I was in college, I set up a bone marrow drive for a little boy with leukemia. I saw the local new station pull in by the gym (where the event was being held) and immediately beelined it across campus and stayed out of sight for the time they were there. I feign needing to go get something, when in reality, I just didn’t want to be interviewed.
Scroll ahead 30 years, and I am not much different. Happy to be in the background. Never wrote an award for myself. Cringed when I was brought up to be recognized for anything.
And here I am…joining a Chamber…to network. Give me strength.
The simple fact is we are not taught how to network in the military. Maybe more on the staffer side, but definitely not on the operational side. The networking we were taught was how to get in with the logistic guys to get the supplies we needed.
When we get out, we are all kinds of lost. For starters, we have no idea how to explain our value to civilians. I mean seriously, how exactly do we…
