Index of

If you consider yourself overwhelmed or unconnected, there is a
good chance you att empted to network in the past, and have since
decided you’d rather schedule a root-canal than att end your next
mandatory business event.
Standard networking advice is extrovert-centric and fails most
introverts and centroverts. Many of these folks proceed to interpret
this disconnect as their own shortcoming. “If that is how to network
successfully, then I am a networking train wreck.” I’ve lost track of
how many introverts have informed me, with deep conviction, “I am
a terrible networker.” As if this conviction is an indisputable fact and
there’s nothing we mortals can do about it.
Typical advice isn’t inherently fl awed; it’s just geared to a subgroup
of the population. Let’s say I lived in Miami and wrote a book on how
to locate palm trees. “Go outside, walk around a while, and you’ll come
across one soon enough,” I would write, and it would be solid advice
in Florida. Yet a devotee of my writing in Boise may walk around for a
couple of days and reach the conclusion he isn’t cut out to discover palm
trees. Eventually he may realize the book simply wasn’t writt en for him.
My sparkling new rules are custom-designed for people who hate
networking. I’ve discovered this group encompasses a cross-section
of introverts, centroverts, and even extroverts. A bonus of these rules
is that they also serve those who already love networking, teaching
them how to bett er relate to those with diff erent styles.
Rewrite the Rules
Typical tips are not particularly useful for networking-haters. We do
not succeed by denying our natural temperaments; we succeed by
working with our strengths.
Why does the same advice that makes extroverts giddy sink like a
rock in the stomach of introverts? Experiences that fi ll an extrovert
with glee make an introvert feel inauthentic and exhausted.
48 NETWORKING FOR PEOPLE WHO HATE NETWORKING