It gets to a stage in your career or in the growth of your business, where your technical skills are a given. What becomes more important is how resourceful you are, how many doors you can open, and how many problems you can solve.
Evaluation of successful business founders shows some common personality traits such as strong work ethics, passion and drive, resilience, and networking and relationship building abilities. The ability to network and build relationships is a critical success trait for successful founders. In that case, it is a critical success attribute for the continuous growth and development of any business.
Therefore, not teaching your children to network deprives them of a significant skill for success. The question is how will you do that as a parent or founder?
The Christmas season is a great opportunity to do the following:
- Educate on networking:
- Show them the importance of networking.
- Teach them the art of approaching important people you don't know.
- Help them craft a great thirty-second introductory pitch.
- Teach them how to spot opportunities.
- Ahead of events:
- Teach them how to research people ahead of events.
- Teach them how to find a few key targets for engagement ahead of the event.
- Teach them how to remember key conversation pointers and how to use them.
- At events:
- Take your next gen to various events.
- Introduce them to a wide network of people across many sectors.
- Give them 'introduce yourself' targets and make it fun!
- After the event:
- Help them craft their 'Thank you' text or email and ensure they send it.
- Teach them how to stay in touch.
- Teach them the art of thinking win-win in relationship building.
A critical success factor in making your next gen networking gurus is ensuring they work from their personality strengths. The sanguine, with their 'know-no-stranger' attitude, brings a positivity that people love. The choleric creates invigorating conversations and confidently commands a crowd. The melancholic excels in providing detailed knowledge about topics of interest, while the phlegmatic is an amazing listener who makes others feel truly heard.
While personalities are not always so cut-and-dried, helping your next gen networking gurus build on their strengths will make it easier for them to turn networking into a lifestyle.
Successful wealth transition involves more than just transferring financial assets. Educate your children about the pillars of non-financial wealth. This holiday season, focus on teaching them the art of networking.
The opinion expressed in this article is solely personal and does not represent the views of any organization or association to which the authors belong.
