Connecting your new ‘friends’ in business can be valuable. You must take heed in how this is done. Making unsolicited, blind, single opt-in introductions to please a new friend is a pretty big offense as a professional. It makes gross assumptions about the interests of your offended target. It puts all three of you in a precarious position of awkward social, uncertain territory and forces your offended target to either ignore you, privately message you back, or worse, school you on proper email etiquette with a strong possibility of public shaming in an email response that includes your new friend.
It’s better to ask than it is to assume that you know what your target contact currently wants, has time for, or any interest in. Your friend may not be a priority or interest.
So, be professional and conduct yourself with a level of executive decorum that makes people smile and admire your social grace, etiquette and excellence in social comportment. This is attractive to others and endears people to you.
There are two great ways to reach out to your target contacts. In both ways, you first provide context, color and thoughts. Either form of this simple email note ensures value creation and a successful introduction for the benefit of all parties:
Connecting your new ‘friends’ in business can be valuable. You must take heed in how this is done. Making unsolicited, blind, single opt-in introductions to please a new friend is a pretty big offense as a professional. It makes gross assumptions about the interests of your offended target. It puts all three of you in a precarious position of awkward social, uncertain territory and forces your offended target to either ignore you, privately message you back, or worse, school you on proper email etiquette with a strong possibility of public shaming in an email response that includes your new friend.
It’s better to ask than it is to assume that you know what your target contact currently wants, has time for, or any interest in. Your friend may not be a priority or interest.
So, be professional and conduct yourself with a level of executive decorum that makes people smile and admire your social grace, etiquette and excellence in social comportment. This is attractive to others and endears people to you.
There are two great ways to reach out to your target contacts. In both ways, you first provide context, color and thoughts. Either form of this simple email note ensures value creation and a successful introduction for the benefit of all parties:
VERSION 1 — You write a direct note to your target contact (DO NOT COPY YOUR FRIEND):
“Hi Julie, I met Bob the founder of NewCo earlier today and think he has assembled a great team, strong product and great early traction with their AI SaaS engine. They’ve signed 8 big name clients and a bunch of smaller ones. Want an intro?”
If Julie says yes, then some form of this:
“Hi Julie & Bob, It is my pleasure to intro you. I’ve mentioned you briefly to each other and am certain you will both enjoy meeting up. I’ll leave you from here. Best, Dave”
VERSION 2 — Ask your ‘friend’ to send you a blurb along with any info that you can forward along with an endorsement or simple ask. This could be easier & faster for you and looks something like this:
Hi Julie — please see note below from Bob. NewCo is interesting and I like him. Feel free to follow up directly and mention my name or let me know if you’d like an intro? Best, Dave”
Success in business requires being selective about your relationships, making new friends, connections and nurturing your relationships. Cultivating important relationships over the long term requires you to conduct yourself in a way that makes others want to nurture your relationship back. Relationships are a place to give, not take. Be respectful of people’s time, energy & bandwidth.
And remember, the Golden Rule is golden for a reason.
The most highly qualified, high caliber talent that you need are not unemployed, sitting on a couch eating potato chips, waiting for the phone to ring.
The three truths about high achievers are that:
They are good at what they do.
People like them.
And they are generally capable of creating the circumstances in their lives for this thing called happiness.
So, at a minimum, they are at least mildly interested, actively engaged in whatever they are currently doing. Recruiting is about disrupting their comfort to ‘extract and secure’ the talent you need for your company.
You must believe that everybody is on the market for the right set of circumstances. Identify who are the all stars that you need inside of your company, extract and secure them. It’s not easy. Stop whining. Be persistent.
People. Idea. Capital. Capital is abundant. Idea is over-rated, more important than an idea is execution. Execution is all about people. So, you are left with people and capital. People are by far the most important.
The advantage that agency recruiters have in assessing the best talent, culture fit and securing the right hires is that we get to go in clean and clear of predisposed notions or any colored thinking about your company.
Offering candidates clean, objective, unbiased data about the market, compensation and opportunities with the leading executive teams in growth companies is valuable in creating a relationship, first.
To understand first, a candidates motivations and where they are trying to get to, allows for trust and a better partnership in career guidance.
Social media, blogging can be distracting. Staying focused on the primary work is the key for creating high-quality results, first.
The best self promoters and propaganda creators are not the best at what they do. It’s important to prioritize high-quality work, first.
So much noise, people want to be marketed to less and less.
Say meaningful, thoughtful things.
Connecting is more important than noise.
When you’ve identified the people with whom you want to connect, find out about them and connect with them in a way that is more interesting.
Connect as a human being first. Understand their interests.
Triathlons and Ironman racing is awesome. Fitness is a great way to make connections!
Great recruiting can only happen by building trust and being an effective partner to the top executives in your market.
Talk for as long as possible about human interests — rapport, laughter and common interests create real connection.
People want to do business with people who are like them. Find the similarities, the things that bring you closer. Delay for as long as possible talking about business. Learn about their deepest desires, dreams and motivations. Only this way can you then jump in to help them and be an effective partner to them.
To lead is to recruit and build culture. Make recruiting and culture your strategic competitive advantage. And, make leadership your legacy.
These were some of the insightful takeaways from a great panel discussion. In attendance were some of the brightest stars in human resources, talent acquisition and People teams from NYC tech and from all around the country at the JobMobile Summit. The panel was led by Career Advice Expert Amanda Augustine, CPCC and included Cat Hernandez @CatMHernandez, Deb Josephs, and Susan Yun @SusanEYun.
The Nobel-Prize winning author, Isaac Bashevis Singer said “Two important things are to have a genuine interest in people and to be kind to them. Kindness, I’ve discovered, is everything.”
