December might be the busiest month for networking events with the holidays bringing office parties, and events sponsored by trade associations, vendors, and civic groups. It’s important to network, but it’s really easy to fall into the trap of overdoing it. So how do you decide when to go and when to stay home?
Here are a few questions to help you decide:
Here are a few questions to help you decide:
- Let’s start here- answer this question: Are you exhausted? If the answer is yes, and you have an event scheduled that evening, put yourself first and stay home. Being over tired at a gathering never makes a good impression and chances are you won’t be enthusiastic about chatting with people.
- Have you attended more than three networking holiday parties this week and it’s only Thursday? If so, you are on the way to overload. Being out the majority of the week for networking events starts to show diminishing returns. “ I feel like I see you everywhere” can be code for, “ don’t you have a personal life?” When people are seen at just about every event it begins to look like they don’t value their own time.
- Are you really getting good connections and building relationships with the events that you go to? After each one write down the names of people you met that you actually plan to follow up with and get to know better. If you find yourself leaving parties feeling like you talked to everyone but connected with no one, it’s time to think about whether you are spreading yourself too thin.
- And finally are you finding yourself frequently cancelling at the last minute because you just can’t face one more lunch, dinner or cocktail party? Before RSVP’ing, take time to REALLY consider if you want to go to whatever it is you’re committing to. It’s far better to say you can’t attend in advance than to cancel or, even worse, to not show up. People who are frequent no-shows tend to eventually get a reputation for not being reliable, and run the risk of being dropped from future guest lists.
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