By Harvey Mackay
You’ve decided to build one of the best networks the world has ever seen. You’ve started with your family, moved to your extended family – and their extended family – and then networked up, down and sideways at work.
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Now what? I would make tapping into the following four groups my next step. Be it bowling, bridge or helping kids sell cookies, the power of club membership is far-reaching. It will propel your career – and change your life.
Alumni Clubs: Some universities have better alumni networks than others. Graduates of the service academies are so tight with their classmates that they’re called “knuckle knockers,” because of the large class rings they wear from the day they graduate until they run out of days. The Ivy League has always had a well-deserved reputation as the mother church of the old-boys network. Both are good, but I count three schools as the best of the lot: Wellesley, Notre Dame and the University of Southern California.
Wellesley, because the Wellesley network is the strongest female power structure in the country. Wellesley was preparing women to assume leadership positions in roles that had been traditionally reserved for men long before the rest of the world became aware that women were capable of performing these roles.
Notre Dame, because Notre Dame football is such a national treasure that everyone, it seems, regardless of religion, has two alma maters, their own and Notre Dame. Each alum is a lifetime talent scout for the school, and every Saturday during football season they renew their commitment.
But the University of Southern California tops my list, and not just because I spoke to their MBA students earlier this month. They’ve also got the football thing, of course, à la Notre Dame. The reason, though, is the well-worn description of the alumni network that fits it perfectly: the Southern Cal Mafia. I don’t know if they take a blood oath to help, hire, mentor and generally take care of one other, but they act as if they had. From the day you graduate, the USC network is there for you. And, in turn, you as a graduate are expected to be there for other USC alumni.
Industry Associations: Trade groups are happy hunting grounds for networking in many ways. If you’re active in your trade club, you’re in position to pick up major clues about what your competition is up to. Have a lot of the old gang from company X dropped out recently? What’s the buzz around the buffet table? Maybe company X is on the verge of Chapter 11.
Many managers troll for executive talent at the local chapter of their industry associations. There’s always a lot of gossip at these gatherings. If you’re headhunting, it’s a great place to find out which frogs may be ready to jump to a new lily pad.
Social Clubs: Are the golf clubs, social clubs and the athletic clubs important parts of a network? You bet they are. More deals are probably closed in these places than in all the offices in the country combined. (Well, maybe not quite as many, but how else to justify the time and expense to our bosses?) Fellow club members are familiar faces, and there’s a natural tendency to feel comfortable with people you see regularly.
The club is also invaluable as a place to entertain business associates or prospective customers. It’s a lot less grueling and usually more convenient than having to entertain at home – maybe even less expensive. It also has more panache than taking the “One Who Must Be Impressed” to a public restaurant. After all, it is your club.
Hobbies: Hobbies always have represented a great way to make contacts across a broad and diverse spectrum, because buffs often are scattered all over the map and can be found at all income, age and social levels. Hobbyists tend to rate one other on their knowledge and hobby-related skills, so hobby networking remains pretty much a meritocracy, a nicely democratic way of evaluating your fellow human beings.
Networking is not a numbers game. The idea is not to see how many people you can meet; the idea is to compile a list of people you can count on.
Mackay’s Moral: As the world changes, one thing will remain constant: The relationships you develop over a lifetime.
