Breakthrough Networking with Lillian D. Bjorseth

They are signs of the times. Your neighbors losing their jobs. Home foreclosures. Difficulty getting business loans. Associates still driving their 2003 (and earlier!) cars.

They all deal with financial capital … or the lack thereof.

What complicates these situations for so many people is the lack of another vital kind of capital – the social kind. A type that many people don’t bother to build, especially when the economy is good and they have a job they think is solid. After all, why take personal time to attend after-hour networking events or spend weekends on LinkedIn or Facebook tweaking your profile or responding to group postings.

Starting today, it will be my monthly privilege to share information I have garnered about building social capital from a Fortune 100 career as well as the owner of two companies and experiences from speaking, training and coaching nationwide and the author of myriad products.

I learned as a young woman in what was then an even more male-dominated corner-office environment that what I knew was secondary to whom I knew. I’ve had some powerful male mentors who taught me quickly that power by association was just as powerful as that associated with title …when used professionally.

I learned through experience to listen and ponder rather than speak and share when I spent time behind closed doors with vice presidents … and me. My power by association gained me access.

Building social capital, your network of knob turners, is analogous. Relationships, first and foremost, are built on trust. Listening and pondering will help to establish that trust much more quickly than speaking and sharing all you know about others or yourself. In the former case, you might say what was shared with you as a trusted colleague or in the latter, you may appear to be egotistical or too full of yourself.

You invest money and gain interest or buy property to get equity to build financial capital. Building social capital is about investing mostly time and giving unselfishly to gain more contacts to build a network of personal and professional relationships.

Social capital takes precedence in your success over degrees and job experience until you have managed to get inside the door. In fact, until you have built a network of “knob turners,” you may struggle to even get a job interview and the appointment for a loan.

So how, do you accumulate the quality and quantity of knob turners you want and need to accomplish your goals? Stayed tuned month after month after month. That’s what this column will be all about!

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Lillian D. Bjorseth is the President of Duoforce Enterprises, Inc., speaker, and author of several books including her latest: Breakthrough Networking. She is also the co-founder of the Greater Chicago Networking Extravaganza which is now entering its eighth year.
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