BDPA Brotha Shares 10 Sure-Fire Ways to Ruin Your Networking Efforts

I have been in BDPA since 1988. Some of y'all refer to me as the BDPA Brotha! I have shared tips on 'The Art of Networking' in the past. In fact, I recently shared 15 ideas on improving your networking results.

This time I thought that it would be worthwhile to point out ten things that many of us do to the detriment of our networking efforts. Here are 10 things you should *NOT DO* if you want to make your networking work!

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1. Do not abuse your network. Word of mouth will kill you.
2. Do not abuse your contacts. Always honor their right to privacy.
3. Do not burden your network with your problems, but, be willing to listen to advice when you ask for it.
4. Do not develop a reputation for calling *only* when you need a favor.
5. Do not ever think anything can replace real competence.
6. Do not expect anyone to work harder for you than you are willing to work for yourself.
7. Do not expect your network to find you a job.
8. Do not give a referral without first calling ahead to alert your contact.
9. Do not offer negative feedback callously.
10. Do not talk excessively about yourself. Learn how to get your network to do this for you!

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These are some ideas on how you can maximize your positive results from networking. Have you learned the 'hard way' about any of these ten networking errors in the past? Do you have other suggestions that we may have missed?

I will continue to share these 'BDPA Brotha' tips on a semi-regular basis!