Tool 4: Networking Quadrant

Hi, I’m Ted Fleming, author of “Develop: 7 Practical Tools to Take Charge of Your Career“. This series covers the seven tools I share in my book.

Tool four is the networking quadrant, developed with a friend of mine Bill Varnell. It looks at four key elements that you need in order to take advantage of an opportunity: people have to know you, like you, know your work, and like your work. I combined those four elements to create four quadrants.

The first quadrant is the “Peer” quadrant. These are people that know and like your work but they don’t know you that well. When you’re networking with these folks, it should be more informal so that they know you better personally.

The second is the “Client” quadrant. They know you and like you and know your work and like your work. So when you’re networking in this quadrant, you don’t need any fancy lunches or coffees. Just share your ambitions and what you’re trying to accomplish.

The third quadrant is the “Social” quadrant. These people know you and like you but they don’t know anything about your work. These are family, or friends, or people from college. Your networking should focus on who they know in their network that can help you achieve your ambitions.

The final quadrant is “Traditional” and this is why we all hate networking. I don’t know you, you don’t know me. So, if you’re going to bother to spend the time to build a new relationship, it should be a very powerful one. So, what I ask clients to do is identify a “wow person”. Who is the person that if they got to know you could make your career dreams come true.