How much time should you allocate to Network Building?

How much time should you allocate to Network Building?

Consistent network building is the prerequisite for having a large, growing advocating network.
Having said that, there is no obligation to build a network.

It’s up to the individual to decide if they want to just enjoy networking with others in the CC or if they want to build their network and contribute to the growth of the CC and achieve much greater personal benefits as a result.

Given that network-building takes consistent effort, it’s good to remind ourselves of the benefits of network-building compared with networking. So let’s re-look at some of these.

You are building an exponentially growing asset. In other words, you are feeding the goose that lays the golden egg.
In the process of building your network, you clarify what could now become possible for you because you are building an exponentially growing network.
As you meet people and listen to their ideas, it helps you discover exciting ideas that you can implement.
When it comes time to implement your ideas, you have a large group of supporters who are willing to advocate for and support you in any way they can.
You can connect an increasing number of people with each other. This means you can help an increasing number of people achieve their goals.
You develop valuable leadership skills that can be applied in any situation.
You learn about people and what motivates them on mass and individually. As a result, you develop people skills, become more intuitive about working with your team members and develop your emotional intelligence.

What kind of activities do we categorise as network-building?

1. Conducting Discovery calls with people you already know or are meeting for the first time.
2. Reaching out to others you have not yet met on LinkedIn.
3. Helping your team members on board their new team members.
4. Attending CC Intro sessions with your guests.

What kind of activities do we categorise as networking rather than network building?

1. Attending CC meetings such as workshops, results accelerators and SIG’s

Such meetings are usually great experiences. And in many cases, you will meet others that you will be able to help by advocating for them to people you know (and vice versa).

Attending these meetings help you accomplish great things through the people who are already part of the CC. However, attending these meetings does nothing to expand the number of people who participate in these meetings.

2. Having 1 on 1 Zoom meetings with others you have met in the CC

These meetings can be inspiring - especially when they represent the opportunity to create business for you.

However, it’s always good to remind yourself that receiving increased business should never prevent you from feeding the goose that lays the golden egg.

Before receiving an avalanche of new business, it’s essential to establish mini-habits that will allow you to consistently spend some time on network building activities.

3. Advocating for other CC members
It takes time to help your team members and others in the CC meet contacts that could be very valuable for them.

Although this is a very worthwhile activity, we do not categorise it as network building.

How much time should you allocate to network-building?

We recommend you decide on a level of personal network-building activity that you can consistently maintain.

For example, you may decide that you can easily send out a minimum of 5 invitations to connect on Linkedin every day. How long would that take? About 5 minutes a day.

If your team members sent out 5 invitations per day, how long would it take for them to achieve Core-5 based on that activity alone? Based on our experience, it should take about 40 days (roughly 2 months).

What about the time taken to onboard new team members?

We suggest that you have an onboarding session each week with a new team member for roughly 4-6 weeks. This onboarding period allows you to build your relationship with your new team members as well as helping them to learn the how-to’s via our Syllabus. After the initial onboarding period, you can decide to modify the frequency with which you meet. This could be every 2 weeks or monthly as an example.

It is essential to help your new team members onboard their team members.

This can be time-consuming. However, it is essential to realise that you are looking for leaders. When you find a leader who is ready to commit to building their network, they will gradually take over the building and ownership of their group. This means you can gradually decrease the amount of time you spend in that group. As a result, you can add value, and you don’t have to do all the day-to-day work.

In conclusion, it is very exciting to realise what building a team of team-building advocates can help you achieve. Amazing things become possible when you learn how to build advocating teams of people. At the same time, it will take deliberate focus to establish the consistent network building habits required to create an extensive network.