Jan 12

Jan 12 How to be professionally friendly. While sober.

It’s Tuesday morning. You’re about to meet someone important. Unfortunately, it’s 11am – so bonding over cups of alcohol isn’t an option.

I know many incredibly talented people who could think of nothing more terrifying than being put in this situation. However, like most things anxiety-inducing, the first few moments are the hardest. After that, it’s all down the proverbial hill.

For me, icebreakers, or networking in general, is the ability to talk about anything other than what you’re expected to actually talk about.

Here are some options:

Something Annoying

Don’t confuse this with life problems. People you don’t know yet aren’t usually keen to hear about you, or your kids getting over the flu. But, what if your car radio broke on the way to work? What if it was stuck on full volume? And what if it was stuck on the classical station? What was it like pulling up at the lights? Now that’s worth talking about.

Sourdough

Another way to be interesting is to be interested in lots of stuff. I recently started making my own sourdough bread. I’ve been bringing loaves along to new meetings. If it’s of interest, I spend the first few minutes running through the process.

The AFR

Subscribe to some kind of quality news service. Have a couple of opinion pieces up your sleeve. It doesn’t even have to be industry specific. If you know the ins and outs of a Presidential Impeachment and can give this morning’s latest – it’s a good look.

If they say “How was your weekend?”

Answering “Oh, pretty quiet…” is networking suicide. A better answer, is something that warrants a follow-up question. Creative side projects are great fodder for this.

“I managed to map out the structure of a documentary I’m making.” What’s it about?

“I finished guest editing an issue of Gabberish.” What’s Gabberish?

“I finished a great book by Edward Debono.” Who’s he?

And without stating the obvious…

Make sure you ask reciprocal questions. If someone asks you how your weekend was, make sure you throw that ball back over the net once you’re done. I have seen very senior people get this wrong. It’s simple to do – yet easy to forget.