The right way to reach the right people
Deric Quaile is a convert to networking. The former chief operating officer of Shell's forestry business arrived back in the UK last year, having supervised the sale of the division and with it the disappearance of his own job.
Zimbabwe-born Mr Quaile, 49, started his job search with just six names on his list of UK contacts.
“I did have a network, but it was in the wrong part of the world and the wrong industry,” he says. “I had to set about building a totally new one from scratch, and that was intimidating.”
Answering job advertisements and contacting head-hunters proved fruitless. His early efforts at networking meetings were unproductive. He finally struck lucky with the 163rd person on his list, an environmental manager at Shell who opened the door to his current job at IUCN The World Conservation Union, which is based in Switzerland.
He met him for coffee to ask about environmental contacts and learned that Shell was planning to second someone to IUCN to help it develop links with business. He applied and got the job.
It might seem surprising that a senior executive would not have a ready-made network. But Mr Quaile's experience is not uncommon.
“A lot of people in the executive world are totally focused on their career and work, and if something goes wrong they can be left quite isolated,” says Virginia Bottomley, head of the board practice at Odgers Ray & Berndtson, the head-hunters.
People who have been at the top can find it hard to start again, she says. But head-hunters like well-networked candidates.
“If you're placing somebody, it gives comfort and confidence to the client if they feel the person being appointed is someone whom others know,” she says.
Mr Quaile was advised to network by Stuart Lindenfield, a senior consultant at DBM, the human resources consulting firm. Mr Lindenfield, who runs workshops on networking, is an extrovert who started a tango club because he wanted to “parade around a dance floor at 2am to candlelight”.
Good networkers do not have to go to these lengths, he says, but they mustbe confident, enthusiastic about meeting people and able to bounce back when rebuffed.
“When people have worked for 25 years in a corporate environment, they think of themselves as part of the machinery and find it difficult to work out what their individual achievement is and what their value is,” he says.
Mr Lindenfield says job titles have limitations. One company had more than 400 people called “project manager”.
He asks participants at his seminars to sum up what they have to offer in no more than seven words. They put this on their business cards or conference name badges to make an impact in new encounters. “Training professional training professionals” is voted a winner. An accountant with a sense of humour dreams up “more value, less added tax”. Other suggestions fall flat, such as “creating positive energies in organisational structures”.
When building networks, he favours alternative routes, not relying exclusively on “the usual suspects” such as fellow professionals on the conference circuit. Family, old-school or university friends, or new friends encountered through a passion for, say, potholing or life drawing can all prove useful.
Mr Lindenfield is an exponent of electronic networking and recommends LinkedIn and Ecademy, the professional networking websites. Having a profile on the internet is important, as contacts may look you up, he says. “What message is conveyed if they struggle to find any reference to you?” he asks.
Mr Quaile has this pointer: “People are willing to help provided you don't waste their time. You must never give people your problem; you must ask them for their advice. Never ask for too much time. It should be a maximum of 20 minutes.”
He says most results come out of the blue: “I was trying to find a specific guy in the environmental field whom I'd heard about, and I couldn't. Low and behold, I found that his daughter and my daughter were in the same class at school.
“The answers are all there, but you've just got to turn every stone.”
企业高管的人脉学
Deric Quaile先生现在转而信奉起 “人际网络”。曾经担任壳牌公司林业部首席运营官的他，去年才回到英国。不过自从在他督管完了本部门的出售事宜，他的职位也随之消失了。
出生于津巴布韦的Quaile先生已经49岁了。于是他从自己联系人名单上的6个英国人着手，开始求职生涯。
“我也有过人际网络，但都在一个错误的地方，错误的行业”，他说道。“我不得不从一张白纸开始重新建立我的人际网络，这着实让人生畏”。
回复招聘广告，联系猎头公司，最后都付诸流水。他最初尝试通过人际网络来找工作，但一无所获。最后，他在名单上第163位联系人那里找到了幸运。这位在壳牌公司担任环境经理的联系人，开启了一扇机会之门，让Quaile先生找到了目前在全球保护组织IUCN（IUCN The World Conservation Union）的工作。该组织总部在瑞士。
Quaile先生约那位联系人喝咖啡，想了解一些关于环境方面的人脉，而后得知壳牌公司正计划临时派人到IUCN工作，以帮助他能够发展在业内关系。于是，Quaile先生就申请了这个职位，且如愿以偿。
一名高级经理人却没有现成的人际网络，这可能会让人会感到有些惊讶。但是Quaile先生的经历却并非非同寻常。
“很多经理人完全专注于他们的职业或者工作，一旦出现什么偏差，他就会陷入一种孤立的境地”，猎头公司Odgers Ray Berndtson董事会负责人维杰尼亚?波特姆勒（Virginia Bottomley）说道。
她说，长居高位后，人们会发现自己很难重新开始。不过猎头公司比较青睐那些人脉关系广泛的职位申请人。
“如果你要任命什么人，假如这个被任命的人大家都认识，那么客户会感到宽心且有信心”，她说道。
之前人力资源顾问公司――DBM公司的高级顾问斯图儿特?林登斐尔德（Stuart Lindenfield）向Quaile先生建议说，应该注重培养人际网络。性格外向的林登斐尔德先生办了几个旨在培养人际关系的讨论小组。他曾经创办了一个探戈舞俱乐部，目的是想“在舞厅里一列列地翩翩起舞，从临晨2点一直跳到黄昏”。
他表示，善于交际的人就不需要费那么多劲了，但他们对交际必须充满自信且激情洋溢，即使遭到拒绝，也能很快恢复状态。
“在一个公司的环境里工作了25年后，人们会认为自己是企业机器的一部分，然后就很难评估出真正的个人成就和自身价值”，他说道。
林登斐尔德先生表示，职位上的头衔很具有局限性。一个公司，可能会有400多个被称为“项目经理”的人。
在他的讲座上，他会让参加者用不多于7个词，来概括他们所能提供的东西。以后他们就可以把这些词印在他们的名片或者会议的名牌上，给新结交的人留下深刻印象。“培训专业人员的专家”被选为最佳概括语。一个富有幽默感的会计师梦想自己能够做大“更多价值，更少增值税”。其他话语就有些平淡，比如“为组织结构创造积极力量”等。
在构建人际网络的同时，他还喜欢另一种方法。这种方法不依赖于在会议中遇到同行等这样的“常规性推想”。家庭，老同学，大学朋友，甚或在兴趣活动中，比如说探勘地上坑洞（potholing）运动或者写生等结识的新朋友，可能都非常有用。
林登斐尔德先生也是网络交友的簇拥者，他推荐了两个专业的交友网站：LinkedIn和 Ecademy。他说，把个人简介放到互联网上非常重要，因为联系人可以据此查找你。“如果他们要费力寻找一些与你相关的资料，这传达了怎样的信息？”他问道。
Quaile先生的体会是：“假如只是举手之劳，人们还是很乐意伸出援手的。但是你不要把自己的困难转嫁给别人。你应该征求他们意见。不要问个没完没了，最多不能超过20分钟”。
他说大部分收获都是“踏破铁鞋无觅处，得来全不费功夫”。“我想找一位环境方面的人士，费很大劲都没有找到。没想到低头一看，我发现那个人的女儿和我女儿竟是同班同学”。
“其实答案就在你眼前，不过你已经翻遍了每块石头”。
