Diversify Your Network

A major key to success in building a powerful business network is diversity. If you have issues with diversity in your workplace, talk to Linda Linehan of Abbeville Associates. But I am writing here about having a diverse network of business contacts.

It’s natural to club together with people like ourselves. We feel comfortable and it’s easier to connect with those of a similar education, sex, age, race, professional status, etc. A lot of our friends and associates know each other and we find ourselves naturally drawn to their company.

The danger is that you surround yourself with like-minded people who all have similar contacts to yours, and you may find it hard to bring into your network the new people and companies with whom you want to do business. If you remain in the same close circle, your exposure to new business opportunities will remain limited, and this may be a recipe for a slow business decline and even death.

There’s a world of opportunity out there, if only you could connect with it! You may be well connected within one network, but there are lots of other networks all around. You need connectors, or lynchpins, the people whose interests span multiple networks. Get them into your network and you will have bridges into new networks with people with different interests and contacts.

The best way to increase the number of lynchpins in your network is to develop a diverse network, not a homogeneous one. The more diverse your network, the more likely it is that it will contain lynchpins who will connect you to people you would never have imagined. When it comes to business networking, you never know who people know.

One of the best referrals I have had came from a Dutch interior designer. There’s not much direct relevance between interior design and high-end strategy consulting, but, at a dinner party with her partner and his best friend, she heard about the friend’s new job as CEO of a biotech start-up company. The designer thought there might be some mutual interest and made the introduction, and I have been working with the CEO to develop the business plan and get the company up and running. If he raises the first round of finance—fingers crossed, any day now—and maybe even if he doesn’t, that dinner party conversation and the new network it has opened up for me may become, over the next few years, a six-figure sum or more of value for me!

The lesson is that someone you don’t appear to have a lot in common with might just be the connector or lynchpin to a world of people you would not otherwise meet. The more diverse your network, the stronger it will be, and the more opportunities it will present. So overcome the natural bias that stops you networking with people outside your normal circle.

Build a diverse network of professional contacts who don’t look like you, sound like you or speak like you, and with whom you don’t share your background, education or history. Just be sure that they are good at what they do. Create that kind of network and success will be yours!

Actin this week! Find a networking group, one you have not attended before, and arrange to attend one of its events within the next month. When you arrive, introduce yourself to a complete stranger, preferably someone as unlike yourself as possible. Assuming there is some initial response—ie, the other person is open to diversity too—find out about their network and stay in touch. In time, ask this new friend to introduce you to their circle of contacts.

This article is similar to an educational talk I gave at a BNI Premier networking breakfast. It is based on material in The 29% Solution by Ivan Misner.