The Connect Effect. Building Strong Personal, Professional, and Virtual Networks

We live and work in a time of rapid and unprecedented change. Up and down the corporate ladder, the challenge to cultivate strong networks confronts nearly everyone in business today, whether it's the public or private sector and regardless of industry. Beyond merely widening the circle of people you know, strong networks foster deeper learning and broaden your exposure across a range of issues. Effective investments in your networks can make you smarter, more knowledgeable and better grounded, as well as a more agile learner and collaborator. And an MIT/Sloan Management Review article titled 'The Social Side of Performance' stated, 'What really distinguishes high performers from the rest of the pack is their ability to maintain and leverage personal networks. The most effective create and tap large, diversified networks that are rich in experience and span all organisational boundaries.'Aspiring and experienced professional alike ignore networking at their own peril. Unfortunately, few of us are born networkers and it's a skill that's rarely taught.In The Connect Effect, entrepreneur and executive development expert Mike Dulworth provides readers with a simple networking framework and user-friendly set of tools for developing a 1) personal, 2) professional/organisational and 3) virtual networking strategy. To accelerate your personal and professional growth, enhancing your networks must become a much bigger part of your development plan. This book describes how to evaluate your current networking resources, what participation in networks involves and the many personal and professional benefits you can expect to gain from investing in your network development. Drawing on his 20 years of experience as an entrepreneur and an expert in executive development, Dulworth's guide offers a field-tested process for building and maintaining a high quality personal network and a brief NQ (Networking Quotient) assessment provides readers with a baseline measure of their network and networking capabilities. The book provides a roadmap to improving your own NQ.