What is a networking plateau and what to do about it?
“You did excellent work this week.”
Weeks of struggle with an impossible rhythmic piece had amounted to this moment. My teacher no longer looked at me with a desperate look but gave me THE compliment. I had crushed my guitar plateau the same way I had done with my networking plateaus earlier on.
It started with some networking mishaps: canceled meetings, unanswered emails, talking points that no longer worked. I felt like a beginner again, not grasping what I was doing wrong for my networking to have fallen flat. I had hit a plateau. What to do?
1. Is it really a networking plateau?
Just as with the guitar, I asked myself “Why”? What was the origin of my issue? For the guitar, it was the moment my teacher had moved me up to the next grade. Was the new level too demanding for me? As for the networking, was my goal still aligned with my strategy?
In some instances, questioning my strategy made me realize my objectives had changed, but not the way I networked. Adapting my technique was all I needed to do. But in other cases, even changing my methods was not enough and I concluded I was dealing with a plateau.
2. Keep going but differently.
This is where most people stop and say “Networking is a waste of time.” But I didn’t forget a plateau is also proof I am taking my networking to the next level. For example, I once started out with ‘low-risk’ contacts and then moved up to the ‘high risk’-ones.
Such contacts need another approach that takes time to learn. I took fewer meetings and prepared more thoroughly the ones I took. I asked for help by talking to my mentor. I gained perspective by contacting a long-lost friend for a casual chat. I took some distance.
3. Be patient, getting on the other side is worth it.
When will it end? Who knows! My long-standing practice of the classical guitar, however, did teach me something. Some guitar plateaus disappear in days in opposition to this last one which took its time. But I have not played the guitar with so much joy in a very long time.
Same for my networking plateau. One day, I was having a coffee with someone I wouldn’t have dared to approach months ago. Now, I was sitting at the same table and the discussion was going well, very well. My work and persistence were paying off.
And yours will too, don’t give up just yet!
Have you gone through a networking plateau? Or are you going through one now?
