In my keynote, Relationship Networking, I always ask, “What’s your excuse?” We all have the reasons in our head for why we don’t follow up, why we don’t connect, why we don’t build or maintain a relationship. What’s yours?
Mine is usually time. You can see in the image below the relative frequency of the reasons shared with me by my audience. Is your excuse on the list? If you have the chance to hear the talk, by the end I provide tactics to minimize every excuse on the list.
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If you don’t have the chance, don’t worry – I talk about this topic often and you can check out some of the videos on my YouTube channel or this Forbes article where I was asked How To Overcome The Three Challenges Of Maintaining Professional Relationships.
The three most frequent excuses I hear are:
1. Finding the time.
2. Finding a reason.
3. Finding your confidence.
If any of these resonate for you, read on to learn how to overcome those mental roadblocks. The article calls out ways in which we typically behave when we are trying to avoid keeping up with our connections. But one great quote by Keith Ferazzi illustrates how important it is to keep our focus:
“If you think of this as something nice to have, separate from your work and your life, you’ll not allocate as much time to it. It’s not nice to have — it’s necessary.”
The article is full of great tips. You can read it here.
