Being an introvert is not a curse or a condition and certainly does not limit your capabilities to be less successful than others, whether you are an employee, business owner or first generation entrepreneur. Introversion is another common characteristics of human behavior, which is found with those people who are mostly introspecting themselves, usually do self-analysis in order to ensure their best-self is presented. Most of the successful entrepreneurs like Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Elon Musk (Tesla), Larry Page (Google) and Bill Gates (Microsoft) are introverts by nature.
People with introvert nature certainly feel shy or have a small level of fear which is usually the barrier of communication while attending events or networking with other people. If you are attending new events and trying to network your best – I ask you to follow these 5 tips and there will be certainly 20-30% improvement in the next event.
TIP #1: YOU ARE NOT THE ONLY INTROVERT IN AN EVENT
When you are attending the event, certainly there are other people who are introvert by nature. Try to discover those people, as they are also looking for a person to start a conversation. He or she might be standing alone and observing other people communicate. The body language of yours and the other introvert person almost similar – where both of you are not able to decide how to approach. As you start conversing with that person, you start to open up and you find yourself a buddy and so is he or she. The next steps won’t be difficult as you have started the networking already and will feel confident to go the next person or a group to interact.
TIP #2: PREPARE YOURSELF FOR AN EVENT
If you are introvert by nature and you have not prepared enough about the event, the discussion subject or your pitch – then this will add another level of fear to communicate. As you don’t know what to discuss, you might end up interacting with only 2-3 people for few minutes. To avoid this, prepare your elevator pitch, be aware of the discussion topics and be prepare with set of questions you need answers. While interacting with people, you will certainly find ways to align your questions and answers with them.
TIP #3: BE THE PART OF A GROUP INTERACTION
This tip has two sides. One is – being an introvert, there is a fear of not doing or saying anything stupid before a group people. The other one is – how about I let myself be a part of group which is already interacting and try to listen to their conversation, which shall be an easy start for me. You have to choose which is good for you and if this tip is not good for you, then there is always the Tip #1. Group interactions are easy to start with as per my views – as there is a less risk on everyone of how they communicate. Even if you do not say word while the interaction going on, don’t be worried – as you will certainly have some confidence to join the next group.
TIP #4: JOIN A WORKSHOP OR ACTIVITY
One of the best and easiest options of how you can start networking is to participate in a workshop or activity. If you are aware of this workshop from the events details, then ensure you have prepared more or less for this workshop. When you do an activity with a group of people where topic for all is same – everyone is given a chance to speak for or share their own knowledge. This opportunity might not come during group interaction very often. So use this opportunity to share your knowledge while doing a workshop or activity. For example: As a part of workshop, you are grouped with 5 people to build a mobile app idea. Try to think which part you can contribute – discovering the idea, designing it with sketches or explaining it. The activity will help you to interact more with your group members and your true potential will come out.
TIP #5: REPEAT! REPEAT! REPEAT!
If you want to network well, then repeat these points more often. Whether it is an event, group discussion in your company, investors or coffee-break even – try your best. The more you participate in events and workshops, the more you feel confident to interact with people. Practicing your speaking skills and your gestures are simple improvements you have to do in order to let other people feel comfortable while talking to you.
Here are some bonus tips for you and try to follow them, when you are attending the next event:
- Don’t be engaged with your phone most of the time, as you are there to interact with people
- While discussing with someone, try not to look at your watch. This happens out of nervousness usually and will create an impression that you are trying to skip the conversation.
- Listen properly and don’t talk abundantly – When you engage with a group or person, try to make your talks limited and give the other people to talk and listen to them. If you will keep talking abundantly, there are more chances that you will reveal more about you or your company which might be risky or unnecessary. Also, the other people might not interact further as you were not listening to them
I hope the above tips will help you network well, the next time and if you want to add some points into this list – please share in the comments. I will certainly make a different post with new tips and tricks on how to network well, being an introvert.
Image Credits: Huffington Post , Business image created by Katemangostar – Freepik.com
