A client and I were discussing this yesterday. He recently left a networking group he’d been a part of for almost five years, and while he misses the people, he doesn’t miss the group politics. He said he used to spend 10-15 hours a week dealing with the politics in the group.
Other than my local Chamber of Commerce, I have not been part of a membership-based networking group for more than a year now, and this conversation made me realize how much more time I have to work and build relationships. I was able to cut back the minutes on my cell phone plan because I don’t burn up so many on “But he said…” and “But she said…” conversations. I’m not sure I could have maintained a blog or social media a year ago. Now, I have the time.
Most of the places I network now, I can walk in, meet people and walk right back out and go home. No staying after for “the meeting after the meeting.” No phone calls 15 minutes later to hear about the latest thing some member did.
Am I saying quit membership-based groups? No. What I am saying is monitor your time. When you spend more time dealing with group politics than you are spending doing real networking, it might be time to make a change. Perhaps resigning from a leadership position. Or setting boundaries on the conversations you will participate in.
Anyone else have a story to share?
Tags: Networking Groups, time management
This is an interesting and touchy topic. I was recently invited to a networking group. One of the things that has kept me from joining besides the membership fee to participate is the fact that you HAVE to show up every week or send a substitute, the way members HAVE to have referrals or bring guests. It was like a second job to me. I get that you should do that to grow the group but it was so rigid that networking was not fun. And I did have to carve out quite a bit of time to do all of this work before you got to the meeting. I belong to a few now that I enjoy and I like that it is more laid back and when I have GOOD referrals I happily give them rather than being forced to fine someone so I don’t feel guilty about not giving them. Great blog post, Juli!
Thanks, Renee. I knew it was a touchy topic, but I did want to put it out there as something to consider before people’s time vanished into a black hole.