Boost your networking quotient (NQ)
The last two weeks, we have been discussing measures that you can take to manage your career. One of the 10 measures that we discussed was the need to boost your Networking Quotient (NQ). However, like with the rest of measures, we did not dwell on the details. Today, we want to single out NQ and dwell on the details because networking is a powerful tool for success.
There are three main types of networks. First is the life network which comprises people naturally connected to us in life like our parents, family, siblings, cousins and so on. Then we have the usual social network of people we know from social gatherings like the church, social football or social netball, from the gym, from weddings and many other social events. These days, we expand our social networks via the social networking media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Skype, LinkedIn and many others. The third type of social network is the work network. These are the people we get to know through the job we do, not just at our work place but even from the suppliers, customers or clients, from competitors, from regulators as well as from previous jobs and so on.
Networking has many benefits. You get the chance to constantly exchange knowledge with your networking partners or associates. You also boost your likelihood of knowing about important opportunities for work, for progress and success. When you are well networked, you raise your personal profile and in the process, you boost your personal confidence. Clearly, there are many reasons to compel each one of us to embrace networking as a powerful tool for success.
How is NQ measured? There are seven contributors to NQ. Each of them is rated between zero and four, with zero as the lowest rank and four meaning you are doing extremely well on that networking component. This means that from the seven components of NQ, you can score a total between zero and 28. At the end, these scores are multiplied by 10 meaning the final score can be anything between zero and 280.
Let us get our hands dirty and compute your NQ. Get your pen or pencil and calculator and go through the computation of the seven contributors of the NQ as below:
- How many people do you have in the three types of networks: Life, Social and Work networks?
0=none, 1=less than 50, 2=51-100, 3=101-200, 4=more than 200
- What do you think is the quality of your network associates?
0=Very bad, 1=Poor, 2=Good, 3=Very Good, 4=Excellent
- How much do you actively work on building your network relationships?
0=not at all, 1= a little bit, 2= a little more, 3= a lot, 4= very much
- What is the measure of the strength of your relationships with your network associates?
0=very weak, 1=weak, 2=in between weak and strong, 3=strong, 4=very strong
- How actively do you recruit new associates or members to your network?
0=do nothing, 1= a little bit, 2= a little more, 3= very often, 4= all the time
- To what extent is the relationship with your network associates reciprocal? In other words, you help them and they also help you when in need.
0=not at all, 1= a little bit, 2= a little more, 3= very often, 4= all the time
- To what extent do you leverage the Internet to build and maintain your networks?
0=not at all, 1= a little bit, 2= a little more, 3= very often, 4= all the time
Now add up your scores. Once you add the results, the total will be between zero and 28.Then multiply by 10 and your total score should be between zero and 280. If your score is between zero and 70, it means you are not doing well at all! If between 71 and 140 then you need to improve. A score between 141 and 210 is good and a score between 211 and 280 is excellent! Do be there next week to discuss how you can improve your NQ.
