StandOut by Marcus Buckingham Read Free Book Online

be sure to draw a clear connection between what you sent and what the person might be able to do with it.
     
• To expand your network, go beyond your usual haunts and gatherings . Once or twice a year, sign up for an exciting group experience—a cycling trip, a charity walk, a river rafting expedition—and go alone. Given your nature, it’s almost guaranteed that you’ll encounter someone who’ll spark an idea of a new connection you can make.
     
• People are always going to be attracted to you because of the possibilities you see in them and in what they can create with others. Become better at describing these possibilities —more vivid in your descriptions, more detailed in your explanations of why and how two people will complement each other so well—and you will grow to be extraordinarily effective at getting people to act on your ideas.
     
• When you are researching a subject, find the ultimate article, book, or paper; read the bibliography, identify the most frequently quoted sources, and then reach out to these sources and get to know them .
     
• Obviously everyone within your network does not have the same level of influence—some are higher leverage than others. Identify the highest-leverage people in your web and discipline yourself to have a meaningful conversation with them each month.
     
• Always act on the assumption that people—even very accomplished, famous people—want to connect with you. If you’ve been impressed by a product, find out the inventor and call him or her. If you’ve enjoyed a book, reach out to the author . Of course, they may not respond immediately, but with each e-mail or note from you, you are inching them toward the threshold when they will. And even if your “reach-outs” are never returned, rest assured that the person is reading them and appreciating them and that, if nothing else, your interest will encourage them to create more.
     

What to Watch Out For
     
• The difference between a name-dropper and a network builder is follow-up. What’s powerful about you isn’t who is in your network, it’s your ability to link up seemingly unconnected people within your network to make something happen . People will get excited when you tell them you know someone who can help them; they will be disappointed when you don’t make the call. Their disappointment will start to tarnish your reputation.
     
• When you connect people, do it well—this means be detailed and specific . When you introduce people to one another, paint a vivid picture of the strengths or experiences of each person, why you think each person complements the other, and what you think might be possible if they worked together. People are busy and it’s hard to get their attention. Nothing succeeds in grabbing attention quite as well as detail.
     
• Ask permission before you connect people . Each of us is protective of our time. If you are careless or haphazard in linking up people, they may come to see you as a danger to their time, and wall themselves off from you and your ideas.
     
• Don’t become a “forwarder . ” Never send out a mass e-mail in the hopes that someone, somewhere within your network, will benefit from it. This is the laziest form of network building. It reveals that you see us as an undifferentiated mass of people. This will annoy us.
     
• Try not to be disappointed if people don’t call you back . Some people need a lot of nudging before they will respond to your invitations. So long as each “reach-out” is done with detail—“Here’s exactly what I was thinking . . .”—each nudge will come across as respectful and will move them just a little bit closer to responding.
     
• When you are identifying high-leverage people within your network, remember that sometimes the most important person in an organization—be it a company, a community group, or a “movement”—is the number two. The number one might be the original idea guy, the