In 21st
century, people decide your net-worth by the network you have. We can never
succeed in life if lots of people don’t want us to succeed. We all need a
social support system around us.
Networking is a
tough task for introverts. I can understand this because I myself is an
introvert.
Both of my
parents were working and most of the time, I was alone in my house guarding it
and protecting it. When we spend most of the time in isolation, we start
enjoying it and avoid social interactions as much as we can. Believe it or not,
I had never went to my college canteen just to avoid conversations!!! Introverts
avoid people because most of the time introverts don’t know what to say. Other
than my classmates, I never tried to know anyone else in the school or college.
Juniors and seniors were alien for me. When I was doing my Bachelors in
Business Administration that was the time when I learned the importance of
networking in one of the management classes. I learned that talent and relationships
both help us jointly in real-life. From that point of time, I am working on my
social intelligence.
Though, I don’t
consider myself as a master socializer but I can share some practical tips by
which any introvert can improve his or her social skills.
1. Introverts are
not talkers- This is a reality. No matter how many communication classes you
attend, you would find that talking does not gives any pleasure to an
introvert. However, listening is easier for introverts. In the real world,
listeners are quite rare. Most of the people want to talk, but don’t want to
listen. Listening others attentively can make any introvert a master
communicator. When other person stops talking then ask questions related to his
or her interest and he or she would start talking again. This is one of the
best ways by which introverts can engage others in a conversation.
2. Smile-
Introverts do not smile and this is a universal trait of introverts. Introverts
always have a flat face. This is a big mistake which we do. Smiling face
attracts more people than a dull face. Force yourself to smile. Smile whenever
you get chance to smile. Stop scaring people with your flat face.
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| Vladimir Putin Not Smiling Vs Smiling |
3. Take help of friends- Making friends and forming groups is natural characteristic of human beings. Even introverts have few good friends (not more than four). In order to expand your network, take help of your already existing friend circle. When I was doing MBA, I had 4 roommates and through them I break-the-ice with rest 106 people of our batch. This process was long, but effective. Through this method, we can know more people in less time.
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| One person can help in knowing six other people |
4. Make use of
social media- Writing is easier for introverts than speaking. Writing engages
mind of introverts and they can interact easily with more people through
messages. Make use of LinkedIn to form a good professional network. Facebook
can help in making an interesting informal network and WhatsApp can help in daily chats. Introverts
would find themselves to be more actively involved on social media than in real
life.
5. Take care of your
appearance- Once a film actor was asked that why so many people are mad for him
and he said that “May be because I am beautiful.” What an easy answer for a
complex question. Actors understand the importance of appearance more than any
other person. Actors know that human beings are highly visual people. Our eyes
crave for beautiful things. Take care of your appearance. Looking good requires
only two things- (1) Exercise daily to keep your body toned (2) Don’t wear
disorganized clothes. Do these two things and you would look better than
two-third people. Good appearance would give you confidence and it would attract others. This would make interactions more quick and easy.
| Tom Cruise in the film Top Gun |
All the best to all the introverts.
