One of the many benefits of local networking and consistently trying to meet new people involved in your company or organization’s area of interest is the exposure to new people who may be interested in serving on your board of directors.  Choosing candidates for sitting on a board can be challenging, but knowing who to look for is half the battle.

For a Board of Directors to be successful it must have a good working dynamic made up of members who are committed to the growth and development of the organization.  Most board members will have established a strong identity in the local community and will be known for their hard work and efforts to the organizations’ area of interest.   The board should also be diversified to encourage a variety of opinions, outlooks and approaches.  If your organization is in the process of setting up a board of directors, or is just in need of replacing members who have left, this article will provide some tips on how to identify the best potential board members for your group.

Visibility
A potential board member should be well-established and well-known in the community.  He or she should have a reputation as an honest, involved and respected individual.

Insightfulness
You want to find people to sit on your board who are intelligent, open-minded and able to see the big picture in order to serve the board well.  Individuals with a biased or very narrow focus will not likely be able to provide the forward thinking and problem-solving skills that will serve the best interests of the whole organization and the community it serves.

Honesty
Board members must be honest and genuinely interested in the goals and visions of the organization.  An individual who possesses integrity and good ethics will work to promote the cause at hand in only truthful, above board ways and will not stoop to deal making or cutting corners.

Team Player
While an individual’s personality and behavior is to be closely considered for serving on a board, that person must also be able to work well in a team-centered environment.  You want people who can listen well, express themselves well and then work together to solve issues.

Availability
A good candidate for board membership must have the necessary time to dedicate to serving the board, and want to put that time in willingly.  You want to see evidence of the enthusiasm and energy that will be applied to the position.  An individual that needs to be coaxed or prodded into serving on the board will most likely fall short of your expectations in the end.

Strong Convictions
Board members need to believe in the goals of the organization and be willing to stand up for what they believe in.  A strong board needs some members who are not merely observers and passive participants.  You must have some members who are willing to speak up and motivate others with their passion and inspiration

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Everyone forgets a name or two occasionally, but for some people, remembering names is a really difficult thing.  This can be very embarrassing if you are a business person who meets a lot of people every day, and would like to greet them by name in subsequent meetings.

If you are one of those people, there are some strategies to try that should help you put a name to a face so you’ll be able to match them up after the initial introduction.  Here are some do’s and don’ts to help you out.

Don’t give yourself an excuse.  By shrugging the problem off as “having a bad memory” you are not going to make progress.

Do make a conscious commitment to remembering names.  Before you even get to the event, tell yourself, “I will remember names.”

Do repeat a name when you are introduced to someone. Instead of a simple, “Nice to meet you” add the person’s name to the sentence.  “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Bob.” Don’t be afraid to have the name repeated if you didn’t catch it the first time.  If you don’t, there’s no way you will know it the next time you meet.

Do try a visualization technique.  This could either mean associating the person’s name with a picture, for example, if you meet someone named Art, think of his face inside a large piece of framed art.  Or if you meet someone named Barb, think of a barbed wire fence.  Another similar strategy is to take a particular feature of a person that is very prominent, and make a picture around that.  For example, if you meet a person named Baker, who has very large ears, you might visualize a baker in a big white chef’s hat with the ears sticking out from under it.

Do try to write the name down at the first opportunity.  Writing something down always helps commit it to memory.

Don’t be embarrassed to admit it if you can’t remember a name.  If you’re committed to good business networking, you will have repeat contact with the people you meet.  It’s better to be honest than to try and avoid talking to them or being so distracted by trying to remember their name that you can’t carry on a decent conversation.  It’s quite alright to say something like, “I know we’ve met before at the October meeting, but you’re name just won’t come to me.”  In most cases people will appreciate the honesty and respect you for it.

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Social situations where you will be meeting new people are often difficult for some people who feel they just don’t know how to converse with relative strangers.  We usually refer to this type of conversation as “small talk” because it is quite superficial and impersonal.  The fact that this type of conversation is so generic is exactly what makes it difficult for most people.  We are just naturally better able to converse about things that we know well or are passionate about.

But there are some things you can do to improve your ability to speak up in a group of people and still be comfortable and relaxed.

•    One of the first things to remember is to be yourself. If you are so focused on trying to make an impression or being someone you’re not, that is where your mind will be and you won’t be able to concentrate on the conversation at hand.  As a result you may come across as distracted or snobbish simply because you aren’t being natural.

•    Be pleasant.  You may be nervous and scared on the inside but putting a smile on your face will actually help you relax.  In addition, your smile will be returned by others in the group which will help even more.

•    Don’t get bogged down in false assumptions.  You may enter a room where a group of people are chatting and assume that they all know each other.  This may or may not be true but if you think it is, you will be hesitant to approach the group and become a part of the conversation.  It’s better to assume that everyone is in the same boat, and you’ll be far more relaxed.

•    Be a listener. If you first get a handle on what the conversation is about, you can wait for a natural break in the conversation to introduce yourself, add a few words, or ask a question pertinent to the discussion.  This way you won’t appear too forward or pushy. Try to find similarities to your own situation and that of others in the group and start a conversation based on those t things you have in common.  For example, you may work in totally different environments but your children may attend the same school.

•    One old standby to remember when you’re meeting people is, that if all other words fail you, ask a question. If you can find some common element that you share with a person, ask about it.  They will have to answer you and that can usually get the conversational ball rolling.

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Do you have few opportunities of meeting interesting people? Great business possibilities abound in a well-organized leads group. Here you’ll find the right tips on how to arrange meaningful business networking meetings.

Intent
Define what kind of group you intend to create. Is it business people in the same industry or a variety of unrelated industries? Is it a group of business owners? Or are they marketing managers? Salespeople, perhaps?

Frequency
Also, specify how often you want to meet with your group. Monthly? Every Tuesday?

Purpose
Then, identify the purpose. All leads groups have a common purpose: building meaningful relationships.
Write the purpose and edit it until it is completely clear to everybody.

Invite
Go beyond Internet invites and meet new people near you. Introduce yourself to the people in your neighborhood or during someone else’s lecture and extend your invitation: “Hi. Know what? I’m organizing a Leads Group among (salespeople / computer geeks / teachers…); we’ll get together for lunch next Tuesday at (place). Join us. The first time, you’ll be our guest”.

Ask for confirmation
Ask your group members to confirm their presence at least one or two days before the meeting. If you have a list of more than a dozen people, make necessary arrangements with the owners of the restaurant / cafeteria.

Snacks, everybody
Make a warm and exciting first meeting. Have lunch/snacks first, and then do business.
By the time first encounter takes place, you’ll already know everybody else, at least by name or username and photograph; but the others won’t.

To alleviate the awkwardness of the situation, introduce them or let them introduce themselves. Better yet, play a game. For instance, throw a small ball to someone in front of you and say his name and his field of interest. He, then, does the same with another member.

Explain the mechanics
Usually, you do not sell each other; rather everyone delivers a short speech and makes it clear to the other participants the ideal profile of a lead. After the meeting, members return to their habitual activities; and, when they come across potential customers for a particular member, they refer them to him or her.

Create a feeling of belonging
Assign simple duties to some members for the next meeting: a short speech / reading of no more than two minutes to set everybody in the mood, another game, collecting a small fee for activities, finding a more suitable place, etc.

Close the meeting
Thank everybody for coming and remind them to stay in touch until the next meeting and to start referring leads to the other members.

From time to time, you may all agree to add variety to your business networking meetings. Make some meetings formal, in the habitual meeting place; organize others in a more relaxed or informal way; or don’t organize anything at all, make it a “just-hanging-out” night with your lead group.

That’s all. Easy, isn’t it?

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“We’re seeing an evolutionary change”, says Dr Gary Small, director of the Memory and Aging Center at UCLA. “The people in the next generation who are really going to have the edge are the ones who master the technological skills and also face-to-face skills.”

Internet and computers biochemically alter the circuitry in our brains. Technology and communications force neurons to establish new neural connections. These new pathways make a significant change in the way we process information, make decisions and meet people.

In his fourth book, iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind, Small distinguishes two kinds of people:

1.    digital natives

2.    digital immigrants

The former were born in the Information Age; the latter, were already adults when computers spread all over the world.

No wonder, then, that young people find social media websites so appealing. Facebook, Bebo, MySpace, MyLife, LinkedIn, Hi5 or Xing are second nature to them when it comes to maintaining online relationships.

Digital natives and digital immigrants show opposite behaviors in their avatar-based relationships:

•    Digital immigrants first met offline, but keep in touch online. They use social sites as a means to keep existing relationships alive and well. They met acquaintances a long time ago, usually several years ago, before the Internet explosion and, as their lives took different paths, they stopped seeing each other. Now, thanks to these technologies, they are once again connected.

•    Digital natives, on the other hand, met online and maintain their cyber-relationships.

Whether we are natives or immigrants, we can be sure Internet addiction, avatars, computer games and freelance jobs alienate us. However, during the next phase of this brain evolution we are witnessing, people will still need to master face-to-face skills when they meet new people, Dr Small believes.

It may sound paradoxical—maybe a little bit insane—but in the post Information Age, native digitals will most probably make contacts through the Internet FIRST and, THEN, build face-to-face relationships. Three things are clear here:

1.    We are causing our own evolution.

2.    As we learn to network online, we physically modify the neurological networks in our brains.

3.    The human-warmth we enjoy from our face-to-face relationships relies more and more on cyber-tools every day.

And that’s precisely where online tools that provide the means to organize offline get-togethers enter the scene. Instead of building strictly avatar relationships, digital people can use the web to return to the “real” world: join groups, organize meetings, adhere to support groups of any kind, arrange coffee and lunches for business networking, screen leads groups or just meet people free and strengthen their virtual liaisons.

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