Networking 101 - Radiators & Drains

Networking - Radiators and Drains

By Nikki Viljoen of N Viljoen Consulting (Pty) Ltd

I don’t know about you, but I have, of late, had to take a step back  from the world and do a bit of re-examining.  Not always the most pleasant thing in the world to do – but certainly something that must be done from time to time if you want to get rid of the ‘dead wood’ in your life and make sure that you are on the right path going in the right direction.

“Dead wood” is pretty much what I want to talk about today – and it is the ‘energy’ sapping, frustrating, pulling out of hair in frustration type of ‘dead wood’ in particular that I want to discuss.

We all have them in our lives – the Radiators and the Drains.  There are some people on the planet that you are just drawn to, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing (unless you yourself are a Drain!).  They give out the type of energy, or aura, or whatever, else you would like to call it that makes you feel good.  Those people are a pleasure to have around – they are fun to engage with or have any kind of interaction with as they usually give very freely of themselves and you come away from them with a smile on your face and a song in your heart and usually with a benefit or two, whether it is something that you have learnt or a joke that you have shared.  It’s that warm fuzzy feeling that tells you that all is good with the world today and you actually can’t wait to see them again – to engage in a mutually satisfying conversation or even debate.  These, clearly are the Radiators and it is always a good thing to have a few of them in your circle of influence, and hopefully you are also a Radiator and therefore a good thing in the circle of influence yourself.

Then, of course, you have the Drains – these are the people who I (not so) affectionately call human vampires!  They suck and draw out all your energy and then off they go on their merry way to their next un-suspecting victim and you are left behind in an exhausted heap. Not much fun at all.

The dilemma arises when some of your client’s or the people that you network with, are Drains.  The rest you can walk away from or see as seldom as you can – but with clients and people who you meet at networking events, this is not always that easy to do.

A lot of it has to do with the energy that you yourself give out.  It could be that if you are ‘down’ or not in a good space yourself – the negative energy that you are giving out is simply attracting the wrong people and it means that they will, in all probability bring you down even further.

It is critical for you to attract the right kind of people, when you are networking.  You yourself need to be happy, passionate about what you do and interesting to those around you and those that you meet at networking events. You need to be ‘on fire’ for life, for your business, for the things that you hold dear to you.  Most importantly you need to protect yourself from the Drains, so mixing with or attracting other Radiators is always a good thing – safety in numbers I think!  All that positive energy driving the negative away!

Drains you see, feed of off people to get their energy.  Radiators get their energy from inside of themselves (well at least I do) and that is obviously is like gold, a very sort after commodity.

Well, I’m off to get rid of some of the ‘dead wood’ drains in my life and I know that this will also let in some more Radiators, can never have enough Radiators!

So, who are you?  Where do you get your energy?  Are you a Drain or a Radiator? 
           
Nikki Viljoen is an Internal Auditor and Business Administration Specialist and she can be contacted on 083 702 8849 or nikki@viljoenconsulting.co.za.