Heartland Reviews, Bob Spear, "Recommended Read," Book Sense
"This book teaches you how to play in the sandbox at work. It is the quintessential book on social relations and networking to further one’s career. It covers the essential knowledge and includes a fill-in-the-blanks action plan to better one’s career relationships. We rated it four hearts."
Pharmaceutical Representative magazine, February 2006, reviewed by Pamela Marinko
YOU CAN’T DO IT ALONE
Building Relationships for Career Success
By Amy Glass & Marjorie Brody
While everyone knows that “what you know” is extremely important, particularly in the pharmaceutical business, there is a lot of truth in the saying that it’s who you know that counts. In, You Can’t Do It Alone, the authors take this concept to a higher level and offer it as a “proactive career strategy” whereby the reader can profit greatly through effective networking.
Glass and Brody begin the book by framing networking as a means to profit from connections, but they are quick to point out that in order for networks to continue and grow, they must be mutually beneficial. The book starts off with some great stories with anonymous characters such as Casey Clueless and Sydney the Strategist to describe the wrong and right way to network. I found the first few chapters really making me think about what networking is and why I did it. They lay out and describe the value of the five key characteristics of a successful networker including trust, focus on others, positive attitude, perseverance and listening. If you have any uncertainty about the value of networking or why it’s important to continually build and maintain your network, they will be assuaged early in the book.
The authors go on to present a straightforward five step approach to develop and execute a networking strategy that is right on target. Beginning with clarifying what you want and from whom, they help the reader think about personal goals and their own networking situation. They go on to provide a series of pragmatic steps that make what sometimes seems like an intimidating and time consuming luxury, into a very achievable and undemanding plan. You will find well thought -out processes for “targeting” contacts with whom you want to network or “who can lead you to what you want”. One of the great exercises in the book is to create a list of what you want from your contacts in one column and then what you can provide to them in the other. By “giving to get,” the authors demonstrate that a real networking relationship often begins by providing some value to those with whom you want to connect.
If you’ve ever been uncomfortable at an industry event when confronted with the prospect of meeting new people or lying low, you’re not alone. The authors have included a “Networking Awareness Quiz” (with answers and tips) to help turn these events from painful drudgery into real opportunities to make new and valuable contacts. It was interesting to look at the process of making connections and meeting the right people in such a planned and practical way. One of the great take-aways here was “the 15 second commercial”. That’s right — plan what you’re going to say when you invariably meet people you want to include in your network. It seems simple, but few people actually do this in practice.
The final step in the process is to build the relationship and follow up. While this seems like common sense, it’s surprising how many fledgling relationships founder for lack of follow up. In many instances, it’s simply a case of not knowing how or what to say. The chapters dedicated to this part of the process provide many helpful hints and suggestions to start and to keep new networking relationships.
This book is full of nuggets and new ideas. This book is a terrific roadmap for people early in their career and tenured representatives alike who want to think more strategically about their network. At only 120 pages it’s a quick read, but you’ll find yourself creating action plans and drafting messages to old friends and colleagues, so plan for a little extra time. High marks to Glass and Brody for this easy to read and use guide to networking.
Overall 5
Relevance 4
Innovative topic 4
Graphs and illustrations 5
