In my experience the biggest reason most people network is to create opportunities (If they're doing it right they're creating opportunities for themselves AND for others). Not to mention a whole slew of other positive side effects.

In this networking context there's a lot of good, but there's also some bad and some ugly. One of the toughest parts of networking is knowing how to handle bad news or negative press about someone else in your network.

This stuff can really go a couple of ways. In some cases the information will be about someone you don't know very well. In which case you probably want to take a closer look at that person and think about your future relationship. Is this person ethical? Do they come from a place of integrity or would it be better for you to distance yourself from them. Personally I've removed a couple of connections on LinkedIN after hearing very negative things about some folks who I'd met with a time or two, but didn't really have a deep relationship. I also did my due diligence and verified the negative claims before taking this action.

Other times the bad news will be about people you have a much deeper relationship with. Because of your depth of relationship hopefully you'll already know that they're one of the good guys. So what do you do when you hear nasty stuff about them? You tell them! Wouldn't you want to know if somebody was talking trash about you? Maybe a client of yours is upset with you because of an incident outside or your control or even outside of your knowledge. Wouldn't you want an opportunity to reach out to the client and fix the issue, even if it wasn't your fault. So they aren't out there telling some horror story to everyone they meet about you?

Tell your core network what you're hearing about them. Not just the bad. Tell them when you hear somebody bragging on them as well. Give them the opportunity to thank that person so they'll continue that behavior. We love it when people say great things about us!

What are people really saying about you? The only way to really know is to have a great network out there listening for you who will report back.

Happy Networking!

Scott Ingram
NetworkInAustin.com