Former Kauffman Foundation VP on how to scale via networking

With more than 25 years of leadership experience, Lesa Mitchell knows a thing or two about making — and fostering — valuable connections.

Previously the vice president of innovation at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and a former executive at Marion Labs, Mitchell now is the founder of Networks for Scale, a company that works with executives to scale their organizations.  Mitchell plans to join three other leaders during a May 21 event focused on effective networking and how it can grow your organization.

Startland News caught up with Mitchell to discuss effective networking tactics and why it’s important to the growth of your organization.

On knowing which networking events to attend …

There are events that you could go to every day of the week, but finding the right event is what’s really important. It’s all about targeting your network, or targeting the people you want to be in your network. Always come with specific, targeted questions, too. If you approach me with a targeted question, then I’m going to really clearly come to a conclusion about whether or not I want to use my network to support you. It’s all about how to create a win-win for everyone. How can you use your network for good? You can’t do that unless you’re very targeted with your questions and who you direct them towards.

On networking’s effect on business …

(Networking) does grow your business. That’s the point. I think especially when it comes to women, people have always said to me, ‘Well, women know how to network better than men.’ Actually that’s not true. Women might be more social, but women don’t necessarily use their networking effectively for a profit. Women need to start realizing how they can use networking to scale professionally and grow their business.

On how much resources one should allocate to networking for your business …

There’s just not a generic answer because it depends on the stage of your company.  If you know you’re going to be raising money in the next six months to one year, networking is key to get access to the right funders. If you’re scaling your company, you should not be networking every week. Maybe once a quarter. It completely depends on where you are in the life cycle of starting and scaling your company. Your company is never going to have the same networking strategy during the entirety of its existence, so keep that in mind, too.

On the single most important networking tip…

You are not your job. People that introduce themselves as their job, you don’t get very far with that. … You seem to transactional versus presenting all the things you’re interested in. Networking in the broadest sense is helping and supporting each other. Ask yourself: how can you help people support their goals personally and professionally?When you are using your network, you’re leading with yourself as a person, you should listen more than you talk, you should be constantly learning.

On networking as an introvert…

Choose your poison. If it’s something you hate, make them count. You just have to be authentic. Figure out what makes you comfortable. As an introvert, you are probably a good listener. So, join groups and listen to figure out who will add value to your network and introduce yourself.