Excerpts on building relationships
Get to know people before they’re famous
That’s how Heidi told us she became friends with people like Bill Gates.
We were all starting out together and building our companies and competing and cooperating much as is the case of the technology industry today so a lot of fun, we’re all sort of around the same age, so it is very similar I think of what goes on today in the Valley with you know with the web companies.
People are more accessible than you think
Heidi told us that some students who read the Harvard case study on her will email her.
Every week I get email from students who have the case and get online and find me through my website (either SkinnySongs or HeidiRoizen.com) and I think they email me just, in part, because they want to see if I respond, which of course I always do. So that ends up being funny.
And once in a while I’ve actually had students who are in class and emailing me and I’m responding and giving them answers which they’ve used in class.
Be a reporter
In her first job, working for Tandem Computers, Heidi edited the company newsletter. I like this quote in the Harvard case study on how that helped her build relationships.
It would be tough to start working at a company and say, ‘Gee, I think I’ll get to know the CEO.’ That’s probably not going to happen unless the CEO has some reason to interact with you. As the editor of the internal newspaper, there was a good reason why the CEO was going to talk to me–I was one of his main communication vehicles to his employees.
Have some context for relationships
Empty networking doesn’t work. Heidi says those relationships feel like pen pals and because there’s no context.
When you think about the people in your life with whom you have a really close relationship – I can almost guarantee that in all those cases it was built around something. You worked together, your kids are in the same school together, on a team together, you were on a team together, you know there was something. You don’t just randomly meet someone and then over time become really good friends with them.
Offer to help first
Heidi told us about students who found a smart way to connect with her.
There are students at Stanford who take a course, there’s an undergrad class and a graduate class where they have to work on a project for a report and the project can be, for example online marketing. So they approached me and they said, we will work for you for a quarter for free, helping you navigate improving the reflections of your products on social networks. And I said, sure why not, free help, right?
I really got to know a couple of those kids. Sorry, I call them kids. But, because they worked very hard, they were very creative, they taught me some stuff, and now, honest to God, for a couple of them if they asked me for a reference for a job interview, or if they ask me to help them get a job at Company XYZ, I would totally do that because they proved to me that they really had something to offer and they really did something. As opposed to the ones who were just, “let me meet with you once a quarter and have coffee and tell you about my teachers.” That just doesn’t work for me. I’m really a huge believer in finding something to work on together.
Do your homework before you meet people
This interview is full of examples of how a little preparation can help the relationships you’re trying build have more meaning. Here’s an excerpt on being prepared.
The homework never ends. Just because I’m of a certain age and people might know me, it doesn’t mean that you stop doing homework.
For example, when I decided that I wanted to pursue these corporate governance positions, to join the board of directors of some companies, I really like that work, I did a lot of research on the companies, on the people, on the people on the boards, on what their interests are, what their affiliations were, where did they go to school, what kind of things do they do.