People Who Hate Networking By Devora Zack

The first book being reviewed is “Networking for people who hate networking” written by Devora Zack. The book is an easy to read guide essentially going over tips and must-do’s for successful networking whether you are an introvert or and extravert. Throughout the book the author explains various methods and consistently relates them to both an introvert and extravert point of view. She helps the reader find out their social “style” and then continues the book writing about how to maximize the readers success using examples for each style. The book is all about finding your natural preferences, and then working with your strengths in order to benefit through networking. One of the many main points of the book that is constantly reinforced

The golden rule is “treat others how you want to be treated” which most people agree with and try to follow to a certain degree. The Platinum Rule, “treat others how THEY want to be treated” does a much better job defining proper social etiquette and will create more success networking (CITATION). Not everyone has the same social styles and by treating them appropriately according to their style, they will be much more comfortable with you and vise versa. Two challenging skills are needed to apply this rule, which are: Quickly assessing a person’s natural preferences, and modifying your personal interactive style to compliment others. Both of these skills can be learned and improved on with practice and training, but first you must know your personal style.

These two men explained they have a birthday club at work to celebrate the employees, but one woman has not given her birthday details stating, “It’s none of their business.” Zack then realizes that these two men are extraverts and this woman is most likely an introvert, being treated like an extravert by her colleagues. This is where the idea of treating others how THEY want to be treated comes in, and modifying your own interactive style to compliment others. Zack explained to the men how differently people can interpret events and exchanges, and that they should start with a smile as they pass by her desk and grow from there. This anecdote offers a real life business situation as an example and helps make sense of what the author is trying to achieve/suggest in her