The Ambassador's Guide to Networking
4 actions to make networking fun and effective
Networking can make or break your career (and your life). Yet many people hate the idea. In this edition, PDF guide included, we make it enjoyable and rewarding.
Plus send the right signals with a business card; a Wilton Park invitation; 7 top jobs and opportunities; and Netflix release The Diplomat Season 3.
It may feel daunting, but networking is little more than connecting with other people. Even with counterparts who see diplomacy as a zero sum game, progress depends on personal relationships. The best actions for establishing those relationships are universal:
Approach every interaction with a service-first mindset
The first shift: stop asking what you can get, start asking how you can help. Don’t focus on building a network of contacts or people who can advance your goals or career. Look for ways you can help others.
Before you walk into a room, and during each conversation, ask yourself:
Whom can I help?
What matters most to them?
What value can I give them?
This doesn’t mean ignoring your authorities or mandate; trying to please everyone; compromising your principles; or making goodwill concessions in a negotiation. It does mean putting your colleagues, customers and contacts first.
You best help others from a position of strength, credibility and authority.
Listen with attention, empathy and expertise
Beyond active listening, deepen your understanding of the national culture, the professional and political context, and the character and motivation of your counterpart(s) so that you can listen with expert ears.
Working across cultures, study and respect national and local values, principles and ways of engaging: learn from locals, from leaders to service staff.
In Vietnam I called on the Communist Party to gain better understanding. Two years later came the first UK visit by a CPV Secretary-General.
The North Korean MFA won’t talk freely to a UK diplomat. But the Department Head’s words still communicate. Showing personal interest created opportunity to understand a different way of thinking and enable our new mission.
Carry yourself with confident presence
Confident presence and charisma are skills that can be learned. Techniques include commanding the space, speaking with deliberation and expressing genuine appreciation: more specific actions in the micro-guide, link below.
Those ambassadors whom I’ve seen take an openly confrontational or performative approach towards a negotiation or meeting got instant attention from the room, but little respect, cooperation or trust.
Those who best command the space in multilateral diplomatic meetings show interest in learning about and encouraging those around them, from Heads of State to cleaning staff.
Employ a strategic and creative approach
In high-trust professions, referrals carry weight. A strong CV helps, but in fields that swear by meritocracy, the human element remains vital. One introduction from a trusted mutual connection often convinces more than formal qualifications.
Explore alumni networks, national UN associations, think-tanks, faith-based groups, cultural organisations, tech ecosystems, press clubs, volunteer groups: an open-ended list. Remember your predecessors: for me, former diplomats and ambassadors.
And think beyond formal hierarchies.
At receptions, the bar staff and waiters often tell me diplomats rarely express interest; yet they almost always have insight and stories. The drivers are a reliable source of unofficial information with their own network. Interpreters often understand nuances that the principles might not. Private secretaries, PAs and diary secretaries are gatekeepers who see realities from the inside.
They all deserve gratitude, support and attention: ask, what do they need from you?
There’s too much on networking to fit into the Gazette email: instead, I wrote a 20-page diplomacy micro-guide.
Download it here in PDF form:
