Assess
A- Assess- and gather Assess has two parts to it. One deals more so with your preparation, and why it is listed sooner in the PAPERING model. The second part is a constant assesssment of where you are, who you are talking with, and what should you do next. When you are preparing and you have all your materials about yourself, you want to step back and decide what you need to know about everyone else. Do some research, if you can find out specific people that are going to be there, use that to your advantage? You can do so by researching their industry, what type of clients they work with is there anything unique about their job. By knowing more about the people your going to be interacting with the easier it will be to interface with them. By having knowledge of their industry you will be able to enter conversations better. If this is a much more casual event such as a golf outing, do some news searches. It doesn’t always have to be relevant it just has to grab attention and be interesting. Once you have someone’s attention you can always slide into more business talk after that. Having knowledge of the world around you not only benefits you as an intellect, but also allows you to speak on hot topics. Someone who goes to convention in NY and doesn’t know how the Yankees are doing may take a back seat others. Now that example may be a bit excessive, however it makes a good point. You should be well versed in all things local as well as national. Although this seems like a lot, it really isn’t hard to gather this information. If you are a person who already dives head deep into the news and current events, this step may have little effect on you. There are several simple things you can do to gain this kind of knowledge. The first is watch television news, and not just the channels you agree with get both ends of the spectrum. Same goes for when you’re researching an industry. Don’t just look at all articles that praise certain companies find their weaknesses as well. You may be able to fit a niche they are lacking in. the second way I would suggest to gain information is Blogs. Blogs offer some of the best transfer of information. I would grab as many feeds from as many different Blogs as you can. In some blogging communities it becomes a network among itself. One more way of gather information is the radio. So many people forget that there are talk shows out there. Whether it is a professional show or not hot topics is their business. So turn off the tunes and tune into conversation. Assesssing what type of situation you’re going into and gather great information gives you a loaded cannon on your side. Second part to assess is to just constantly be aware of your surroundings. Don’t be in the group that is still talking when a presentation starts. Make the initiative to be the person who stops because they were aware of their surroundings. When you are in a networking atmosphere be the horse without blinders. Take in what people’s body language is like. Someone who looks dead tired will not want to have a long drawn out conversation, but may appreciate you not ignoring them saying something quick and then politely exiting the conversation. This bring me to another point. Always be assesssing the person’s attention. If they begin to fade change topics or move to someone else. I will get more into entering and exiting conversations later in the PAPERING process. Lastly be aware of your self with alcohol, and assess how much others have to drink. If you notice that the situation is light spirited, dive in and have fun. However if the drinking is not a main focus stay sober and clear headed.
