title: Working with a net.
abstract: Networking is a critical skill-set that physicians, as they evolve into management and executive positions, need to develop and utilize. A network is a web of personal and professional connections built up over a lifetime based on mutual interests and nurtured by ongoing regular contacts. Good networkers, most especially those for whom bonhomie is not second nature, pursue the project systematically. They set up a schedule for keeping connections alive, they compile and refresh the network database, they attend forums where old acquaintances can be renewed and new ones formed, they follow a set of best practices, and they arm themselves with the essential instruments of the networking trade (primarily a pencil, a business card, and an open attitude). Successful networking requires the ability to ask for favors--but also to extend them willingly. Networking is an exponential process of harnessing connections to connections--one's own network to those of others, to gain knowledge and elicit opportunities that would otherwise be unavailable.
authors.affiliation: doweber@mcn.org
authors.forename: D O
authors.initials: DO
authors.lastname: Weber
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002322:Career Mobility; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008611:Mentors; D008486:Physician Executives