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As a high-energy networker you have a reputation as a strong personality. You enjoy being in the spotlight. You are noted for being a decisive, action-oriented leader. One of your greatest assets is you can galvanize a group to be excited about your ideas and proposed activities. Like the strategic networker, you are highly active and focused. Your contacts inside your company and outside are all part of a carefully thought out plan. Your networking mission would be to create a synergistic web of associations where you could cross-refer friends and acquaintances to a variety of people and organizations so that everyone gains from visibility, personal involvement, and group interaction. You might use the following types of questions to guide your actions:

What kinds of contacts can help me broaden my awareness and insight into the activities of others’ companies?

What contacts in industry associations and what federal, state and local issues and priorities would be helpful to my networking agenda?

What industry movers and shakers should I align with to further my value to all whom I meet?

The greatest risk for the high-energy networker is to over-commit. As many people are attracted to your energy, you need to pick and choose the networking opportunities you pursue. Burnout is a common hazard for you and you need to be able to politely decline taking up causes that don’t fit into your master plan.

Because a high-energy networking plan is much more complex than others, perhaps an example of a portion of the master plan in action would be helpful to this discussion. Take Louis, a marketing manager with a drug company. His business goal is to broaden his influence in the industry, so he establishes a complementary personal goal: he chooses participation in a health-care-related community project. This gives him a chance to apply his knowledge and skills to a good cause, while simultaneously interacting with a new group of people and gaining increased visibility within the community. What the high-energy networking seeks is the opportunity for multiple synergies that will result in leveraging personal and business goals in ways that serve both business needs and personal needs for visibility, high-level awareness and collective impact on a variety of constituencies.

Now that you have some basic models of different networking styles, you can start to fashion the one that’s right for you. Be realistic about the level of energy and commitment you’re willing and able to put into networking right now, and act accordingly. It’s easy to start out like gangbusters and run out of steam early. Pace yourself so you can have a sustainable experience. You can always adjust your plan later as your success, your interests and goals change. But no matter what, how, or how much you decide to do, start networking now!

One characteristic that runs throughout the discussion of networking styles is that all networking energy types, in their own way, have a sense of what they want to accomplish and how. So, once you have identified with your most comfortable style, you need to develop your networking plan and approach to best utilize your time. Like the reporter writing a good feature article you have to challenge your thinking by answering the classic questions of: What? Who? When? How?