Being a good networker pays off – but it requires skill as well as shamelessness according to the Schumpeter column in The Economist .

Many people protest that they would rather devote their time to real work than to schmoozing. But there is evidence that networking works. A study carried out over three years by Wolff and Moser of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, found a positive correlation between the amount of effort put into building contacts—inside and outside their offices—and their pay rises and career satisfaction.

But only a few people are natural networkers. As Schumpeter says:

‘Bill Clinton is the superman of this world. He wraps people in his psychic embrace, persuading them, momentarily, that they are the most important person in the world to him. A few business leaders are also naturals. For example, Goldman Sachs’s boss, Lloyd Blankfein, has a knack of making people feel he has taken them into his confidence. But most people are more like Hillary than Bill; they have to work at it.’

Principles of Effective Networking

Rule number one is to abandon all shame. Be flagrant in your pursuit of the powerful and the soon-to-be-powerful, and when you have their attention, praise them to the skies. Academic research has found that people’s susceptibility to flattery is without limit and beyond satire. In a study published in 1997, B.J. Fogg and Clifford Nass of Stanford University invited people to play a guessing game with a computer, which gave them various types of feedback as they played. Participants who received praise rated both the computer and themselves more highly than those who did not—even those who had been warned beforehand that the machine would compliment them regardless of how well they were doing. Yes, even blatantly insincere, computer-generated flattery works.

But shamelessness needs to be balanced with subtlety. Pretend to disagree with your interlocutor before coming around to his point of view; that gives him a sense of mastery. Discover similar interests or experiences. People are so drawn to those like themselves that they are more likely to marry partners whose first or last names resemble their own. Go out of your way to ask for help. Lending a helping hand allows a powerful person to exercise his power while also burnishing his self-esteem. In his time in the Senate, in 2005-08, Barack Obama asked about a third of his fellow senators for help and advice.

The second principle is that you must have something to say. Success comes from having a well-stocked mind, not just a well-thumbed address book. It might be tempting at a conference to criticize any of the topics. Don’t go there. The more seriously you take it, the more you will succeed in your purpose. Go to the main sessions and ask sensible questions. Reward the self-styled “thought leaders” in each session by adding them to your Twitter “follow” list. But don’t get carried away. It is a mistake to lecture people on your own pet subjects, as this columnist has discovered. It is an even bigger mistake to question the shibboleths of the global elite. There is a case to be made that homogeneous organisations can do better than ones with diverse workforces, for example. But don’t go there. The aim is to fit in by saying the right things, not to challenge the received wisdom.

The third principle is that you need to work hard at networking. Swot up in advance on the most important people who will be at an event. If you manage to meet them, follow up with an e-mail and a suggestion to meet again. Mukesh Ambani, the boss of Reliance Industries, one of India’s largest conglomerates, makes sure that he is briefed on people he is about to meet, and asks them about their interests. Mark Tucker, the boss of AIA, one of Asia’s biggest insurers, follows up conversations with detailed e-mails, sent at all times of the day and night. Julia Hobsbawm of Editorial Intelligence, a firm which coaches executives on how to network, says that it is like exercise and dieting.

Schumpeter goes on to conclude that you need to incorporate networking into your daily routine and somehow make it seem spontaneous and natural.  Sounds right to me. Few people will be drawn to calculating, ruthless and shameless!