You don’t need a reason to reach out. In fact, not wanting anything can help you strengthen relationships.

Many years ago I found myself sat opposite a young woman on a late train home from London’s Liverpool Street Station just before Christmas. She was leafing through a stack of business cards and I couldn’t help myself. I asked whether she had been to a networking event.

She was a trainee lawyer and had been told to go to a networking event by her boss, but given no guidance about why or what she should achieve. I told her that this was a tremendous advantage. She could simply focus on meeting people she liked.

Having no agenda freed her up to be herself, to have natural conversations and to follow up just with people she liked.

Why should that stop as she develops in her career and gains more responsibility? Would people respond more positively if she reached out without wanting something, or if she reached out only when she did?

Keep that ‘no agenda’ mindset when you connect and reconnect with people. Invest in relationships, focusing on the other person more than yourself. Then, when you do need something and do have an agenda, people will be delighted to help and it will feel natural for them to do so.