Want to be more successful at what you do? Speak to most successful people in the Corporate world about what made them successful and you should universally hear that networking was one of their keys to success.
Creating a new network or improving your current one can be a daunting and off putting task; this causes many people to delay or not even start.
The power of your network can literally mean the difference between succeeding or failing in your given role. It can also play a significant part in you successfully progressing through your chosen career path or feeling stunted.
After interviewing a few Executives the following are the simple steps that can be distilled for people to follow in building and/or improving their network.
- Take time out to understand who your stakeholders are and what they expect. It doesn’t hurt to ask for feedback on what works and what doesn’t and how would they like to work with you. This will create relationships and set ground rules.
- Look for opportunities to do things outside your current role. This could be as simple as taking on an action from a team meeting or pursuing a special project. This will expand your network.
- Be very approachable to people. Don’t pre-judge but remain open to questions or ideas.
- Use events to meet new people and don’t be afraid to say hello.
- Seek formal or informal mentors that are in line with your desired career direction. This can be a wonderful way to meet people that have been on the journey you are taking.
- Maintain all your old networks. The relationship should not end with the job or project. Maintaining could be a semi-regular coffee or a simple hello now and again.
- Remember we achieve more from partnering than from doing in isolation.
- Be inclusive in mutual success. Make sure all contributors bask in the glory.
So are there any things we should avoid? Yes, whilst it can be hard to create new networks they can be easy to destroy. Here are a few ideas:
- If things aren’t working then don’t be afraid to ask yourself and others the hard questions.
- Play a role in selecting those that mentor you.
- One-way relationships won’t work for long; we need to give as much as we take.
- Not thanking and acknowledging when it is due. It’s so easy to say thank you and it goes a long way.
As you can see most of networking is human nature. Some of it may take some effort but the power of the network you create as you move through your career can play a significant role in your future.
Richard
Great first post! Well done.
Cheers, Iggy
Great Post!
Enjoyed it.
Hi Richard,
Fantastic post and definatly resonated with me. One thing that I will add and that I found recently is that it is mentors that have that relationship with you that can tell you the hard truths about ourselves that we sometimes don't want to hear is where the real transformation happens and where the real learning takes place.
Hi Richard,
Great post!
I also heard an interesting saying once … something like: "It can be easy to extract from someone all the stories about their sucesses but teh difficulty and value lies in hearing about their failures and learning from them."
Hi Richard, love your writing. Thanks. Networking is truly important. To me, it's not just moving forward at work, but an enjoyable task to make work and life interesting. I like particularly "One-way relationships won’t work for long; we need to give as much as we take"….maybe in fact to give more than we take….it's always a blessing that we can give!