How can you make career success easier for yourself by building and utilising your network?

 

Hello and a very warm welcome to Episode No 33 of ‘Your Bravo Career’

My name is Mark Crossfield, I’m a Professional Career Coach / helping you to love your job and build a great career.  

 

How you can enjoy what you are doing day each day at work

and how to build a great career along the way.

Introduction

Welcome everybody to Episode No 33,

January is now behind us and the rest of 2022 stretches out ahead

I hope your year is going well so far?

So

In this episode, I’m going to be discussing how to open career doors in your Professional life, your job and your career.

And, more specifically, how you can build and use your network to make your career progression or path a smoother one.

 

However, this is not going to be an episode about the very superficial side of networking – attending events, pressing business cards into as many hands as possible. This is about what you can do with your existing network of contacts and is more about deepening relationships and friendships than it is about making your network as big as possible.

 

So, hang around because I think this episode is going to resonate with you and, well, it might just lead to a few interesting doors being opened for you. 

 

But first, and as usual, on these solo episodes, it’s time for the news section …

 

News

 

With recent murmurs from the media and from a growing number of medical experts that we might be at the end of the pandemic, what does that mean for our career?

 

Specifically, if we have been mainly operating in short term thinking, because of the uncertainty, is now time for us to focus on medium to long term planning in our career?

 

I know that many of you may have been following along with Dr John Campbell’s YouTube Channel where he talks about the big issues around health and more recently about the pandemic and what the endgame might look like and when we might get there. If you’re not familiar with Dr John Campbell’s work, I will link to his YouTube channel in the show notes.

 

His view is that as we move from a pandemic to an endemic situation and covid just becomes akin to dealing with flu each winter, we should quickly now be able to return to some sort of normality.

 

If that’s right, and 2022 becomes the year of getting back on track, what does it mean for how we think about our career? How can we think longer term? 

 

Taking a long-term approach isn’t easy. Our brains are wired to think short term. This has served us well from an evolutionary standpoint when we were hunter-gatherers foraging for food and trying to avoid being eaten, and modern technology has reinforced the hardwiring by targeting our need for instant gratification (look no further than the alerts on your smartphone). 

 

Any gains we might have previously made with long term thinking might have slipped backwards because of the pandemic. We’ve had to focus on much more short-term pressing issues.

 

So, what do you think? Are you starting to contemplate a longer-term vision with your career? What are the next steps you need to take to bring this into reality?

 

Remember also, I’ve got lots of podcast episodes that you might want to check out, that can help you with this. To help you to move from short term thinking to long term thinking. These include: 

 

Episode 31 – How to make 20022 a great year for your career

Episode 28 – How to take the leap and leave your job

Episode 24 – The 3 most important questions to ask in your career

 

Ok, now let’s get on with the main part of the show.

 

 

Where do we start? Well, I’ve made the point often that how your career turns out is down to you and the actions you take. This is particularly the case when it comes to changing your job or career, as this takes commitment, planning and determination. 

 

However, you can make career success easier for yourself by building and utilising your network. This connected community of professionals that you belong to can help you to have access to resources, people and even jobs that would be otherwise inaccessible to you.

 

The people you are connected to can see much further and wider than you will ever be able to do on your own. They can spot opportunities, connect some of the dots for you in your career or give some information that makes a difference in your career.

 

Sounds interesting? 

 

Well, here are 4 networking actions you need to know about in 2022.

 

First, when it comes to the people you are connected to …

 

1.  Focus on the strength, not the size of your network

Networking has a bad reputation as a sleazy activity carried out at conferences, seminars, meetings and other professional gatherings. This is not the type of networking I’m suggesting here. Nor do I think it’s a race to have as big a network as you possible can. Instead, networking is about strengthening your existing connections and thinking of them as being part of your support team rather than considering them as just people you happen to know or work with.

 

 

So the action here is to make a note of your close connections, those people you feel you can trust and where you feel there is mutual support. Or where there could be mutual support if you developed the relationship further.

 

Most people don’t even do this first step. Sure, they have connections, relationships and friendships but they often don’t give much thought to improving and nurturing these connections for mutual benefit.

 

List those connections is the first action.

 

Secondly …

 

2.  Keep in touch with and deepen your existing network

 

Once you have identified your support network, keep in touch with these individuals. The secret here is that regular catch-ups with your network are a better idea than occasional discussions. The more you can connect with and understand these individuals, the more you will deepen your connection.

 

As you keep in touch with your network, remember key facts about their role and what challenges they are dealing with. Get to know them better and focus on their world before you think about asking for assistance in your career.

 

Helping and supporting others in their career can be very rewarding.

 

 

So the action here is to seek to deepen your connections by focussing on their careers, their lives and some of the challenges they face. How can you become a good ally for that person? Be a person who gives to the relationship more than you take. 

 

Ok, so when it comes to opening doors in your career, so far we have …

-       One, focus on the strength not the size of your network and

-       Two, Keep in touch with and deepen your existing network

 

And, in a few minutes, we will look at the next 2 actions to help you to open career doors in 2022.

 

But first, it’s time for …

Ok, so the resource I’m suggesting today is a simple one, a quick and easy suggestion, but also a useful and relevant one.  I have a web resource for you that I found on the web, on forbes.com. I will of course put a link in the show notes.

 
The resource is titled - How To Make Friends And Build Great Relationships At Work – fits very well into today’s theme about opening doors at work. The author of the resource is Tracy Bower.

Here are 4 of the key points from the resource:

Accepting others. Research show that when people are more accepting, they tend to be more satisfied in relationships. Even though it can be natural to critique or come to less-than-flattering conclusions about others, do your best to accept your colleagues.

Be trusting and trustworthy. Be someone others can count on to keep confidences and support them personally—but also to keep commitments and follow through on tasks. When others can rely on you both from a personal and a task standpoint, you’re more likely to build strong bonds which are long-lasting.

Focus on what you have in common. It turns out that when you feel commonalities with others, you tend to be more satisfied in your relationships. And, finally

Grow together. Great relationships are when people support each other’s goals for growth and development. In the best relationships, you feel you can pursue your goals and expand your skills—and the relationship supports you to do that.

 

So, again, the recommended resource is - How To Make Friends And Build Great Relationships At Work by Tracy Bower– well worth reading and the link is in the show notes.

 

Ok, let’s get back to Part 2 of the episode.

Part 2

So, let’s continue to look at how you can open career doors in 2022.

 

So the 3rd networking action I am recommending today is to …

 

3.  Add value to your network

 

Networking is a 2-way arrangement, so always be on the lookout for how you can add value to your network. You can do this in several ways:

 

-       Ask how you can help them in their role and what support they may need

-       Look out for ways you can support them and provide assistance

-       Share information and resources that can help them

-       Be a good ally

 

Basically, what I’m talking about here is learning to see life and work through the filter of those in your network you want to support. 

 

As an example, I recently carried out some suicide prevention training with the Zero-Suicide Alliance and I thought the training was excellent. After I completed the training, I immediately started to think about other people in my network who would benefit from attending this training. I contacted these people and shared my experience and how they too could undertake the training.

 

By the way, I will put a link in the show notes to this excellent FREE training that you can also attend. It took me 20 – 30 minutes to complete but it was extremely helpful and highly recommended. We all need to do this training.

 

 

So, the action here is to review your connection list regularly and always be on the lookout for how you can add value to the individuals on that list. Think about what happens and what resources you come across through the filter of the needs of your network.

 

Ok, so that leads us on to the last action, which is ….

4.  When you need career support – ask!

 

Finally, and yes, we are still talking 2022 here, if you need support from your network just ask. Let them know what support you are looking for. This could be:

 

 

 

And, of course, 

 

 

Don’t be surprised if these questions lead to helpful resources, giant leaps and, of course, open doors in your career!

 

 

So the final action here is, when you have completed the other 3 actions, that’s important – is to ask you network for support when you need it.

 

So, to conclude …

I hope I have shown you that your network is the first place to start when it comes to opening doors in your career.

 

 

1.    Focus on the strength, not the size of your network

2.    Keep in touch with and deepen your existing network

3.    Add value to your network

4.    When you need support – ask!

 

 

 

Your call to action today is to:

 

Review these actions and get started today to strengthen your network. Start by re-looking at your close connections.

So, that’s it! We’ve come to the end of another episode.

 

I hope you enjoyed the show.

  

You can email me at mark@bravocoaching.co.uk and you can find the show notes at bravocoaching.co.uk/podcast.

 

 

If you are interested in working with me, you can book a free discovery call on my website.

 

If you haven’t already subscribed, why not do that now. I’ve got a special guest on the next podcast with who I’m excited to talk with. I think you will enjoy the conversation as well …

  

Have a wonderful week and I will speak to you again in a couple of weeks time.

 

Bye for now.