Networking with Purpose: Making Connections to Power Your Future
There’s an old saying that if you don’t know what you want, you’ll probably never get it. If you think about that saying it seems pretty self-evident. But consider the people you know who haven’t decided on a career choice. They go to work and do what’s expected, but the job is means of getting money to live. They’re not motivated to do more, to put out extra effort; it’s a dead end because they haven’t figured out what they want.
The same principle applies to connections. If you don’t know who you want to connect with, if you don’t ‘connect with purpose’, the ‘right’ connections will probably never happen.
To network with purpose, ask yourself these questions:
1. What do I want from networking in these three areas: Career? Job? Personal?
2. How many people do I want to meet a week?
3. Who am I trying to connect with?
4. How much time am I investing? Is it enough?
5. What are my results so far?
6. Who have I connected with, and what has it meant to me?
According to a Harvard Business Review article (Herminia Ibarra and Mark Hunter, How Leaders Create and Use Networks, January 2007) networking is what separates successful leaders from everyone else; leaders and non-leaders alike.
The authors put forward that creating a network of personal contacts to provide support, feedback and the resources needed to get things done is critical to your success as a leader. They also point out that many leaders avoid networking – often citing time and/or ethical issues as the reason.
They recommend three types of networks:
· Operational: people you need to get assigned, routine work done.
· Personal: people (probably outside your organization) who can help you with your personal growth and advancement
· Strategic: people outside of your control who will enable you to reach key organizational objectives.
Although you need all three types of networks, to really be successful, you must master strategic networking. You need to interact regularly with people who can expose you to new business opportunities and help you capitalize on them. These are the people who can power your future.
Making connections is about knowing what you want and knowing who you want it with. Combine this with adding value to those connections and what you have is Valued Based Networking with Purpose!
image courtesy of wallace_lan
