Welcome back in your leadership. I'm Chris and I'm Lorenzo, and Lorenzo on
this episode, I want to talk about networking. Yeah, it's a good
topic. I think it's important, and we're talking about actual like people and
not computers though, right, yes, absolutely, yeah, this is uh
okay. I want to make sure this is not transition to an IT show
behind your back without you knowing. Yes, I've seen a rise in people
posting on LinkedIn around a job they just got, like either they were searching
for a job for a while, or they were laid off from their organization
and they were on a job search for a while and they and they are
posting about that they landed a job, they got their new whatever the next
thing is. And the rise that I'm seeing is in the number of people
who in that post on LinkedIn, they credit their network for this opportunity,
meaning it's not oh, I spent you know, ten hours a day applying
to thousands of jobs and then eventually one one got it. It's it's I
love ridged my network and I couldn't have done this without that, And I
like that. I'd like to believe that the effort that people put into relationships
from from a true standpoint of not what can this person or this relationship do
for me now or down the road, but just I like this person,
we have similar values. Let's let's let's be friends, right because because you
know, you never know when your network might come into play in terms of
your your next career move. And I like seeing that that rise in that.
But but this idea of networking, I think a lot of people they
they assume it means in places where they aren't normally you know, at like
they're at a cocktail mixer or a somebody's wedding, or at a conference,
and they strike up a conversation and someone has to happens to have a common
interest. What I want to talk about when it comes to networking is networking
within the organization you already have. So you're in a job right now,
and there are hundreds, maybe thousands of people who work in the same organization.
And these are people who you don't have the opportunity to work alongside every
day. You might encounter them by happenstance or because you're on a temporary project
or this particular call that you were on. But but they're right there all
the time. I think a lot of people think, oh, they're always
there, almost like a relative who lives right across town and they're they're older,
and you find out they passed away, and you regret that you never
reached out, and you think, well, they're always there, they're they're
close. I don't have to make the effort. They're always going to be
there. And then and then that goes away. I think a lot of
people leave organizations in the exact same way. They don't ever cultivate the relationships
and the networking that they should do within their own organization, and they and
they don't. They don't realize the benefit of doing that while they're there with
people who they wouldn't encounter normally. Think that hurts them in the long run.
And the people who do it the right way, I think it just
pays off in dividends throughout their entire career. Yeah, I mean, it's
it's such a great point because I think that, you know, the the
easy thing to do for a lot of people is like, you're you're gonna
show up to work, You're gonna do what the job is, You're gonna
work with, you know, whether it's a team or you know, you
you contribute your own work by yourself, but you're gonna have a direct boss,
like you're gonna have people that are within kind of your day to day
circle that you'll spend most of your time with. Typically, of course,
if you work from home, maybe it's a virtual team things like that,
but there are people that you will see and talk to or communicate with quite
often. And I think that for for most people, that's like okay,
like I can I kind of exist in this in this space and I'm gonna,
you know, leverage my team for what I need and build relationships and
spend time with people that type of thing, and and then that's typically enough.
And I think kind of what you're talking about. And I think what
is a great point from the Lincoln standpoint is like those that understand the power
of relationships, you know, the power of people understanding who you are,
the work that you do, your approach to the work, and you understanding
them and getting to know them well. That pays off not only locally in
the role that you currently have, but of course into the future as well,
because that's what happens. People change jobs, they change companies, they
change careers, and if you've been a part of working with individuals and they
know that you're someone who does great work. They know that they can kind
of trust you. They know that they're aware of how you approach the work,
how you treat other people. Those things matter a lot as you grow
your career. Again, whether it's the same company over time, because you're
the decision makers are different. So like what you know to get from this
job to the next job, Maybe it's just your direct boss and the movement
or the promotion is within their you know, kind of organization, so they're
the only one that's really involved. And then you continue to move your career,
then your boss's boss becomes a decision maker. Then there might be your
boss as bosses, you know, partners or peers may be a part of
a process. Like you have, these things that happen over time where the
amount of people involved in decisions to your career and your day to day work
become more and more that if you're not building relationships or at least getting to
know those people or you know, helping them to see who you are and
what you do ahead of those conversations, it can be a lot harder to
work and navigate those opportunities versus someone who understands and is always looking to get
to know somebody and say hi and spend a couple of minutes talking to them,
find out what they do, share with them what you do a lot
of companies and organizations and people are always up to grab coffee with someone or
talk to them for a minute or say hey, I know we just met.
I'd love to learn more about you and kind of the work that you
do and see, like, are there any elements where we kind of cross
passed from a work standpoint, Like will we be able to grab coffee?
Or can I get like fifteen minutes of your time just so we can kind
of like get to know you a little bit more. Most people that I've
met in life are like, yeah, of course, like no product,
Yeah sure, why not? And those things are so important when it comes
to building that network and creating those opportunities for now and for the future.
Yeah, that's perfectly stated. There's a Harvard Business Review article that was published
this week that talks about this, and it references Carol Dweck's work on growth
mindset versus fixed mindset, which we've spoken about on the podcast before and around
this idea of the work that is needed in order to do this, and
I like the way this article, you know, kind of summarizes this because
I look at networking and relationships with people in terms of what in terms of
how it grows your network and how it sets you up for having your network
be a powerful force that can act on your behalf in the future. I
look at relationships with people almost like then diagrams, And so the person who
works as a peer of mine on my team with me, who is in
the same place in their career as me, in the you know, approximately
the same you know, stage of life as me, the then diagram between
me and that person almost lines up perfectly with itself. So you know,
there's gonna be some some deviation a little bit, but it's like two circles
that almost completely overlap. And then a person who who doesn't look like me,
and who doesn't who isn't in the same stage of life as me,
and who doesn't work on the same team as me, and who works for
another part of the organization doing something differently. Those two the circle of me
and that person, they do not overlap at all, or they they maybe
overlap a little bit. Because we're the same organization, but it's a much
further apart than diagram, And then a person who works for an entirely other
organization is even further apart. Another industry would be even further apart. I
think that because a lot of people don't realize that even though you might change
jobs several times throughout your career, it's actually pretty it's a lot less likely
for a person to change industries in their career more than maybe once. I
think people don't realize that even if they are not leaving an organization, a
lot of other people did in that same time, and having those people in
your network while they were there, they're still in your network once they've left,
And so cultivating those relationships with as many people who have as disparate then
diagram circles from you as possible, that's the way to grow the network the
most. Now, the further apart they are from me in terms of that
ven diagram, the more effort it takes to build that relationship because there's less
commonality. If I'm sitting in the cubicle next to a person and they look
like me and we like the same music and we're doing the same work doesn't
take much effort. As long as you're not a jerk, you're probably gonna
have a good relationship with that person. That doesn't grow your network. What
grows your network is the effort that it takes, and this article puts it
in. When it comes to growth mindset versus six mindset is that it's this
belief that, well, if the then diagram doesn't overlap, then there's no
point in trying because it's not going to work out anyway. And obviously that's
not true. The people I know of the best networks are the people who
look at this from a standpoint of the more effort that this takes, it
means that the more likely is that it will grow my network in a substantially
meaningful way over time. And if people can kind of cultivate that that mindset
about it, I think it will pay off in the long run. Yeah,
it's a great point. I think of the times when my networks have
expanded like quickly, and those things have always been a like. Those things
have always happened because I was put in a situation, or put on a
team, or did something with my time that exposed me to different audiences.
So you know, I've been a part of kind of voluntaring my time for
decades and decades, multiple companies around, you know, different employee groups and
things like that, and helping to support up and coming leaders and like leaders
development programs and like. When you do that, you end up meeting people
that are also passionate about that same thing, but do jobs completely different than
yours within the same organization. And so when that's happened and I meet those
individuals and we talk and we have we share this commonality around whether it's like
you know, advocating for helping people find their voice and kind of like you
know, raising their voices up, or working with up and coming talents and
helping them to develop from like a mentorship standpoint. When you have that little
bit to your point that like those diagrams just barely touched because you're in the
same organization, and you find that little small thing that you have in common
that you that you like, and then you start to expand it. I
found my networks really grow quickly because it's it's interesting, it's like it's always
happened. It's like I talked to this person that I just met, I
talked to that person that I just met, we had conversations, and then
something comes across kind of my desk that's like, oh man, we've been
trying to get this thing done. We just wish that we knew somebody that
worked over on this team. And I'm just like, actually, I just
met someone last week, you know, and I met them through this let
me reach out and then I plug two people together and then we get something
across the finish line. And it's like it happens almost every single time.
And so I've learned and realized over time that importance of networking. But to
your point, it took effort. It took me either, you know,
raising my hand to take on some responsibility, volunteering my time for some responsibility.
Every once in a while, I do get a signed to something where
I have a different audience and a different group of people around me that I'm
meeting, and so I take advantage of like that opportunity to talk to them
and understand who they are and what they do, because I just learned over
time that that network is so critical to getting things done quickly. And I
leveraged my network constantly to find stuff that people can't find, to get things
that people are looking for to connect people that you know, don't know who
each other are, but they probably should. And you know, like there's
so much value to it to me that I'm always looking for new opportunities to
be in different groups where I can learn and grow and build my own network.
Yeah. Yeah, I look at it from a standpoint of you know,
if I if you're if you're picking carrots out of the ground, you
can't judge the what the size of the carrot is going to be based on
the size of the you know, the the green sprig that's kind of sticking
out of the ground, you know. And I think if you if you
look at it and go, oh, I'm only gonna go for the ones
where this is this giant thing sticking out of the ground, and I'm gonna
assume that the carrot below is a good sized carrot, and that might that
might be the case, you know, for you know, in some situations,
but some of the biggest carrots might not have anything sticking out of the
ground. It might take work and effort to get down to to the to
where the actual you know, the desirable part is. But but when you
get there, it is a uh, it's something that will that will pay
off dividends in the long run or or it may not. And that's the
thing that's where I think people get stuck, is that they they they want
to see a one plus one equals to relationship and and and that is it.
That's kind of an indicative of a person who's looking to build relationships only
with people where they are certain this relationship will pay off for them in the
long run. And that's not actually networking, that's just self serving. The
right way to build relationships is to find ways where your skill set and the
things that you do well and the things that you are good at and the
things that you are passionate about can help others. And if you can do
that in that way, the way that that will grow your network is in
a way that is selfless. And growing your network in a way that says
I'm only looking to help others is the only way to grow it effectively over
the long term. Because it's fine to build a network with someone who you
know they can do something for you in the long run because they know that's
why you're doing it anyway, And that's fine too. You're gonna have some
people like that in your career where it's just necessary to do that and it's
the smart thing to do. But the people I know who are the happiest
and who have this strongest, largest networks over a long period of time are
the ones who just trusted it was going to happen. They put the effort
into the individual relationship because they they liked that process. What they derive from
it was I like this process. I like people in general. I like
talking to people. I like building relationships with people. I like digging and
finding the commonalities that I might have with somebody, even if it might take
a little bit of time to do that. And I just trust that over
a long period of time, enough of those things that happen will pay off.
It's not gonna be something I can quantify in advance, Like it's like
a it's like doing an unpaid internship. In the entertainment industry. The amount
of people who who are like very, very successful in the entertainment industry now
who talk about how their first job was for the first three years, they
didn't make any money. They got coffee for people because what they got out
of it was just being in the room, right. And it's like that
if you if you think, well, I want to get paid for every
single thing that I do, whether it's money or whether it's in seeing how
the relationship is going to pay off for me. If you go into it
with that mindset, you're not. You're You're gonna build very, very shallow
and superficial relationships with people and they'll know that. But but it won't be
something that will that will pay off in the long run and it and it
won't give you a sense of fulfillment in terms of the people that you have
in your network and the the broadening of your of your worldview that you would
get out of just genuinely liking people and making an effort to build relationships because
you like doing that absolutely. And with that it brings us to this episodes
one minute Hack. But first a few words from our sponsors. All right,
for this episode one minute Hackers, or want you to do anytime you're
meeting somebody new within your organization, someone who don't work alongside every single day.
You're meeting this person for the first time, but they still work for
the same company as you, I want you to make a habit of asking
for time with that person, even if it's just you know, five minutes
to talk about common goals and common interests and what they do for the organization,
what you do for the organization. But most importantly, I want you
to talk to that person about the things that you're passionate about and the things
that you believe that you're good at, so that they file that information away
in their head, and if something comes along that they need to get done,
your name pops up in terms of what you could potentially do to help
them solve a problem. And so it's not about making sure that you find
out what they can do for you. It's about making sure they know what
you like doing, what you're passionate about, what you're good at, and
how you want to make a difference within the organization or the world as a
whole. Make sure they know that information because the more people you do that
with, the more likely it will be that someone somewhere down the road is
going to come up with a situation where they think, oh, I met
Lorenzo two weeks or two years ago. I remember him telling me that he
was passionate about exactly this thing. Let me reach out to him, and
that will happened. The more often you do this the more likely it will
be, and the first time it does happen, it will feel absolutely amazing.
It will validate every every effort that you made. You won't think about
the things that you did and that didn't pay off, because again, it's
about inserting yourself into as many places where your passions and your beliefs and your
values can be on display in the work that you're getting done. So do
it as often as you can, and you will see the fruits of that
labor over a long period of time. Yeah, I think it's a great
woman to hack. And you know, I like the asking for time thing
because sometimes you have the time and the moment to have a conversation to get
to know somebody, and sometimes the space that's been created is exactly for that
reason when it comes to like allowing people to get together and to have conversations.
But you know, asking for the time with the intention of like,
hey, like i'd love to get some time to connect, you know,
around the work and some of my passions, and I want to be a
resource if anything comes across, Like I want to be a resource, So
like I'd love for us to connect about that so I can kind of share
some of that work and and kind of and tell people and like kind of
build my network throughout the organization, like being upfront with that type of thing.
So I think it's a great woman hacking. Yeah. I think the
most important part about this is understanding that people inherently know that skills can be
taught, but a desire to help people and a genuine love of people and
a love of creating relationships isn't something that can necessarily be taught. And so
when you encounter somebody and you can make sure that they see your values on
display, even if they are not anywhere related to you in terms of the
work they're getting done, in the work you're getting done, you will make
an impression on that person that will that will potentially cause them to want to
reach out in the future, even if the skill set doesn't match. Because
again we're talking about you know, potential, uh, you know, long
term business relationships. Those things cannot be rooted in skill sets. They are
rooted in values, and they are rooted in you know, common interests,
in common and mindsets. Because the skills will be taught, the mindset cannot
be Bring the mindset with you and show that on display as much as you
can, and you'll be surprised how many times you'll have opportunities to leverage those
into career growth where you might have to learn a new skill, but you
were given the door to walk through because of the values that you showed on
display in those little moments where you have the opportunity to meet new people and
cultivate those relationships. Yeah. Absolutely, I think it's such an important piece
of like just not only like leadership, but like role modeling for your people.
How networks are such a critical part of getting work done along with career
progression, and with that it brings us to the end of this episode,
This is hacking leadership. I'm Lorenzo and I'm Chris, and we'll talk to
you all next time.