Networking. No, it’s not the multi-level marketing (MLM) that most people equate with the word. When I talk about networking, I simply mean making connections.
Networks matter for career success. People in your network help you find people who can assist you with projects, refer you to new employers (or for freelancers, clients), and make connections to new and bigger opportunities.
One study says that 36–42% of employees who do networking are more likely to receive top performance evaluations, 43–72% more likely to be promoted (an effect that builds in the 2 years following the program), and 42–74% more likely to be retained by the company.
Networks matter for keeping your sanity, too. Especially for freelancers and work-at-home professionals like me. We need a network to stay abreast with what’s happening in the industry.
Truth is, networking happens mostly during after-hours activities, like after-work coffee dates, weekend get-togethers, or at far-away conferences. That poses a problem for me. Since most of my colleagues are based in the Metro, and I’m based in the province.
And did I mention I’m a work-at-home mom? So no officemates to have coffee with, except for my husband, of course, who also works from home.
Case in point, I had to miss the annual Homeschool Convention because it was the only day I could take my daughter to an important dental appointment. It would have been a great day for me to reconnect with fellow homeschooling parents, and meet new ones. But as a WAHM, I have to set my priorities. It would have been workable if the venue was near, but it’s a 3-hour travel, so no, I just had to miss it.
So how do I strengthen connections with colleagues if traveling to the Metro is out of the question? How do I meet new connections if my days off from work are reserved for wearing the mommy hat?
For many of us, that problem doesn’t get solved. The network just stops growing, and in worse cases, it even shrinks.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. As WAHMs, we just need to be more creative and deliberate. Or is the word intentional?
So here are some of the key points I learned from David Burkus’ book, Friend of a Friend: Understanding the Hidden Networks That Can Transform Your Life and Your Career.
Hit the pause button on making new connections.
Focus on old friends and former colleagues. These are people who are already in your network, but have become dormant because of your circumstances. I try hard to do this myself, having coffee dates with friends from my past life as a corporate junkie. Sending messages on social media; commenting on their posts; tagging them in my updates that I think are relevant to them; or sharing something that reminded me of them and tagging them.
Re-establishing relationships and catching up is a lot faster than making new connections. And the truth is, they are more valuable.
Explore the edges.
This one’s a good idea for introverts like me. It’s a lot easier networking with people you share a common friend with. Or maybe people that your relatives already know. It can be that you already know the person by name, but you have not connected yet. So David suggests to solicit an introduction from the common friend and take it from there.
Go virtual.
This, I have down pat. I’ve been using social media to connect, and lately, I have stepped up my game by accepting or making calls via Messenger or Skype. Maybe soon I can forget about being shy and move on to video calls that will make some high-fidelity face-to-face conversations happen without having to leave home. We can even have coffee together, virtually.
Make introductions.
This one is powerful. I know my friend Kathy does this a lot. And I’ve done this quite a few times myself. Introducing two contacts from two different networks that you have is a great way to strengthen your connections. You strengthen the network around you, provide value for both contacts, and become known as an overall generous person. You can do it any time of day via email, but make sure both parties know your introduction is coming. Or you can create a group chat.
Use business travel wisely.
There may be times when traveling for work is unavoidable, but you can make the most of your time away. I do this all the time, when I have to meet with a client in the Metro. I just plan my trip so that I arrive a couple hours early and use that time to meet with a friend. Or plan to stay longer, and meet the friend after the business meeting.
Another way to do this, especially when attending a conference or a seminar, is finding out who’s coming to the event and setting up a schedule for quick chats with those you know.
Talk about other interests.
When parents get together, chances are the main topic would be kids. Examining non-kid interests, hobbies, and even work can lead to a stronger bond and more reasons to stay connected. A fellow homeschooling mom, Donna, did a great job at this during the Homeschool Convention. I missed the event, but I was kinda there, as part of her presentation. She made a presentation of homeschooling moms’ other passions that they developed or discovered while homeschooling. The result, it created another avenue for homeschooling moms to connect through another interest. And she created a group chat for us moms who she used as examples.
A lot of these steps seem like a regular part of networking, and they are. We just tend to neglect them. I believe that growing a thriving network is not just about attending networking events, working the room, and hoping to meet new people. A big (and more important) part of networking involves taking care of the network you already have and slowly expanding it through current contacts. It’s true that I used to think that networking can only happen at after-work events or at big gatherings, but I have since realized that much of it can be done from right where I am – my workstation.
You don’t have to find more time to do networking, you just have to fit networking into the time you have.
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