The power of cultivating a killer network beyond your workplace

Do you network outside of your 9-5 job?

While it’s essential to network within your organisation, spreading your wings and networking beyond your office walls can significantly amp up the benefits and opportunities available to you.

Yet, in my work, I still come across executives who don’t have much of a network beyond their current workplace. They claim they’re happy in their job, and don’t have a plan to move, so networking ‘out there’ doesn’t get much thought.

Some executives even think it's disloyal to network outside of your workplace. The problem with this strategy is that you could be left without a support system if things don’t go to plan at work or you find yourself out of a job at a time not of your choosing.

Here are five reasons why cultivating a wide, killer network makes sense.

• Mixing it up with different perspectives and ideas - Rubbing elbows with professionals from all kinds of industries and backgrounds can provide you with fresh ideas to tackle your work. Mixing things up this way can spark your creativity and broaden your horizons, allowing you to make a more significant impact within your organization.

• Opening doors to opportunities - While internal networking can lead to promotions or a lateral move to a new role, networking with people beyond your workplace can expose you to a whole range of career possibilities, including new industries, job roles, and even entrepreneurial ventures. A diverse network might just be the key to push your career forward in an unexpected way.

• Never stop learning and growing - Networking beyond your workplace can help you learn and grow. I’m a member of the IABC and I love the continuous learning and development that comes through networking with communicators all over the world. We discuss new trends and technologies. We debate communication best practices. It’s also fun as many IABCers have become good friends.

• Increase your visibility and recognition - As you engage with professionals from different organizations, attend conferences, and participate in industry events, you’ll become recognised on a larger scale. Soon enough, you might land speaking gigs, get invited to collaborate on interesting projects, or even land your dream job. It’s all about building your influence on a much bigger stage.

• Solving problems at warp speed - Need a quick solution to a work hiccup? Your external network has got your back. Having connections outside your 9-5 job gives you the ability to sense-check your thinking with experts in your network who have been there before, and access to a wealth of knowledge that’s not readily available within your organisation.

So, the benefits of networking widely outside your workplace are obvious. So why don’t we do it?

The reality is when we get busy, networking is one of the first things we cross off our list of things to do. Then, after a time, we’re surprised or disappointed that we’ve not been able to build our impact or influence outside our workplace in the way we’d like to.

Not good at this or unsure of where to begin?

To amp up your networking game, think about teaming up with an executive coach who can help you to develop a smart networking strategy that’s aligned to your goals. With support, your networking efforts will become more intentional and impactful. It’s also great fun meeting lots of new and interesting people as you develop your career.

Developing and nurturing a wide network on a global basis helped me to land a role at McKinsey & Company. Now I help others to unlock the power of networking through personalised executive coaching. If you’re interested in building your impact and influence more widely, get in touch.

Magic won’t bring your personal brand to life, but managing it will

It’s mystifying how we can be so organised in many parts of our life – exercising regularly, managing our workload, or researching the best whitegoods to buy – yet we expect our personal brand to develop magically without any effort.

Even worse, there are those who don’t think about personal brand at all. I’ve had sceptical executives sit in front of me and say: “I’m OK. I’ve been successful at work without needing to think about my personal brand, so I don’t need to worry about that stuff now.” 

I can understand this thinking if you want to disconnect and disappear or you work for a spy agency. But, if you’re pursuing something that really matters to you, whether it be a career goal or a passion project, your personal brand matters in this digital world.

Like it or not, people are looking you up online and forming an opinion of who you are and what you stand for, even before they’ve met you. It means the tone and substance of your online presence is more important  than ever before.

If you’re invisible in our connected world, it gets worse. If others search for you online and can’t find anything about you, then they control your narrative. Not you.

If you accept that magic won’t bring your personal brand to life, here are ways you can take control and build your impact and influence online:

•  Stay in your lane – Stick to sharing insights, opinion and advice related to your subject matter.  The things that you think are common-sense, based on what you know, may be a revelation to someone who knows less about your subject matter than you do. Resist engaging in things you know nothing about.

•  Show up regularly – Choose a social media platform based on where your audience is hanging out and turn up there on a regular basis. One executive I’ve coached comments on posts in his LinkedIn feed for 10 minutes every day. Find an operating rhythm that works for you and join the conversation.

• Share in an engaging way –  Consider the best format to showcase your expertise and content. If you’re going to blog, then write the way you speak and avoid sounding like a textbook. Interviewing someone? A video or a podcast will work. Found someone else’s content insightful? Don’t just ‘like’ their post. It’s much more engaging to share your thoughts in a comment and even draw others in to the conversation.  

• Behave like a decent human being – Although it’s in an online world, engaging in social media is about people dealing with people. Be open and generous in sharing what you know to help others. Don’t be aggressive. Have empathy for others, but don’t hug your trolls. Save your energy and let them be.

Just like anything else in life, building our personal brand takes planning, work and time. If you’ve been waiting for magical intervention, stop it immediately and get moving.

If you’re absent from social media or your profile is unprofessional, how does this reflect on your value proposition and personal brand? If you’d like to build your credibility as a socially engaged leader, get in touch.

Don’t spray, stay or stray. Understand your audience

So you have some interesting knowledge and insights to share? That’s great, but don’t risk it falling flat because you haven’t found or understood your audience.

Social media technologies have made it easy for us to share whatever we want, with whomever we want, whenever we want. It happens in an instant and can feel enormously gratifying. Yay!

The problem is:, in this hyper-connected world many people are acting without considering their audience. They are engaging in a practice I like to call “spray, stay or stray”:

• SPRAY: You shout into a megaphone and hope someone will hear your voice. You don’t know who your audience should be, so think everyone should hear your message.

• STAY: You limit your voice, unsure of who will value what you know. You have something of value to share, but are unsure where to find your audience. 

• STRAY: Your voice is confused and chaotic. You are unclear what you want to say, so you bombard your audience with multiple, mixed messages.

While it can be tempting to just get your ‘stuff’ out there, it’s worth pausing and considering who you want to share what you know with.

Here are four questions to ask yourself to help you define and find your audience.

1) Who will gain the most value from what I know?

Write down who’ll be interested in your subject matter. This could be colleagues in your organisation or people who do similar work to you elsewhere. Depending on the insights you want to share, your audience might be completely unrelated to your day job. That’s OK.

2) Why is this the right audience?

You cannot be all things to all people, so prioritise your audiences. They should sit at the intersection of the insights you want to share and your professional and personal objectives. Ideally, you’re learning from your audience at the same time that you’re sharing what you know.

3) Where is my audience?

Find where the ‘party’ is already happening and join the conversation. Research hashtags related to your topics in target platforms. While LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional platform, don’t overlook your company’s enterprise social network if your audiences are internal. Attend relevant events. Say ‘yes’ if asked to present on your subject at an event.

4) What do I want to tell my audience?

To avoid ‘straying’, be clear about what you want to tell your audience. If you’ve done the work upfront to identify the core insights you want to share, this step involves crafting 2 or 3 bite-sized messages carrying knowledge, opinion or advice (or a combination) aimed at each audience. These will sit at the heart of what you communicate. Mobilise your writing around these messages in your post, article or presentation.

Sharing your voice with an audience isn’t a performance. The reality is: connecting with your audience is more like immersive art. When you get it right, it’s mesmerising and engaging, and your audience will feel part of something important.  

I took the photo featured in this post at THE LUME Melbourne, a multi-sensory digital art gallery, which opened last year with Van Gough Alive. Immersed myself in Van Gough’s world while perched at his ‘Night Café’ drinking bubbles with my partner. Connection with the audience well and truly nailed!

Sharing what we know over time builds our impact and influence. If you’re absent from social media or your profile is unprofessional, how does this reflect on your value proposition and personal brand? If you’d like to build your credibility as a socially engaged leader, get in touch.

Know your stuff? Don’t be scared. Your insights matter more than you think

We all happily pass on our knowledge, insights and advice to friends, family and people we work with, yet many of us hesitate to share our thinking via social media platforms. Why?

Perhaps it's because we believe we’re not senior enough or that no one will be interested in what we think; that what we know isn’t very exciting or helpful. Or we may worry that we’ll come across as a show-off. After all, social media makes our thinking available for anyone to critique or cut down.

While laying our insights and opinions bare for anyone to see can be a scary thing, there is plenty of upside. 

Sharing what we know over time builds our impact and influence.

Meaningful participation in social media begins with identifying the core topics or 'pillars' of knowledge and insights that you want to share. I suggest you narrow it down to 3-4 themes. To help identify these, ask:

• What are you most interested in? Think about what excites you, both in and outside of work.

• What are you good at? Others will be keen to know how you built this expertise and will be interested in your tips and insights.

• What experiences and lessons can you share? The things you have learnt can be helpful to others starting out.

People who are successful in sharing their insights in social media consistently share knowledge, opinion and advice related to their core topics. Importantly, platforms like LinkedIn are increasingly prioritising these posts over the empty, humble brag.

No matter what your job role is, or how senior or junior you may be, what you know will be valued by others.

There is a ready audience interested in what you know. There are people out there who will benefit from your insights. Sit down and figure out what those areas of interest will be for you. What do you want to be known for?

If you’re absent from social media or your profile is unprofessional, how does this reflect on your value proposition and personal brand? If you’d like to build your credibility as a socially engaged leader, get in touch.