Networking – Page 2 – mardihumphreys.com

Busy ≠ Productive

I love my to-do lists. Mostly, I love crossing things off them. I even have a to-done list. Yes, I realize I need therapy. Since admitting that I have a problem is the first step to recovery, what exactly is the problem I’m trying to solve? To-do lists are a symptom. The desire to feel productive is my problem. In his book, The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg says, “Productivity isn’t about getting things done. It’s about getting the right things done.” How do you know that you are productive and not just busy?

Prioritize

Are you constantly putting out fires? Then you are prioritizing the urgent over the important. So, consider setting boundaries around your priorities.

How do you know what your priorities are? Read your organization’s vision and/or mission statement. Your goals should align with your company’s vision and your objectives should help your company accomplish its mission.
You will have multiple objectives. Figure out what to do first by using the Eisenhower Matrix. Identify the most important thing to accomplish and calendar time for it.
Then, allocate specific time blocks for different types of tasks. For example, designate focused work sessions for high-priority projects and separate periods for emails and administrative work.
You don’t have to do everything yourself. Concentrate on completing the tasks that require your expertise and delegate the tasks that don’t to capable team members.
Your priorities are constantly in flux. As circumstances change, iterate your task list to reflect the new objectives.

Minimize

Do pings, rings, and dings dictate your schedule? Then you are furthering everyone else’s goals instead of your own. So, eliminate distractions and interruptions as much as possible.

Maintain a daily routine. It trains your brain to be most productive during specific times of the day.
Intentionally arrange your workspace for maximum concentration. Get away from household, office, or personal distractions. Organize your workspace for comfort and ergonomics. Is your desk close to electrical outlets? Are pens, chargers, reports, close by? Are non-essential notifications disabled on all your devices? Do you need to block distracting websites? Would using a time-management app help? Try one of these.
Take regular breaks. Stand up and stretch. Move around for five minutes every hour. Walk away from your desk, find a quiet comfortable corner and box breathe for one minute. You will reduce stress, clear your head, and boost your mental acuity.

Strategize

Are you in a lot of meetings, but not adding any partnerships to your network? Then you are just having coffee with friends. Building and nurturing meaningful connections can provide insights, open doors, and create opportunities for collaboration. So, network strategically.

What are your networking objectives? Are you seeking industry experts, mentors, or potential clients? Make choices that align with your goals, values, and priorities.
Attend the conferences, happy hours, and events that will help you connect with like-minded professionals and gain knowledge from industry leaders.
Remember to follow up with your new contacts after these events to maintain the connections. LinkedIn was built for this.
Are there professional organizations you can join to connect with influencers in your field?
Can you volunteer for projects that will help you establish a strong presence in your industry?

What measures do you take to enhance your productivity? Please share in the comments.

Too Young to be Done

Given that the Great Resignation is slowing down a bit and we are squarely in the Great Reshuffle, the Great Reckoning, and the Great Renegotiation, now may be a good time for those who participated in the Great Retirement to re-enter the workforce. The longer employees hold out for working conditions that better accommodate their lives, the sooner employers will have to consider both retaining and hiring non-traditional employees.

Good News and Bad News

The good news is, we’re living longer. The bad news is, we’re living longer. Current life expectancy in the United States is 78.99 years, but a 40-year-old employee is considered old according to the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). Even the federal government recognizes that the older we get, the fewer opportunities we have. Ageism is real, a waste of talent, and hard to prove. For example, you’ve probably heard myths about older workers such as: they lack energy, they are technologically incapable, and they aren’t willing to learn new ways of doing things. But don’t you know 28 year olds that fit that description too? Take a look around your company. Who is getting hired? Who is getting offered early retirement packages? Is anyone talking about how mature employees are typically:

more loyal
not interested in climbing much higher on the corporate ladder
good decision makers
effective communicators and managers
time flexible because their kids are grown and flown
less concerned about feeding their egos
energized by working with diverse teams

You haven’t heard those talking points? I suspected as much. But wise companies will figure out how to retain older workers. It costs more to hire employees than to hold on to them. Gone are the days when an organization could replace a long-term individual contributor with an unpaid intern.

Go For It

Everyone in the workforce over 40 years old has faced a job hunt, so don’t let pride sabotage your search. If you decide to come out of retirement, but don’t know where to start, reach out to former colleagues for coffee and catchup. When the opportunity presents itself, be ready to briefly tell your story and be clear about what you’re looking for. Not sure what you want to do?

Get involved with an organization like Silver is Gold
Consider part-time, seasonal, and short-term contract positions
Contact a nonprofit and volunteer. Do they need board members? Do they have working committees?
If you want to go back to work in a different industry than you left, can you job shadow someone in your area of interest?
Do you know any start ups that need help?
Does anyone in your network know any entrepreneurs who will trade experience for work?

The way work gets done is rapidly evolving. If there is work you’ve always wanted to do, there is no better time to go for it than right now.

Have you joined the Great Reshuffle? Please share your experience in the comments.

Distracted December

The only thing I love more than making to-do lists is crossing items off them. But I feel something inside tugging on me to stop and pay attention to the holidays before they all pass by. If you feel the same, then here are some suggestions for reconciling work productivity and holiday celebrations.

Plan

What are the top three things you absolutely need to accomplish by January 1, 2022? Schedule them on your calendar and block that time. When you’re doing one of these tasks, concentrate on it until either it’s done, or you’ve gotten as far as you can in one sitting. Do not allow interruptions and distractions. Do not check your mobile or multi-task. Multi-tasking is like treading water. You work hard but don’t get very far. In this plan remember to schedule time for:

Checking with the people from whom you need information. Ask them when they are taking time off. This will prevent you from either interrupting their holidays or putting important projects on hold
Margin. If you think a task will take thirty minutes, schedule at least forty-five to complete it. If you’re done in forty minutes, take two of them and stare off into the distance to give your eyes a break before tackling the next project
Yourself. It’s the secret sauce of productivity. Even if it’s to spend the day in your PJs sipping coffee and reading a novel, take time to rest, recharge, and reboot
Buying gifts
Celebrating. Ask your co-workers what holidays they’re observing and invite them to share their traditions at the all-team party. BTW, leave your phone in another room so you aren’t tempted to check it
Attending a holiday networking event. The holiday season is a good opportunity to both make new acquaintances and deepen relationships with business associates you recently met
Adjusting the plan. In mid-December look at the bottom of your priority list and see what you can put off until after January 1st

Break

Take care of yourself. Get up from your desk and stretch after an hour’s work. Drink a glass of water instead of a caffeinated drink. Get enough sleep. Reward yourself with a break to do whatever you want to for fifteen minutes (power nap, check Facebook, watch a cute cat video) after finishing a task.

Analyze

At the beginning of January, analyze your data. Answering these questions will help you improve the end of 2022:

Did you accomplish everything you wanted to? If not, what stopped you?
What did you do well?
What could you improve?
What do you wish you’d done differently? How will you make that adjustment next time?

You’re juggling parties, shopping, traveling, children’s events, etc., and you’d rather be watching Elf than working on the end-of-the-year report. Set your boundaries, communicate them, and enforce them. The earlier in the process you do this, the more understanding your team and manager will be.

Do you have a plan for finishing 2021 strong? Please share in the comments.

Your Network Is Your Net Worth

You have a job you love and you wouldn’t even dream of leaving it. But what if it leaves you? COVID-19 protocols spotlighted not only how fragile businesses are, but also the importance of maintaining a professional network even when you aren’t actively seeking employment. Change comes whether you’re expecting it or not. Best practice is to build your network when you don’t need it.

Use LinkedIn Robustly

95% of recruiters use LinkedIn to find candidates. To attract people you want to connect with, audit your profile. Search for your job title, identify profiles you like, then use them as inspiration to update yours. Pay attention to their headlines and use the same keywords they do so that colleagues can find you. Do you need to upload a new headshot? When you show up to a meeting looking 10 years older than your profile picture, that does not help you make a good impression. Remember that LinkedIn is a conversation. Don’t just spruce up your profile and wait. Connect with people at companies you want to partner with, follow their companies’ pages, and promote them on your timeline.

Personally Connect

The best way to get a job at a company you want to work for is to have a personal connection there. Recruiting employees is expensive for companies. When hiring, managers both approach people they know and get recommendations from their peers because it mitigates their risk of a bad hire. As we continue to recover from the pandemic, now is a great time to reach out to your weak ties (acquaintances, people you worked with briefly or a long time ago and lost touch with, met through a friend, etc). Ask them how they are doing and offer to catch up. You may be surprised at how many people you know that fall into this category. It’s simple and doesn’t have to take a lot of your T.E.A.M. Make time to connect over in-person or virtual coffee. Add value to your warm connections when you can. A positive comment on a decision maker’s Facebook page, a like on their company’s Instagram post, sharing their LinkedIn article; these are easy ways you can pay it forward and stay top of mind.

Give and Take

New possibilities can take you by surprise. They come along when you’re doing your job well and your network notices. Be open to unexpected opportunities and explore them. A broad and diverse network not only propels your own career growth, but it also allows you to intelligently recommend other people. You feel good when you are able to supply people with opportunities. It’s likely at least one of your associates is looking for employment. You can tap your network to help them. Connecting good people to good jobs benefits everyone involved in the interaction. The employer gets a good hire, the seeker gets a good job, and you get to be the hero who introduced them.

Is networking scary for you, not just at Halloween, but all the time? How do you nurture your professional network? Please share in the comments.

Tempting Talent

Last week we discussed how to retain your current employees during the Talent Tsunami. But despite your best efforts, it’s likely that some of them will still jump ship (cue Debbie Downer). From a financial perspective, hiring a new employee is an expensive process. You not only have to calculate salary, but also the cost of recruiting, training, and benefits. If you are a company of 0-500 people, this price could average $7645. How can you ensure you’re attracting trustworthy talent?

Congruity Through Change

It’s tempting to just increase the top of the salary range or offer a sign-on bonus and publish the “We’re Hiring!” post. But throwing money at the problem is not a long-term solution. The pandemic proved the workplace can function very differently than it’s been allowed to since the industrial age. This excited employees, but management not so much. COVID-19 fast-tracked the inevitable evolution of the way knowledge work gets done. Protocol that made factories run efficiently (e.g., all employees work five consecutive eight-hour days) are no longer in employees nor companies best interests here at the end of the digital revolution. If you make this an arbitrary rule, you risk losing out on valuable talent. Conversely, if you explore innovative alternatives for running your business, then you keep your company’s vision intact by taking advantage of modern methods to manifest it. For example: How many processes can you automate? Can you employ subcontractors? Can you upskill high-value individual contributors? Concepts like remote working and unlimited PTO that your company deemed impractical before COVID-19 are now your competitors’ widely advertised company perks. Ponder how implementing such changes may impact your business. A company that helps its workforce navigate work-life integration attracts employees who want to make that company thrive. Be a company that allows employees autonomy to get their projects done, advance in their career and life, and affiliate with both their coworkers and company. Prioritize being a great place to work; a place where employees are valued as human beings and not treated like cogs in a machine. When you do, that becomes part of your brand. In short order, you have an inspiring story to tell everyone and you will attract a workforce excited to invest in the company’s success.

Not Your First Rodeo

You’ve been short-handed before, so now is not the time to panic. Employment is a long-term prospect. You need to discern whether a new hire will be a loyal member of your team or if they are just riding a Talent Tsunami wave. Be as selective in choosing whom to add to your staff now as you were pre-pandemic. When hiring, consider:

Why are they changing jobs?
Did COVID-19 cause them to be laid off or furloughed?
What did they learn during the pandemic that will help them succeed in this role?
Are they looking for more purpose in their work?
What specifically drew them to your company?
Did someone you trust from your network connect you to this talent prospect?
Do they seem excited to meet with you?
Did they tailor their resume to the open position?
Did they ask you good questions about both the company and the job?

This power shift to job seekers won’t last forever. You’ll likely have the same pre-pandemic issues (e.g., finding employees with specific skills) you always had, but if you refresh your policies to create more win-win working conditions, you’ll attract quality talent.

What makes your organization attractive to talent? Please share in the comments.

Making Waves

The pandemic made us take a hard look at our priorities. What is now most important to you? In terms of your job, if you were able to pivot (e.g., a restaurant moving from fine-dining in person to at home delivery) or to transition to WFH (e.g., software developing), you’re grateful to have found a way to continue making a living. But now that we’ve moved into COVID-19’s phase of vaccines and variants, do you want to keep this up?

What Do You Want?

It’s time to decide what aspects of the working-under-quarantine conditions you want to maintain. Has the way you had to work made you want a different job, maybe even a different career path? If so, you have loads of company. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports 3.6 million Americans quit their jobs in May 2021. But before you start searching for a new situation, get clear on why you want to leave your current one. If you’re running away from this job instead of running to another one, your discontent is likely to follow you. Ask yourself:

Am I burned out?
Did the pandemic reveal a side of my company’s culture that I can’t support?
Were my manager’s expectations unreasonable?
Did I discover a remote position would be best for work-life integration?

During the work day, when you feel frustrated or stressed, write down what you’re working on or what’s happening. Is it a project, person, and/or PTO? The answers will help you define your non-starters when considering your next role.

Defining what you don’t want narrows your choices down to what you do want. Compensation (salary, PTO, insurance, retirement benefits), location, culture, and leadership development are all obvious details you need to consider. But also ask yourself:

What does your perfect job look like?
Where are you doing it?
When are you doing it?
Who are you doing it with?
Why are you doing it?
How are you doing it?

What values do the answers to these questions reveal (e.g., freedom, culture, growth)? Rank them in order of importance. For one work week, notice what you are doing when you lose track of time as well as what you are doing when time seems to drag. Write these down and analyze them. While looking for a new position, search for one that allows you to do more of the work you enjoy.

How Do You Get It?

Once you figure out what you want, make a list of companies whose mission, vision, and values match yours. LinkedIn, Glassdoor, and Business Journals regularly identify great companies to work for. Target people in these companies you can reach out to for informational interviews. Notify your network that you are looking for a new role. Ask them not only for introductions to hiring managers you want to meet, but also ask how you can help connect them to the decision makers they want to meet. It’s tempting to apply for every job that looks like fun, thinking that eventually one will take, but that’s actually a time waster. It’s more effective to invest your time building relationships with your network. Insiders know a position is available before it gets publicly posted. A good rule of thumb is to network with five people for every one job application you submit.

Are you thinking about a new position? What are you looking for in a company? Please share in the comments.

Reservation Highly Recommended

Dad and Me Father’s Day 2021 Photo by MSH

During one of my networking groups last week, we discussed what we learned from the men in our lives in honor of Father’s Day. My dad unintentionally taught me the power of follow-up. In a conversation he habitually listens more than he talks, asks engaging questions, and, even if it’s weeks later, texts or calls for an update. You’d assume the follow-up would be the most powerful part of the process, but no. It’s the listening. If you’re just listening to reply, you’ll jump into the conversation at your first opportunity. But if you restrain yourself and listen to understand, (e.g., repeat what the speaker said back to them, ask investigative questions) you build trust. Acting with restraint is useful in many work situations.

Social Intelligence

Robert Greene advises “Never outshine the master.” You may be smarter than your manager when it comes to the assigned task, but if you push back too hard, you reveal that you lack social intelligence. For example, once upon a time I was in a brainstorming meeting with a group of five people: an executive, his assistant, and two of my teammates. The exec kept falling down rabbit holes and I kept pulling us back with the same phrase, “So, the goal is zero waste…” The third time I said it, the exec seemed embarrassed. By the fifth time I said it, both the exec and his assistant were annoyed and my teammates were uncomfortable. In demonstrating I knew what the goal was, I exposed that his ideas would not achieve it. Remember the cliche, don’t bite the hand that feeds you? When applied to work, don’t break the finger of the hand that signs your paycheck.

Emotional Intelligence

Let’s say our team missed a deadline because you spent more time on social media than working on our project. If I pointed this out, how would you react? Would you get defensive and lash out? Or would you take a few deep breaths and ask for a safe place outside your workspace to store your phone while you’re working on our project? The latter choice shows restraint. Reacting out of ego won’t serve you in the long run. Humility is strength, not weakness. You fell into temptation. Get up, make the necessary adjustment, and keep going.

Business Intelligence

Creative freedom is an oxymoron. Freedom leaves choices wide open. You’re more creative when given parameters like a direction, deadline, or dilemma to solve. In other words, a restraint. For example, I’m constantly looking for ways to promote brand awareness that won’t break my budget. The views on the company’s social media pages go way up when I post photos or videos of our dog. Thus, “Tails From the Home Office,” a photo/video series starring my adorable-but-less-than-helpful “assistant” was born. Restraint is also crucial when searching for B2B clients. No one wants to miss a lead, but lack of focus denies you a priority. BTW, Priority implies one. If you have multiple priorities, then you don’t have any. Define yours and filter decisions through it. If your sweet spot is fast-growing manufacturers with 50 or fewer employees, build relationships with them. Don’t let FOMO cause you to miss those you serve best.

How has showing restraint helped you get ahead at work? Please share in the comments.

The First Step

The glass ceiling is cracking thanks to so many women beating our heads against it. The light filtering through these cracks reveals that the ladder we’re climbing to get there has a broken rung.

What is it?

At the beginning of 2020, for every 100 men who stepped onto the corporate ladder by accepting their first role as a manager, only 85 women were hired and/or promoted from individual contributor to manager. That statistic refers to white women; the statistics for Black women and Latinas are even worse. The first rung on the corporate ladder is broken for women and it has a negative effect on our talent pipeline. While more women are getting hired for senior management, there aren’t enough at junior management levels to promote. This lack of diversity in management denies our organizations an array of ideas, input, and solutions which adversely affects our bottom lines.

Why Does it Happen?

Women are subject to unconscious gender bias. Adapting to work during COVID-19 has awakened us a bit. Who hasn’t been on a Zoom call where someone (male or female) commented on a female coworker’s children playing in the background? When schools went online and daycares shuttered for months, working moms took on the majority of both housework and childcare. The statistics are worse for single moms and moms of color. Because of the pandemic, over two million women are considering an extensive leave of absence or even leaving the workforce. This makes the broken rung even harder to repair.

How Do We Fix It?

Continuous Development – Women need skills including strategic thinking and negotiation to level the playing field. If your company doesn’t have an official leadership development program, find your own. It’s a good investment of your T.E.A.M.

Get a Mentor – If your company does not offer an official mentoring program, seek one outside the company. Research shows mentees were promoted five times more than an employee who didn’t have a mentor.

Network – Collect people: mentors, coaches, sponsors, peers. A support network makes it 2.5 times more likely you’ll be seen as a high performer and ready for advancement.

Visibility – Share what you’re learning in leadership development with your manager during your 1:1s. Forward reference materials to colleagues and copy your manager. Bring up your development plan during reviews. Post about your progress on LinkedIn. Let the world know you’re taking responsibility for your growth and are ready to serve as a leader.

Stand up for Yourself – If you get passed over for promotion, ask why. Your manager should give you clear feedback regarding what you lack. If you feel the suggestions are vague, press for specifics. Is it a skill? Learn it. Is it not enough experience? Ask your manager to give you assignments that will help you gain it. Make these your immediate goals and achieve them before your next promotion attempt. Keep your manager apprised of your progress.

Have you experienced unconscious gender bias? How did you call attention to it? Have you ever been unconsciously gender biased? What are you doing to be more aware? Please share in the comments.

A Matter of Trust

This is the last article of the series Know, Like, Trust. If you missed the first two, you can find them here and here. I saved trust for last because it’s pretty hard to achieve without the other two. Let’s say a Potential Client (PC) knows and likes us. Now, how can we earn their trust?

Respect

Becoming known and liked can happen relatively quickly, but trust doesn’t. It takes time to demonstrate integrity, dependability, and consistency. PCs trust our companies after they trust us as people. We need to accurately represent what our companies stand for and broadcast those core values through multiple communication channels. We should be prepared to answer frequently asked questions like:

Can your company really do what you say it can? We’re able to answer this with a testimonial page on our companies’ websites.
Do you really want to help my business succeed? We prove this by sharing our PCs’ “We’re Hiring!” posts on our companies’ social media platforms.
Are we like-minded in our values? We affirm this with a how-we-help statement in every employees’ elevator speech.

We know we’re earning our PCs’ trust when they begin liking, commenting on, and/or sharing our social media content. Sharing is especially exciting. It indicates our PCs are engaging with, endorsing, and embracing our companies’ value-driven content.

Realign

The biggest mistake we make in communication is assuming it has happened. Paraphrasing what our PCs said, reflecting it back, and repeating the process until we verify we heard correctly, demonstrates we not only want to understand the problems, but we are also actively listening. Initially, this exercise is time consuming, but realigning our communication style to our PCs’ streamlines the process for future conversations. Being in accord with our PCs is crucial when it’s time to address sensitive issues. For example, how we will handle our PCs’ customers’ Personally Identifiable Information (PII).

Resource

After all this work, we may discover we aren’t the best solution for a PC. Our role then becomes connecting them to someone who is, because we are in relationship with our PCs for the life of their businesses. We demonstrate both trust and courage when we offer, “What you need isn’t what we’re best at, but I know someone who is.” It’s important to have an established network of colleagues we know, like, and trust to partner with so when this happens, we’re ready to refer them. It not only solves our PCs’ current problem, but also sets us up as the future go-to, trouble-shooting resource. When our PCs’ next crises strikes, we will be the first people they reach out to for help. Referrals build trust between all businesses involved in reaching solutions. People love to connect people they trust to one another. When we pay it forward, our colleagues feel obliged to repay in kind by connecting us with one of their PCs whose problem we can better solve. The loyalty these relationships inspire can help everyone’s companies grow exponentially. When our PCs trust us, they want to keep collaborating with us. Who doesn’t want to work with someone who solves their problems?

What do you do to prove your trustworthiness to PCs? Please share in the comments.

Knowing Me, Knowing You

Even though Presidents’ Day honors all U.S. presidents, we usually focus on celebrating George Washington and Abraham Lincoln; holding them up as examples of honesty and integrity. They aren’t remembered as salesmen, but wouldn’t you have to be an excellent salesperson to lead a country through war? The hallmark of a good salesperson is being known, liked, and trusted. Discussing all three would be lengthy, so let’s take the next three weeks to break them down. First up, how do we want to be known?

What They Know

Before the internet was born, consumers had to rely on a salesperson to learn about a product or service. If they were lucky, they had friends who used it and could ask them about their experiences. Even here in the digital age, recommendations, word of mouth, and reviews are the most trusted facets of marketing. In terms of information availability, we’re on a level playing field with our customers. People can quickly and easily fact check the stories marketers tell them, and they expect sincerity from everyone: big corporations, small businesses, healthcare providers, higher education, etc. Consumers don’t want to waste time listening to our sales pitch when they can go online and find out all they want to know about us with a quick search. Businesses can no longer put up a front. We can’t say we prize a certain value then behave like we don’t. Thanks to social media, there are no secrets. Customers have the power and they know it. Ignoring that fact makes us tone deaf, so our outreach should reflect our respect. People want to purchase from businesses that share their beliefs. We have to state ours in our media messaging, then live up to them every day. For example, if a company says they are earth-friendly, but 25% of their product includes petroleum-based ingredients, they will get backlash. People notice when we don’t mean what we say, and they remember when it comes time to purchase.

What We Want Them to Know

Not practicing what we preach leads not only to customers mistrusting the product, but also mistrusting the company and its employees; especially its sales force. People are smart and self-interest is obvious. They want to know the company they give their hard-earned money to is worthy of their trust, and we want to be that company. We get to know each other through conversation and connection. We need to answer the questions they aren’t necessarily asking, but we can see on their faces: Is this business ethical? Reliable? Transparent? Genuine? Honest? Does their representative seem different in person than her online presence portrays? Why does she work for this company? For example, I see people in pain and I’m driven to relieve it. The company I work for is in the IT space. Everyone has data. Eventually, managing it becomes cumbersome, especially for SMBs. My company gives me the freedom to relieve those burdens. As a result, I don’t see potential conquests. I see colleagues with challenges I can help solve.

What’s in it for me? A rising tide floats all boats. If they succeed, I do too. Am I a nice person? Yes. Do I need to make a living? Yes. Are these two goals mutually exclusive? No.

Does the public have the impression of your business you want them to have? Please share in the comments.