Archive for the 'Networking' Category

Networking: how to appear effortlessly interesting

Published on March 7, 2011 in Networking. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

...party animalsphoto © 2009 James Vaughan | more info (via: WylIf the social gods are smiling down on you, you have a friend who will attend Second Tuesday or Manic Monday Libation Hour or Save the Kittens Thursday with you. If not, and you’re like me, you’re the person standing far from the action, white-knuckling a watered-down rail drink, because you haven’t worked up the nerve to test the degree to which you’re interesting to strangers.

Am I interesting enough?

Isn’t that really the main concern tucked away at the back of our minds?  Can I launch a conversation on emerging technology that will keep folks’ attention, or will the people nearest me beg off like Agatha Christie’s 10 Little Indians?  Will that corner bubbling with social discourse welcome me into a discussion of this month’s worthwhile networking events with a charity tie-in, or will I be standing adjacent like a tool? Am I conversation kindling or a conversation killer?

The longer you consider the evidence that’s been warped by your own insecurities, the more likely you’re going home without new connections. Thus, my thrill that social technology lets you cheat just enough to be a pro-active attendee.

A long-standing rule of networking for the social anxious: Stay until you’ve met X people relevant to interest Y. If you meet 3 people relevant to the work you do, or 5 people in a book club or writing group that could sponsor your entry, then you have met your quantitative target for the evening. At that point, you’re either relaxing a bit and getting lost in conversation, or you’re calling it a night and congratulating yourself for sticking it out until you met that goal.

And here is where social tech makes life a bit easier. Branded happy hours are popping up on Eventbrite because it offers easy registration and ticket purchasing. Groups with an established Facebook presence are sharing their events on the site for easy head counts and forwarding to friends. People are sharing their event intentions on PlanCast, which builds word-of-mouth for those outings, trainings or social calls.

By default, online RSVPs are increasingly siding with attendee list transparency, which can help you decide between a handful of overlapping events. If you’re looking to make new connections, an event with all the usual suspects is OK to skip, but if you’re having a rough week, you may just want to hang out with friendly faces.

And, more importantly, it helps you figure out who you want and need to meet in advance, allowing you to craft a more targeted networking objective for yourself. Eventbrite registrations are my favorites because the event producers typically ask for employer and social media profile information from attendees. That information is often included beneath the event listing, making it easy to quickly scan the list for people and companies that could be of interest.

With the inclusion of links to corporate websites, blogs, LinkedIn profiles and Twitter handles, you can do your homework and have a few questions and comments in mind when you stumble across your networking targets at the event. You avoid any panic in coming up with a conversation topic on the spot.  A public RSVP list allows you to make that first impression less generic and  to feel more in control, so you’ll be less focused on the happy hour specials and more engaged with the crowd.

Career Musts: Mentors and Sponsors

Published on January 5, 2011 in Business and Networking. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Meeting room stencil graffitiphoto © 2006 Richard Rutter | more info (via: Wylio)Last month Catalyst’s report Mentoring: Necessary But Insufficient for Advancement discussed a key limitation on the upward mobility of women climbing the corporate ladder. For years women have been told they need mentors to make it to the top, but it’s not enough. Women need sponsorship too.

Mentorship is invaluable. Professionals learn directly from those they aspire to be like, picking up hard and soft skills necessary to entire and move up the hierarchy.

But it’s not closing the gap between male and female MBA-holders. A 2008 Catalyst survey of 4000 alumni from the best business schools around the world quantified the shortcomings of mentorship.

Alumni who had a mentor to consult before seeking out their first MBA job found better positions than those without the guidance, but outcomes for men were significantly better. Men were “93 percent more likely to be placed at mid-manger level or above than men without a mentor” versus 56 percent of women.

Wage discrepancies were especially telling “Men who had a mentor received $9,260 more in the first post-MBA job than women with a mentor,” while “mentoring made less of an impact on women’s compensation. Women without a mentor were paid only $661 more than women without a mentor.”

And as these professionals got promoted, the financial gap grew. For men, a promotion meant a 21% bump in compensation, versus a mere 2% raise for promoted women. Yes, promotions occurred at the same rate, regardless of gender,  for those with senior-level mentors. But with women and men frequently seeking mentors of the same gender and background,  a much smaller pool of top-level female executives makes it a bit more difficult for women to find the most impactful mentors.

Still, as a previous Catalyst study shows, mentoring does matter: women with mentors reported 27% higher salary growth than those without mentors, compared to 6% growth for men. But to keep the forward momentum moving, the authors of the study recommend finding corporate sponsorship.

In a WorkingMother article about this latest study, Catalyst CEO Illene H. Lang writes,

You need a sponsor—someone “on the inside.” It’s a person with clout who can advocate for you from behind closed doors, fight for you to get great opportunities, and spread the word about your achievements. “That’s perfect for her, she’s ready,” a sponsor might say, or “let’s give her a shot.”

You can advocate for your own advancement, but someone has to champion you when it’s decision time.  An executive-level advocate may be just the person to seal the deal.

Take a moment to think about where you’re at in your career.  Who have you learned the most from? Who has helped you get to where you are? Who can you reach out to for guidance and active support in fine tuning and achieving your objectives?