Boosting your career with connection

Hi there,

“We want success in our working lives. Just not at the cost of fulfilment in our days”.?

-???????The Global Workforce, 2021

Many of us are thinking deeply about how we spend our days. We want something better. But with so much change, uncertainty and continued adversity thrown into the mix right now, it's hard to know what to do about it.

There's the transformation in the world at work to consider, not to mention the success of our careers to manage. So, how *do* you get to grips with all of this while staying strong on the quest for fulfilment??

I have three ideas to reflect on… All of them involve building connection in one way or another. Because, getting stuck in to meaningful work with others is where the stress of uncertainty is buffered, career potential grows and day-to-day fulfilment is crafted.?

1)???Prioritise collaboration

Over the years, I’ve asked many entrepreneurs the same question: what was the first step in finding your success? And I noticed a common theme in their response: they worked?out what people they needed to surround themselves with.?

Entrepreneurs are relentlessly outcome focussed. And they recognise that to achieve success they will always need to mix and match their strengths with the capabilities of others. This is often why you see more than one founder of a successful business. They?are motivated?to work together because they can see how their skills and capabilities complement each other. And that significantly increases their chance of success…But there’s an additional reflection they tend to add, unprompted. And that’s always about the fulfilment the collaborations brought along the way.

And this?can also?be true if the outcome you’re after is career progression. The thing is, the way we are taught to progress up the ladder is individualistic. We are taught to focus on what we need to do to reach our objectives, rather than how to collaborate with our colleagues. So, it’s hard to break that cycle.

But the reality is, like those entrepreneurs, we can achieve so much more success if we pool our efforts. And not only that, but it’s a much more fulfilling route than going on a lone career crusade.

So, next time you see an interesting project up for grabs or have a seed of idea that you’d like to work on, ask yourself?these questions:

1. Who has a complimentary skillset to mine?
2. Who can I learn from and be inspired by?
3. Who would be up for working together on mutual goals?

Even if it’s a slow burn and the career boosting outcomes aren’t immediately obvious, remember the long game. The human connection you’ll build, working on something meaningful together, is where the magic really happens.

2)?Use change to connect?

When we work remotely, our focus can narrow to the task at hand. This can be a good thing for our own flow – like for the parts of our jobs that require keen concentration – but it does mean that it’s easier to become disconnected from the wider organisation – and how it’s transforming. And that can be damaging for our careers over time.?

The simple act of hearing – and telling – stories about the wider context can really help to bring that connection back – both to the big picture of the organisation and to the people who work across it.

I worked with a team who was really struggling to get their head around a wider business transformation. They were great performers, but lacked connection to the big picture. We came up with a simple (if unconventional) idea to overcome this: a scavenger hunt. We split the team in to mini-teams and tasked them with finding the answers to three questions:

1)?????????The first was centred around?ideology:?Why are we here?

2)?????????The second was all about?strategy:?What do we do to achieve our goal?

3)?????????And the last was all about the organisation’s?priorities:?What’s important right now?

To find the answers they had to connect with a cross section of customers, colleagues (from all corners of the business) and senior leaders. They asked questions. They heard stories. And then they had to synthesise what they heard to relay it back to the wider team. All vital steps in the deep understanding and deep learning of complex information.?

After a few weeks, they reported much better understanding of the strategy, their role in it and the impetus to change. And all of this gave them a much better sense of how their careers could progress there. But, they all agreed that it was the connections they built with people across the organisation that really made this exercise feel worthwhile.?

Could you do something like this with your team? Are there ways of connecting with people in your customer base and across your business who might be up for a chat about the context you’re operating in? In my experience, people love it when colleagues reach out to learn from them; and if your organisation is going through change right now (which I’m going to guess it is), this is a brilliant way to get your head around it, while giving?both your?career – and your connections – a boost.

3)?Think laterally…

Traditionally, we thought of career moves as steps in a ladder.?But a move across an organisation could be just as valuable to your career progression as a step up the ladder.

There are many proven benefits to lateral career moves. It can widen your knowledge of your industry. Help you bridge development gaps. Provide you with new perspectives and fresh thinking. And all of this can enhance your adaptability. But probably the biggest benefit of all is the connection you will build – working with and learning from new people across your organisation.

Ask yourself. Is there another part of your business you’ve always been interested in? Another team you’d like to be part of? Or maybe a?leader you could?learn a thing or two from?

It doesn’t even have to be a whole new role. A short-term secondment could fit the bill nicely.??And many organisations are thinking outside the box on this one too – like Unilever, who are encouraging their employees to apply to projects across the business with a guide of spending 20% of their time on it.

Changing things up might feel scary during a time of uncertainty but moving around within your organisation is a boost you can give yourself without taking on additional risk.?And taking ownership of your career progression, while building new and lasting connections, is never going to be something you’ll regret.

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Building human connection isn’t going to be the only way to boost your career. And it’s not the only elixir for seeing us through this uncertainty and into a better working world. Our organisations need to build cultures that allow us to prioritise our wellbeing, manage our work and home lives with flexibility, and contribute authentically no matter what our background.?

But,?a sense of belonging and connectivity has been proven to see us through adverse times over and over again.?So, my hunch is to dial it up as much as we can, especially as we emerge slowly from the pandemic.

As a species, we are built to work with other people. To create things together. To overcome challenges together. To achieve together.?And when you look back at your career, you won’t remember the career plans you followed or the uncertainty you navigated, you’ll remember the people you worked with.

Bye for now,

Erin

PS: If you’re managing a team and are interested in learning more about how to build connection, even in a virtual world, you mind find my LinkedIn Learning course?‘Building?Connection and Engagement in Virtual Teams’ helpful.

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