March 2022 - Your Network Matters

Do you ever celebrate a holiday and afterward reflect that the true meaning of the day is lost??Striving for the best way to celebrate, the best thoughtful exchange, the best way to capture the moment is exhausting.?This thought for me is not just for the predominant holidays, but it happens on March 8th as well.?March 8th is International Women’s Day, within Women’s History Month, if social media hasn’t told you that already.?We are bombarded with hashtags, blasts, and activities for the best way to find our personal and corporate celebration for that day.

I came across this social media post (above picture) from CREW Network that really brought things back for me.??It wasn’t striving to climb mountains; it was simple and appreciative.

One of these inspiring and talented women that deserves to be celebrated is Krista Nauss.?Krista has been a CREW member for more years than anyone will count, serving most of those years on a committee or part of our Board.?She is a professional, a wife, a mother, a friend – all with passion and balance.?She is the first to share that perfection isn’t attained, life is not always social media ready, but a good life is worth commemorating with an unabashed appetite.?I have invited her to be my guest writer for this month, unedited, to allow you to appreciate her as I do.?I am personally celebrating #IWD2022 by simply lifting up another’s voice and it feels right for the occasion.? R.

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Your Network Matters, Krista Nauss March 2022

As a guest writer, I was flattered, I thought -perhaps it was my zest for life and the fact that my personal motto often is “sleep when I’m dead”. I also love that March is the month for celebrating women.?And celebrating them is never lost on me. I celebrate them daily.??I have girls of my own, but before that came the love of my girlfriends and I am fortunate to have so many.?I truly consider them one of my greatest gifts and most valuable fortunes.??My weeks and months are filled with lunch dates, walking dates, trip dates, wine dates, phone dates. ?It does not hurt that I have a hard time saying NO. Yes, is way more fun!

I learned the strength of a network before I came into the CRE world with my earliest relationships, and since then the CREW Calgary network has been a very important part of my career.??An early mentor to me was a woman and remarked, why would you not support women!?I never had a great answer for that and since then, I have realized her wisdom in supporting, befriending and being close to women that share or sometimes do not share the same values. Our common connections keep us threaded tight, whatever that connection at the time may be.?And now, these lifelong friends continue to fuel my desire to support women.?

So timely with it being #IWD2022 I want to reiterate that.?Collectively we have an impact on each other.?We also need to reverse the stereotype that women do not support each other.?I have had far more women cheer me on that men, not because there is anything wrong with any of then men, but I think we are great at cheering and is just an innate skill that we should be proud to process authentically.??Being part of a network – be it your book club, clothing club, neighborhood ladies, university comrades, etc. is not only a great way to bounce off ideas in a not threatening way, but people with tight groups have shown to be more successful and also have less mental health issues.??Hello, I like more success and less mental issues please.?

Back when I was a big reader of the Harvard Business Review and used it for many articles to complete my MBA, one particularly stuck out for me.?I love research that tells us something that we probably already knew.?Men and Women need different kind of Networks to succeed.?Its not shocking.?But perhaps we did not realize that someone researched it and said, yes – you will be more successful if you have a circle of women surround you as a woman. ?“Women benefited …. from having an inner circle of close female contacts, despite having similar qualifications to men including education and work experience.” (1)?Women relied on their connections to share private information that would help them determine their best path forward (1).?Women with connections to whom recorded them as close connections, were the most successful. (1).??

So, network smarter, not harder.?Be apart of somewhere and really invest in it; Do not wait for networking opportunities to come to you.?Make it happen.?Seeking out opportunities to engage with others, even when its virtual - it will only strengthen your network.?And a strong network we said will garner you more success and friends, and fun things to do, and lunch dates and perspectives and well, less mental health issues as you have just gained yourself your own support system and your own team of therapy.??

So, people, whether the tune in your head is Jump by the Pointer Sisters or Jump by Van Halen (both are equally my favorite) it is what I hope you do in March.?Jump In.?Albeit whatever that may be.?Whatever fuels you and whatever people you want to be apart of.??Jump in and share yourself and then watch the rewards.?

Research: Men and women need different kinds of networks to succeed. Harvard Business Review. (2021, September 17). from https://hbr.org/2019/02/research-men-and-women-need-different-kinds-of-networks-to-succeed