Start to Build Your Network During This Downtime

Uncertain times, lockdowns, panic buying and scare-mongering; COVID19 is certainly something to be taken seriously. It’s not easy to stay focused on work and career when the health of family and friends is at risk. 

Swathes of people who once populated the CBD’s offices up and down the country have found themselves at home, trying to remain productive and ensuring continuity as best they can. Without the office banter, buzz and atmosphere, and without colleagues to bounce ideas off you are unsure of whether you can. 

What is going to happen? When will things return to normal? Will I still have a role? Will my company survive? So many questions!  One thing that is for certain is that we are all going to have to play catch up at some stage in the future.

At some point, we get out and exercise, eat well and relax within the confines of social distancing. We have still found ourselves with time. Working from home has its benefits, it cuts out commute time. You can crawl out of bed, make a coffee and be at your desk in minutes.  If you do it early enough you could have a good day’s work done by 2pm.

So, what can we do with this extra time?

Things we have neglected. We now have time to catch up on the company inhouse training, the H & S online courses that were prescribed and have accumulated, new job skills, catch up on some industry reading, the latest trends, the job market? How can we be sure that when COVID19 is gone and it’s safe to return that we can pick up where we left off having benefited from the downtime at home? Have we managed to do something productive, …. even if it’s only clearing the home office of clutter?

Imagine if you managed to do something to make a difference in achieving your goals.

Imagine if you had built a team of people who advocated for you, you own personal salesforce. A group of friends who you know like and trust, to say good things about you, tell their friends how good you are at your job and how your business is just what they need

Imagine if you had a solid network …. not connections on LinkedIn, not friends on Facebook (not that’s there’s anything wrong with those) but a real network of trusted business friends?

Why is it good to build a network?  

Building a network for the sake of it is actually not much better than getting new connections on a social website. The alternative is a network of people that you are happy to collaborate with. It would be a network of people (not those who do the same job as you do) complimentary to you. It could be a network of people who can introduce you to the future clients, future opportunities, your next manager or even an industry guru who is happy to teach you. It’s your network so you get to decide who’s in it. You get to build your team through your efforts and ability to teach them why it’s all such a good idea.

What is a Network? …. a bunch of anonymous connections on LinkedIn? A large list of friends on Facebook or even Instagram? If you keeled over in the morning how many would really care, how many would come to the funeral? Who would write a letter of condolence? or even send flowers?

Ask anyone who has ever lost their job if they are worried about the future. I think you will find those who have a well stacked network never have a worry as their network assists in their time of need. If you have nourished it well it should serve you well. If you have advocated for others in your career and developed trusted relationships through business, referred people on …those are the ones to come back and pay it forward to you. This is why the strong networker will never worry for the future. He/she dug the well before they had need to drink from it.

What next?

So have a fresh look at your LinkedIn connections and think about their usefulness to you now or in the future.  Instead of cleaning your desk or sharpening your selection of pencils take a little time to consider what value the vast majority of the 3 ,000 odd connections you have accumulated have helped you to achieve your goals. 

If we are all honest only a small percentage of those connections are meaningful or useful. They are not part of your network; they are just a list of people who are happy to accept you as a connection. They are the ones who say, “How are you today?”, but aren’t really interested your reply

By and large these connections are just that, they are not people who you really know beyond a few lines in their description and a professionally taken photo. They are people you neither like nor dislike and certainly not people you trust. Trust is earned after all 

The “know, like and trust” people are your effective real network. They are the ones that you can call upon and they won’t be surprised if you do. They are the ones that you advocate for because you know them, you like the way they operate in business, and you trust that if you refer them to someone else. They won’t let you down.

This COVID 19 crisis will probably last a minimum of 3 or 4 weeks. It may stretch to a couple of months. Nobody knows if the recovery will be V shaped or U shaped but in the down time that many of us have, I can’t think of a better way to prepare for the other side other than to build a strong network of people who can multiply for you.

I am very interested in any thoughts you may have so please feel free to leave them and if you are interested in partaking in some real network building let me know as I might just have a solution for you.

#buildingyournetwork, #workingfromhome