Your Network is your Net Worth.

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How many times have we heard this and wish to amplify our Social Capital and yet ponder, Hmm.. Where do I start?

What am I gaining from building connections?

Is it worth the effort?

What is my real goal?

With quite a few jargons going around, let us delve to see what it means and how we can leverage each for our goals.

As a first step, start with the end goal in mind - what am I looking to achieve?

X number of followers online? Getting more diligent of my new hobby of writing? Working towards becoming a Thought Leader in my field and sharing expertise? It could be any of these or something else too.

Let us break down where and how we go about it.

SOCIAL CAPITAL AND PERSONAL BRANDING

What is Social Capital?

Social Capital is building one's network of relationships, be it in an Organization - Society - Neighborhood; and could be online - offline.

Simply put, one's Social Capital is like the credit score of your Personal Brand.

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So, why is this so important in today's day and age?

Curating a Personal Brand is vital to articulate your USP. What defines you - your associations, beliefs, values and attitudes and what sets you apart?

When people see you what are the traits they associate you with? What stands out about you?

More importantly, what would you be like to be known for and remembered by?

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Here's an interesting exercise that made me realize what others thought of me which was conducted as a part of a Mentoring forum.

Ask these 2 simple questions to your colleagues / friends / partners:

1. Describe me in a few lines
2. Describe me in ONE word only

This should give a fair idea of what people envisage you as. Trust me, I got a lot of interesting lines, and one words!

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INTERNAL PERSONAL BRAND BUILDING

In organization settings that we are part of, having a strong, credible PERSONAL BRAND is indispensable.

Why? This is a no-brainer :)

1. Career Growth and Advancement
2. Opportunity to work on Cross Functional topics / project

Performance - Image - Exposure play key roles in heightening one's Personal Brand in an organization set up.

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PERFORMANCE contributes to around 20% in one's Career Growth. Shocked? Well, I am too. Ok, let us not put a tangible number to it but it is one of the lesser attributes if you look at Mid-level - Senior-level Career advancements.

Performance ALONE cannot guarantee one of success in an organization.

Early in one's career, probably Performance will make you stand out, but not as you advance. Why? Read on.

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IMAGE and EXPOSURE contribute to a larger share and add more weightage.

Image (40%) - this is where your Personal Brand comes in. What do Colleagues / Teams / Leaders think of you and your professionalism?

When your name comes up for a Cross functional topic / project, do people know you and would they want you on the team?

Exposure (40%) - Who knows your work best? Just your Manager - Super Boss. Ok. Great? What about the higher echelons of Leadership who are making the decisions? In a Succession Planning Interview, your name is discussed. If no one apart from your Manager knows you, how is your Career Advancement striking the right chords?

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Hence, it is imperative that one's Network - Social Capital - Personal Brand all work in tandem.

This certainly helps to attract projects - career advancements - opportunities and build one's authentic self in the organization.

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Speaking from my personal experience, being a part of Cross Functional projects and organization wide Strategic projects heightened my exposure, not just in terms of work content but also building credible network and connects.

It is not just enough if these connects are built one time; nurturing and growing them is also of paramount importance :)

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EXTERNAL PERSONAL BRAND BUILDING ?

While this is looking at one side of the coin, internally within our organizations, what about the external audience and External Brand that we wish to curate and portray?

Online Presence - Professional Bodies - Industry Network are some tenets to look at.

Like it or not, we all have our Digital Personas built. Sometimes consciously when we spend time building our online profile, and at other times when Google gathers all of our digital footprint :)

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Speaking from my experience, an Online presence through LinkedIn has helped me grow and augment my professional networking. Creating genuine connects - learning across different forums and sharing my professional expertise online has been pivotal for my career growth.

Professional Bodies also serve as an avenue to stay abreast of Industry trends - sharing Learning across in one's function and of course building credible genuine network.

In all, it is critical that we look at building, harboring and nurturing our Personal Brands; both within Organizations and externally too.