Topics Covered

   00:03  Introduction of the event, MBO Partners, and the speaker 

   03:42  Webinar agenda

   04:16  Introduction of the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL)

   07:19  Your Leadership Network: Reflection questions 

   09:04  The 6 myths of networking

   12:31  Importance of a network

   18:57  What makes a good network    

   25:48  Giving and getting: Reciprocity in networking

   39:06  Networking tips and tricks for career success

   55:02  Q&A

1:00:50  Closing remarks

Event Description

Leaders with good networks tend to be promoted more rapidly, enjoy greater career mobility, and adapt to changing environments more successfully. Organizational and social problems cannot be solved alone—leaders must “change their underlying assumptions about how to lead in order to best leverage these networks”. 

In this webinar, Jessica Glazer, Senior Faculty Member at the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL), discussed how to create a network of people that will support each other and help you be successful in a multitude of areas. Research done by CCL shows that many leaders are not equipped for the current complex and rapidly changing environment where work is accomplished by collaborating with webs of people, both internal and external. Having strategic connections and an intentional approach to networking can make the difference between working on your passion project as a side gig and making it your full-time endeavor. Having these connections can impact your ability to grow your business and further your independent career. 

This Q&A-style discussion covered:

• How to make reciprocity work with networking
• The importance and value of networking as it relates to growing your business
• Ways to map your current contacts in order to better understand your network
• How to develop a strategic action plan for reaching out to new contacts
• The options for introverts who might dislike cocktail parties and extroverts who might be having trouble cutting down their list of networks
• Tips and tricks for networking in person and online

Are you interested in attending the next webinar in the Professional Development series? View our upcoming events.

Transcript

[00:00:03] Emily Stringer Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to today's webinar, Six Degrees of Development, Cultivating a leadership network featuring Jessica Glaser of the Center for Creative Leadership. Next, we're on the right slide. Jessica, thank you. My name is Emily Stringer and I'll be moderating the webinar today. A little background on me. I've been with the MBO for over 7 years. As a consultant services advisor, I respond to requests from independents who are curious about MBO's service offerings. This is done through consultation appointments, where we learn more about your background in needs and determine if MBO's services are the right fit for your business of one. Next slide, please. Indio's mission statement is to make it easy for independent consultants and their clients to work together. For a high-level overview, we offer a complete, all-inclusive business operating platform for independent consultants. We take care of the administrative items that are typically outsourced to several different vendors, like incorporation, contract review, liability coverage, invoicing, expense review, processing, tax withholding and payroll, and access to tax-efficient portable benefits. Next slide, please. Now for a few housekeeping items on today's webinar set up, first and foremost, you can see all of the controls listed here. Secondly, we will be emailing a slide deck and a recorded copy of the entire webinar to all registrants within the next week. Last, we'll be taking questions throughout the presentation, which will be addressed at the end of today's webinar. Any questions that we do not get to will be answered via email after the presentation. Next slide, please. If you would like to follow along on today's presentation, use Twitter. Use #MBOWeb to submit your questions and comments @MBOPartners. Next slide, please. At this time, it is my pleasure to introduce you to Jessica Glazer, today's speaker, as a senior faculty member, design solution consultant, and executive coach at the Center for Creative Leadership, Jessica partners with organizations to deliver leadership programs and long term solutions to meet today's most pressing business needs. She also has experience as an independent consultant, having run her own training and public speaking company for over 6 years prior to her work at the leadership in the leadership arena. Jessica spent 10 years in academia teaching in the Psychology Departments and business schools at Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, and Johns Hopkins University with a focus on positive psychology. With that said Jessica, at this time I will turn it over to you. 

[00:03:09] Jessica Glazer Thank you so much. I really appreciate it, can you hear me all right?

 [00:03:15] Emily Stringer We can hear you great. 

[00:03:17] Jessica Glazer All right, terrific. So I seem to be having a little bit of a challenge with the self-advancing slide. So if that occurs, we'll just zip back to the slide that we're meant to be on. And so thank you all for your patience with that, should that occur. But thank you so much for joining us today. We're going to be talking about cultivating a leadership network and why that's important and what that has to do with your career success. We're going to talk about today to give you a heads up as we get started is what you see here on the screen. So we'll do a quick introduction to the organization that I'm a part of CCL, and then I'll ask you to consider your own network. We'll look at a little bit of information around Networking 101, we'll call it. We'll discuss the idea of reciprocity in networking and then we'll talk through some tips and tricks for career success. So we're going to take it through. What you see here is the agenda. And at the end of the session, we will have time, about 10 minutes for a Q&A. So to get started. Let's move on to a quick introduction to the Center for Creative Leadership at CCL. We have a mission to advance the understanding, practice, and development of leadership for the benefit of society worldwide, which is a big and fairly lofty mission. But it's one that we take very seriously. And as such, we see our role really to help you optimize the leadership component of your business or organizational challenges. And those can be very large organizations or they can be organizations of one where you're really trying to figure out how to get my own business or my freelance work off the ground. And so we're excited to be working with you today. I'm calling in today from Greensboro, North Carolina. And the reason I'm here is that the founder of our organization ran an organization called Vicks Corporation. And you may be familiar with the word Vicks from Vicks Vapor Rub. Maybe that helps you get through flu season. 

[00:05:09] Jessica Glazer You might be familiar with products like Oil of Olay or Clearasil. There were a lot of innovative products coming out of Greensboro, North Carolina, from H. Smith Richardson, and he was a very creative business person who understood the need for innovation. And so with his very creatively named son, H. Smith Richardson Junior, they focused on helping businesses to adjust to changing conditions. They really wanted to figure out when we work constantly with changing conditions and with different boundaries, how do we help leaders to succeed? Now, what's interesting to me about this and the reason I mention it, is that a lot of the time they wanted to look at how we select leaders. 

[00:05:47] Jessica Glazer That's how they started. How do we find the best leaders? How do we find the people who are going to be best for such and such a position? And very quickly, once he established the Center for Creative Leadership in the 1970s, research showed time and time again that it wasn't about selecting leaders, it was about developing leaders. And so this still holds true today. And it's very much a core tenet of the work that we do at the center in terms of helping people not to become new people or if we're talking about networking, for example, go far out of their comfort zone, but to really use their strengths to be able to be the best leaders that they can be. So we started in Greensboro, North Carolina, and today we reach more than one hundred and twenty countries from locations all across the world. We work on 5 different continents and we reach over 40,000 leaders actually this year from many organizations. And we do this in an effort to help leaders to think and act beyond the boundaries that limit effectiveness. And a lot of times when we're talking about our own effectiveness as leaders, particularly as freelancers or entrepreneurs, it becomes very important that we don't have boundaries limiting effectiveness when we're relying on ourselves and our own work. 

[00:06:58] Jessica Glazer And so we're going to ask you right now to spend a little bit of time considering your own network. So I'm going to ask some questions where we don't need to write in if you'd like to. That would be terrific. 

[00:07:08] Jessica Glazer I'm happy to look through that towards the end of the session. But for right now, I'd just like you to think and reflect a bit on the following questions. All right, so if you were to start a new business today or a new venture of any kind, how many people could you today off the top of your head email with the news? So give some thought to that for a second. How many people roughly do you think you could just send out a quick email to with a happy announcement, who'd be happy to hear from you and then of those people? How many could you rely on to share that news with your own networks via social media? So how many would say what a great email from George? We're really happy to hear this. I'm going to post this on my own, LinkedIn. How many could you rely on to share it with their personal emails, so I'm going to actually, rather than just posting it publicly, I'm going to reach out to other people and say, hey, George is starting this organization and he's starting this initiative. I would like to introduce you. How many of those people that you thought of emailing could you rely on to share your news through phone calls and personal appeals? So rather than just a quick email heads up, how many would actually call up their friend and say, listen, my friend, George is doing this and I think you should pay attention to it. Let me connect you two together. 

[00:08:28] Jessica Glazer Now, I'd like you to think about when was the last time that you attended an in-person networking event for your industry? Might have been last night, might have been several years ago. When's the last time you attended a conference for your industry? When's the last time you connected with a new person on LinkedIn that you just came across and or looked up intentionally and decided to reach out to? When's the last time you invited a new connection for coffee? You just said, hey, love to get to know you. Let's get a coffee. All right, so hopefully some of those things have been more recent than not, but we're going to talk about why all of those things are important, how you can get better at doing some of those things and if you're not comfortable with it, will actually be spending some time at the end of the session discussing ways that you can actually mitigate anxiety around that. Now, there are certain myths of networking, and we wanted to go through these and sort of bust them to get started. There are a number of myths about networking. The first that often comes to mind is that people say networking seems insincere. I feel manipulative doing any kind of networking. But it's important to note that we all network. And even if we're not actively networking by making connections, by meeting people at sessions or online or at different events, we are actually networking all of the time and there's no reason for it to be manipulative. 

[00:09:56] Jessica Glazer A lot of times people feel similarly. It's only about getting ahead and the same thing holds true. People sometimes feel like it's just purely political. But that's not what networking is about. It's not about getting ahead at others' expense. And we'll talk about that quite a bit today. Also, people often think networking is really not working. I don't need to prioritize this. I should keep my head down. I should focus on my tasks. I don't need to focus on who I'm talking to yet. Once I have my product or my service all set, then I'll begin to prioritize networking. But what we know is that it's something that really needs to be done along the journey. By the time we are ready to hit the ground running, it's often too late to begin building a network. People will often say to us, networking is about having a lot of contacts on social media, a thousand connections on LinkedIn. I think I'm all set. But what we know is it's really not about just how broad your contacts are, but a lot of times it also references how deep the relationships are and how diverse. And so we'll also talk about that today. 

[00:10:57] Jessica Glazer And two more that we hear often is that networking only works well for people with certain types of personalities. And you can probably gather what personalities they're assuming networking will be more appropriate for. And sometimes they think, well, if I'm not extroverted, I tend to be shy, I will not be a good networker. And we'll talk about why that's inaccurate as well. That networking, really, there are so many different ways, particularly in today's world, where we can be reaching out to people online, remotely, that this really is no longer something that holds true. And finally, people often feel that networking is awkward. It's just something I have to do if some friend of mine drags me to an event. And that's really not what we want you to think about. And there are many ways for us to really consider the fact that it needn't be awkward and it can actually be something that's very beneficial for both parties. And so in that vein, a lot of times people feel that networking is like a game of chess. I'm moving from one side of the board to the other side of the board where I want to be. And I'm going to take people down or move people around as I need to. And that sort of speaks to a lot of the myths that we just looked at. But it's not a game of chess. Instead, what I'd like you to think about for today's presentation is that it's more like knitting. You're putting together a network of people to create support, and you're not only supporting yourself, but you're also supporting them. They're supporting each other. And you have a really beautiful opportunity to create a network and to really be pivotal in that. And that actually will help you to be more influential and more successful in a number of arenas.

 [00:12:31] Jessica Glazer So with that, we're going to take a look at our networks and when we're talking about networks. I think it's worth spending a little bit of time looking at what we're talking about and why it's important and why it's important right now. When we're looking at people who are trying to rely on others, we find that innovation is sparked. We find that collaboration is improved. And even if you're a freelancer and you think, well, I'm working on my own and I don't know that this is quite as relevant, what we do know is that in all industries, networks are important and they're undervalued. So leaders, organizations, and communities as a whole, and that can be interpreted broadly as either your industry community, your chosen profession, community, your literal regional community. They're often undervaluing the importance of networks. And what we've found through lots of research is that many leaders are not equipped for the complex changes that are occurring where we're very often not in a day that was like a day before, particularly if we're doing freelance or entrepreneurial work and if we're not collaborating and if we're not really helping other people, we really can't leverage ourselves or the people around us as best as possible. And this is often because we live in what we call a VUCA world. Now, VUCA stands for Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous. And this is a phrase that actually came out of the US military when they were trying to do strategic planning and they found that strategic planning was very hard. And the very important, but at the same time, they had to account for the fact that they were never in a situation that wasn't volatile, they weren't quite sure what was going to pop up when. Uncertain, so they just really didn't know what kind of situation they were getting into at all. Complex, there were so many layers, it was hard to account for all of them. Or ambiguous, just they're there, but they're not quite sure what's going to happen next. It's very hard to predict. And when you're looking at what we call a Google world, we realize that this very much represents any type of business world, particularly a business world for freelancers or entrepreneurs. And when we're looking at that and we're considering a VUCA world and particularly looking at why networks and why would this be important to talk about today, we know that organizational and social problems cannot be solved by ourselves. And so even if we can do a great job with a gig. Generally, there are going to be problems that supersede our ability to just do them alone and that can include organizational problems, just about how to set up your own organization or how to establish your business, there are things that we need to rely on others for. Excuse me.

[00:15:15] Jessica Glazer We also know that interdependence is increasing, and so as a result, the importance of mobilizing networks increases as well. And then finally, as we change the nature of organizational design from working in maybe a very clear hierarchical organization where networking becomes very obvious about how to do it, we know we want to get from point A to point B instead of we're trying to get from point A to point F, and we're not quite sure what the path looks like or maybe no one's ever taken that path. The importance of networks becomes paramount. Now, if we're looking at networks generally, it becomes essential that we can develop a network perspective and that lens will offer us new possibilities to look at leadership as a social process, and it allows us to really enhance our development as individual people and leaders, but also our career development. And so when we're looking at career development for freelancers, for entrepreneurs, it becomes essential that we have this perspective, because when we do have this perspective, we understand the web of connections that are going to have an impact on our work, on our leadership, on our business, and on our career. And if we have a network perspective, if we're considering all the things that we're going to talk about in the next 50 minutes or so, you can identify patterns of relationships. You can do an analysis and we'll talk about that. And that's going to help you to foster strategic success. So it's going to be very important that you think about your network and you really consider it. And the reason being in a very quick slide is that it's how work gets done in order to be as effective, to build your business, to build your craft, to build your own development, and most importantly, to grow your career networks are going to be really important. Now, we know this because research shows it time and time again. Research from the Center for Creative Leadership showed that leaders with good networks hear information early and can capitalize on opportunities. Now, as someone who runs my own business and speaks with people who do that quite a bit, I don't know anyone who doesn't want to hear information early and doesn't think I would do well to find out what's happening before my competitors and before the people around me. We also know that in an organization specifically, if you're working in a large organization, but certainly if we're just looking at the same type of job with the same industry, people who have good networks tend to be in the top part of performers. So in the top 20%, they're more influential. Generally, they have boosted performance. But what I also find really interesting for today's talk is that they have greater career mobility and they adapt more successfully. They can just adapt to a changing environment. And as we just talked about, we can't avoid a changing environment. The environment is going to change around us whether or not we want to. And so what we found overall through our research and through research with a number of different organizations is that the number one predictor of career success is your network. So much of it comes down to that. Now, a colleague of ours, Phil Wilburn, who created what's called a leader network diagnostic, has a quote that I think is really poignant. And he says, Most leaders have networks that represent their past and not their future. And particularly when we look at people who are entering what's often called the gig economy or who are freelancing full or part-time, this often holds true. Now, you may have worked in large organizations previously. You have very good networks there, but we don't necessarily have the network to branch out into other areas. We might have, you know, all of our clients as a network, but we're not really actively networking to get new clients. So we're going to take a quick look at what makes a good network. And then we're going to talk about a few different things that you could do to amplify that. And then we're going to go through tips and tricks. 

[00:19:06] Jessica Glazer Now, when we're looking at what makes a good network, we find that there are three qualities that come through all the time with good networks. And the first of those qualities is what we call an open network. Now, an open network is really where people are. What it really comes down to is the number of people in your network who don't know each other. So the people you know who are not all connected to each other. Now, if you look at these network opportunities, I'll give you a second to take a look at the screen and just consider which of these. And you can put it in the chat box if you'd like to, to vote. Just make sure that you've selected the entire audience or you can send that over just to me directly or rather to the organizers, which of these networks seems to provide more opportunities? We're going to talk about why. 

[00:19:56] Jessica Glazer So if Jane's network is on the left, we've Joseph's network on the right. All right, so we have a couple of votes for both, but when we're looking at this and it's a little bit tricky, we're looking at Jane's network, it might look a little more sparse and Josef's looks a little more interconnected. And that's somewhat true for what we're looking at here. But when we're looking at what provides more opportunities, what research shows is that the one on the left actually provides more opportunities. And the reason being is that it's actually more open in Joseph's network on the right. Everyone is interconnected. So you can see that M.C. knows all the people. Joseph knows an MP up on the top, right above. Joseph knows all the people Joseph knows, and even LRU all the way at the very top of Joseph's org chart knows everybody that Joseph knows. But if you look at Jane's group, you'll notice that Jane has the opportunity to have unique sets of information from different groups of people who don't know each other. She also has the opportunity to introduce these people to each other. And so she's getting unique areas of information. She's getting unique insight. And this is going to help her to catapult her career in a different way than Joseph, who has a nice network. But all of those people know each other. They're going to be sharing the same information. They're going to be redundancies, and there aren't going to be opportunities to help make strategic connections for other people. And so when we look at this in terms of career success and you start to think about your own network, what we find is that it's called network constraint. When we have a constrained network as you can see here, Joseph's network on the right, we don't have the same information. And Robbert from the University of Chicago has found that this is one of the top predictors, if not the number one predictor of career success. And so when you think about this, there are good things about a closed network. Joseph's network likely has a lot of really valuable components to it. And so we're going to take a quick look at why. If you find that your network is a lot like Joseph's, that might be a good thing. But we might want to move a little bit towards increasing our network towards Jane's type of network. 

[00:22:18] Jessica Glazer Now, when we're looking at these kinds of networks, we find that closed networks have a lot of bonding. They really feel close to each other. They really know each other. As you could see, everyone in that group knew each other. But on the other hand, open networks have the opportunity to keep connecting with people. And so there's a strong sense of opportunity and connection in an open network. We're going to see more innovation, whereas, in a closed network, we're going to start to see people really having a bit more groupthink. And you've probably heard that term before, but people really have sort of a closed set of ideas. We're not getting as much outside knowledge and information. Similar to what we just talked about, the open network can adapt better to changing environments, whereas the closed network often fails to adapt because they can do things their way. They all know each other. They know how it goes. They know what they like. And when it gets really important are these final two areas. In the open network, we see greater career mobility and higher influence because the people in that network can share more information with others and that gives them a lot of influence. If you know information before other people, that's going to work to your benefit. But we see the opposite with a closed network. So while it is very nice and we feel comfortable pushing outside of our comfort zone is going to increase our influence and it's going to increase our career mobility. And so when you think about this if you consider either of those networks here with the individual's networks, the more people you know who know, people you do not know, I mean, that you're going to have a greater connection to them. And it's almost like that. Six Degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon or from the CEO of a company that you really want to do freelance work for, whoever it is, the more people that you know, who know people that you don't, the more you can create inter-organizational networks and community structure. And so that's the first area. 

[00:24:08] Jessica Glazer The next area that we want to take a look at is what we call diverse networks. And we find that good networks are diverse in the sense that they cross critical boundaries. Now, this is a big area of work for the center, and it's something that we look at in terms of five boundaries. There are vertical boundaries with people at different hierarchical levels than we might be, horizontal boundaries, so people would consider our peer's stakeholders. So maybe your clients or people who have different but aligned interests with you. We have demographic boundaries. So people with different backgrounds and different experiences. And then we also have geographic boundaries. So particularly if you're looking to branch out into markets, perhaps beyond your own region, maybe you have built a really thriving business, but now you want to build it in the next city closest to you. These are critical boundaries to start thinking about. And when we look at these boundaries, it's very important that our network has different kinds of boundaries, that everyone is not from the same demographic group as us or the same geography or even that. Everyone that we really can rely on to send that email that I asked you about at the start of our session, that they're not all at the same level as us, for example, that we have people at multiple levels and different geographies and different areas of interest. And so when we think about this in terms of the final area, we find that open is good, diverse is good, and the next thing that we need is a deep, deep network. And when we're talking about that, we're really looking at the trust. And so we're asking, is this the right level of trust to effectively leverage your network? And so good, really good networks have high-quality relationships that are not just transactional interactions. When we're looking at that, we're asking essentially, are your relationships based on reciprocity? And that's the first thing people often talk about trust. But what we really want to first look at is, is there a mutual give and take when we have strong ties? As you see on the right, there are people who are working with us. We have a relationship. We're not just coming in and saying, can you connect me for this job? Or, you know, hey, could you pass my resume along to your H.R. department? We're having sort of a relationship instead of just an interaction. The next thing, the next level of a deep relationship is what we call trust. And that's not about you know, you see hearts there. It's not about a deep love or do I you know, is this person going to pick me up after surgery from my doctor? What we're really talking about is, does this person have my best interest in mind? And the term that we often use is perceived benevolence. Do I feel that if I disclose things, if I tell them about what I'm working on, that they're going to have my best interest in mind and protect my information, my IP, my reputation, and that's very important as well? So you see that on the right side of the screen and then it really comes down to frequency. We'll talk about this in tips and tricks. But we are looking at the frequency of these interactions when there's an expected response and when we expect that we'll hear from someone within at least six months, there's ongoing interaction. It doesn't necessarily mean that you are meeting them for lunch every Wednesday. But if they really would not be surprised to hear from you on a regular basis, that's what we're looking at with frequency. Now, when you think about how often people interpret networking, most of the time these aren't really factors. It might be reaching out to someone on LinkedIn because you'd like to do some work for their organization, asking for a connection to someone in the organization, and then not speaking to them again and hoping that they know that their trust is valid, but not really being sure. But what we find, again, is that these are the three qualities of really effective networking. And so if you can make sure that when you're considering your own network, you consider how open, how diverse, and how deep it is, that's very important.

[00:28:06] Jessica Glazer Now, I'm sure that we will get some questions about this quickly. So I wanted to also touch on an area that is often a little confusing when people start to think about their own network and that's about mentorship. And people often wonder, well, where does mentoring fit in? I don't understand. I have a mentor. Does that mean I have a good connection? In that sense? When we're looking at mentorship, it's important to put it in comparison to sponsorship. And particularly we see a gender divide in research around this. And so I wanted to touch on this briefly to make sure that particularly if this is something that relates to you, that you're sensitive to it and that you're considering how you can build your network from this perspective as well. Now we're looking at mentorship versus sponsorship. We find that mentors are at any level. So it can just be someone with whom you feel comfortable, who has been a lovely mentor to you, where a sponsorship or senior managers or not necessarily even managers, but just senior people in your field who have influence within that field. OK, now with mentorship, we're seeing a lot of emotional support. You're getting advice. It's more advising, whereas sponsorship is exposure. So instead of support, it's exposure. So people giving you opportunities saying, hey, Sara started a great new initiative and we're going to bring her in so she can freelance with us, as opposed to just giving you some advice about how you might go about creating that opportunity. When we're looking at mentorship, we find that mentors can really be helped to navigate politics. But on the other hand, sponsorship isn't just about how you might navigate politics. It's about how we can make sure that you're considered for the challenging assignments or the work. We find that a mentorship rather than focusing on self-worth and competence and sort of building up from behind, there's almost a covering from above. And so sponsors are going to protect prodigies from negative publicity. They're going to do their best to make sure that they are helping to support your brand. And so sponsorship is very important. Then finally, what really kind of the culmination of this, the summary is that mentorship helps mentees to focus on development personally and professionally, where sponsors are really active in the ring with you fighting to get you promoted. And when we see this, what we find, unfortunately, is that a lot of times women are over mentored and under sponsored. And this isn't certainly not only the case for women, but it is worth noting that particularly from some very interesting research that was published in the HBR when we are looking at a gender divide there, it is worth looking to make sure that you have both that you have mentors and you have sponsors. Now, this doesn't take away from the importance of a coach as well. So coaching is important. We won't belabor this here, but you will have access to the slides. So when you are looking at the difference between mentor and sponsor, another person that you might want to add, your Kadry or your network generally is a coach. And that would be more of a professional relationship. Most of the time. It's someone that you're pursuing. You're looking for their work. You might be a coach on the line right now as well. And so when you're thinking about how you relate to clients and how you engender support from them and get more business from them, knowing these differences and being able to articulate the importance of developing capabilities of executives is very important as well. And so that's a quick, quick tangent about mentoring and sponsoring. But if you find that you don't have any of these three in your network, it's worth looking into that and trying to figure out who could be a good mentor, who could be a good sponsor, and is it worth pursuing the services of a coach? So with that, we've talked about quite a bit. What I'd love for you to do is, again, you can think to yourself on a scale of one to 10, how would you rate your network in each area? How open is your network? Do you find that most of the people you know and rely on when you thought of those questions, in the beginning, know each other, or do most of those people not know each other? And it gives you a lot of opportunities and a lot of influence if you're looking at how diverse it is. Do you find that you really are crossing boundaries, that if you were to graph your network chart, you have a good idea of, you know, how we're in these different areas, people are falling and that you are really crossing boundaries all the time through your network and with a deep network? Do you have that trust? Do you have that reciprocity? And is that something that you want to work on?

[00:32:53] Jessica Glazer And then what I would ask you to do and will introduce this here, but I always think when we're learning something new online or in person, it's worth spending a little bit of time reflecting later in the day once we've let it marinate. So later today, what I would ask you to do is consider where you should be investing your limited time and energy to make the most effective network. So of those three areas. Is there one area that really screams out as something that you really could focus on, what might be missing, who might be missing? And then we're going to use the rest of this time to talk about what you can do about that. So when we're talking about how to address it, we already said networking is not a game of chess. And so when we see the gurus of networking, the people who've done a tremendous amount of work around researching who has the healthiest, strongest and most effective networks, what we find is a very similar theme. Reid Hoffman said "The more altruistic your attitude, the more benefits you will gain from relationships",  Wayne Baker said "If we create networks with the sole intention of getting something, we won't succeed, that benefits ensue from meaningful investments. And so we have to be investing on a regular basis and in a meaningful way to our networks and to our relationships".  And we're going to go from here, from this quote from Adam Grant, who is at the Wharton School. Adam says, "The motives with which we approach networking shape the strength and reach of those networks, as well as the way that the energy flows through them." And what this leads to is really a lens check. And it's are we looking at relationships as a two-way street? We need to ask ourselves what benefits am I getting from my network? And that's an important question. But that can lead to some of those myths that we busted right at the start that this is just for my own benefit and it's just about getting ahead. It's not just about that. That's also important, though. So we ask ourselves, what benefit am I getting? But also what benefits am I giving to my network? And that is just as important a question because when you look at Adam Grant's work, he's found that there are 3 types of networkers. There are Givers who give without expectation, and so they just give out. We also see Matchers. And so those are people who matched the favor for a favor. So you introduce me to someone, I guess I'll next week look on LinkedIn and introduce you to someone. You helped me find a job. So you call me when you're looking for a job. And then we also have Takers. And so people who take what they need and then they leave. And, you know, there are different times when we all fall into each of these buckets. But what's been found is that overall, the people who are the most effective networkers are the people who fall to the left side of the screen, the people who are givers. Now, what Adam's done is he created and really championed a technique that's known as the 5-minute favor. And this means that people are doing short acts of altruistic things every day with no expectation of return. But really, you're basically building a network and you're also kind of putting capital into your own little bank account that eventually will pay off now to do this. This is actually based on work from a person who is known as the best networker ever. His name is Adam Rifkin. And one of the things that's interesting about Adam Rifkin is that he's an introvert. But another thing that's very interesting about him is that he started to spend about five minutes a day doing at least three introductions for people, introducing people as a favor just to pay it forward. And eventually, this came back to him multifold. Now, there are lots of things that you could do if this is of interest to you. So if you are willing to spend five minutes a day doing some networking and building your network, you can use a product and give feedback to the person who's used that. You might connect with someone through MBO partners and utilize their services and do the same. You can introduce them to people and you can just let them know why you're introducing them and that you thought it would be a good connection for them. So you're using those open networks to build your influence. You can read a summary of someone's work or a prototype of someone's marketing materials and give them feedback. There's a lot of things that you can do and it can be as simple as sharing or retweeting something on social media. And so there are very easy things you can do if you spend five minutes a day just trying to help and champion others. And that can be very effective in building your network, because we find that there are five attributes that really, really come through with all effective networkers that use humor. The pace of conversations, they reciprocate self-disclosure when getting to know new people. So if someone shares something with them, they share back, they don't just take information in which can kind of erode trust. People don't know why they're telling you everything and they're not getting anything back from you. They seek information and advice from well-connected colleagues. And so those can be colleagues just generally in the industry or in a small organization or a huge organization. And they talk with other people about those other people rather than solely talking about themselves. And so using these attributes, considering networks, what we're going to spend the last 10-minutes on of my portion of today before we get to the Q&A, is really what are some tips and tricks that you can use and what can you utilize so that you can build a network really effectively because it can be very daunting, particularly if you feel that there's not a very clear-cut path for you. So for some networking tips and tricks, we want to again remember that networking is more like knitting. We're going to consider not that chess game, but instead building, building a connection, pulling people together, being the hands that kind of sew together the network of support that we need. And we're going to make sure that everyone is connected, that every stitch is important, and we're going to consider it from that point of view. So with that in mind, when we're looking at networking basics, we want to remember to make friends, not contacts. Now, this doesn't mean everyone needs to be invited to your birthday party this year, but we're really looking to create a reciprocal relationship that's not a transaction. So how do you create an ongoing relationship? And often, if we do have reticence around the concept of networking, if we're hesitant to reach out to someone or we're not sure how it will be perceived if we go into it thinking I'm going to build a relationship instead of I need something from this person, not only is it more authentic and it's just more comfortable, but it's it's less terrifying to reach out to someone and say, I'm interested in you and your work and not just ask a stranger for a favor. Another basic that you'll see come through in a lot of these slides is that you want to make sure that you're focusing and I'm getting a little stuck. There we go. ok, we go. That you're following up regularly and reasonably so you'll see this come through in a number of the next slides. But we want to make sure that you, again, are focusing on that idea of interaction on a regular basis, that you're not just dropping off the map and at the same time, you want to make sure that that is what the other person intends as well. So it can be a little daunting for a new connection if suddenly you're following up on a daily basis. 

[00:40:28]  Jessica Glazer We're looking at introductions and we first want to introduce ourselves to someone. You want to make sure you're doing your research. So get online. Make sure that you're reaching out to the right person if you're trying to build your company and make sure that you're not reaching out to someone at a level that won't be helpful to you or at a level that just will be confused by your email, make sure that you're finding connection points as well. So it makes sense to get onto LinkedIn, to do some Google searches and ensure that the person that you're connecting with and the person that you're going to be introducing yourself to has some type of connection with, you know, it's not always possible. But if you can find that they grew up in the same state as you, they went to the same school as you, they are just a member of the same professional group on LinkedIn or they follow the same people, if perhaps you're an artist and you're reaching out to someone through part of me, Instagram, and you find that that you follow the same people and you seem to be liking the same pictures. Whatever you can use as a connection point is going to be a really nice way to not just be a random person reaching out. Now, one thing you can do is request an introduction, and that's where open networks are really wonderful. And hopefully, you know, a lot of people who know people you don't yet know but should or you can introduce yourself properly. So make sure that you are doing it in a respectful way and that it's not too informal, just settings. For example, a quick LinkedIn request without a note can often be off-putting for people. They want to know why you're reaching out to them, and it's helpful for them to know, again, those connection points. You're going to demonstrate value for both parties. You want to make sure that you're asking what you might be able to help with or perhaps you send an article you think they might like. And when you're reaching out, a good rule to consider is the 1 in 10 rule. So when people think, well, I'll just reach out when I need to. That means that we're really hoping that 1 out of 10 people that we randomly write to are going to write back to us. Now, you can make strategic choices to increase the odds. And we just discussed those. You can do things that will increase the possibility or the option, the possibility that someone's going to be reaching out to you. But it is important that we get this started as early as possible so that if only 1 in 10 people is writing back to you, you have time to send extra emails and again, be gracious. So letting someone know that you're sure they're busy, but it would be lovely to hear from them can often go a long way in ensuring that they respond to you.

[00:43:03] Jessica Glazer Now, things that you could try include looking for alumni from universities you've attended, joining professional organizations and attending those meetings to meet people or following social media accounts as I just described, you can consider what value you would bring to others, what 5-minute favors could you do today? And that can include favors for people you want an introduction to. Perhaps in that artist's example, you're doing some freelance, freelance graphic work and you find that there are people on LinkedIn, excuse me, on Instagram that you really value their contributions to that community. Well, maybe you want to champion their work or forward it to all of your followers and say, hey, I just found this great artist you should follow this person to that's going to flag you in a way that's different than just writing to that person and saying, hi, will you follow me? And so, again, there's that idea of reciprocity. And then if you don't hear back from someone, just move on to a new possible connection. So this just might not be the right time. It just might not be the right person. But it is important that you don't overuse that option.

 

[00:44:08] Jessica Glazer When we're looking at arranging and attending meetings, there are other tips to keep in mind. The first is to be flexible and provide options from the start. So say you reach out to someone on LinkedIn there in your community and you'd like to speak with them by phone or you'd like to meet them in person. So you want to get coffee, providing numerous options rather than just saying, are you free on Friday? Making it as easy for them to select a time and date and meet with you is really a wonderful thing. So be flexible and provide those options and then you're going to have to do a little bit more research. So preparing to know about that person so you can, as we just discussed, ask more questions about them than you're telling them is important. If you're meeting them and you want to learn from them, it would make sense that you're going to prepare and you'll have questions to ask them about their careers. Similarly, you want to set a goal for the session. So they're going to want to know what it is that you want? Why do you want to speak with them and how can they help you? And so those are important things to have ready for each person that you're meeting with. They might be similar, but again, you want to make it tweaked for each person so that they feel that their time is being valued. When we're speaking about time, you do want to be cognizant of the actual time. So rather than asking someone for an hour phone call, perhaps you say, I'd love to get on the phone with you for 20 minutes. And if it turns into an hour, great. More likely you'll speak for 20 minutes and you'll speak for an hour the next time. But letting people know that you value their time and being succinct and clear about what you'd like to share with them and what you'd like to ask them can be really helpful. As we just discussed, you'll reciprocate self disclosure and listen more than you talk and remember to keep growing your network. So with that network focus, with that network perspective that we talked about right in the beginning, make sure that you are looking to keep growing your network as your end goal more than anything else. And finally, it always comes back to being gracious. So you're going to invite someone out, don't invite them to breakfast at the Ritz if you don't feel like hosting them for breakfast at the Ritz. So most often and most comfortably, it's a great thing to say, hey, can I take you for a cup of coffee and you can take them to Starbucks if they'd like to treat you at that point, it's a lot less uncomfortable. But keeping that in mind is also a really good way to set a good tone of reciprocity for that relationship. 

[00:46:27] Jessica Glazer So if this week this sounds interesting to you, you can try inviting a week contact for coffee this week, someone that you don't know quite as well, but you'd like to know a little bit more. So, hey, I know we met at that event last year. I'd love to get coffee and hear about what's been going on for you. You can spend twenty minutes learning about someone's work online and then reach out to request a meeting. So just give that a go, see how that goes. And eventually you might move into Adam Rifkin territory and start reaching out to, say, 3 people a day and building that network as part of your actual work, really seeing that as an instrumental part of building your business and for your next networking meeting, if maybe you have it set up already or maybe you're going to do that today. My recommendation would be that if you're looking for a favor, ask for the favor to be a connection to at least 1 other person. Use this network perspective to really ask people to connect you to others rather than just a favor of could you do this for me? So is there anyone else I should speak to about that? Or you mentioned your friend Nancy, and I'd really love to connect with Nancy. Do you think she'd be open to speaking with me? What we find is that when someone's already meeting with you and they have set this time aside and spent this time, there's often even too much cognitive dissonance for them not to say, sure, I'd be happy to connect you to my friend as well. And so if you can do that, you're building your network actively and then you can give yourself a really nice entree to follow up with that first person to say, hey, I did meet with Nancy, thank you so much. Here's what we talked about. And so that's an important component as well. 

[00:47:58] Jessica Glazer For online connections, which is often how we meet people, create and share your own content. So if you are creating content, find a way that still protects your intellectual property, of course, to share that more broadly and to get attention through that. But at the same time, stay up to date on what others are doing and when you're staying up to date, show support for their work. So, again, forward links of people that you think others should follow. Retweet the work of other people, but remember that you're building your online brand. The Internet lasts forever. It is very easy for people to look up your track record in terms of what you shared and what you've supported. So consider that and maintain your social media accounts, your LinkedIn, any websites. You might have an old blog that you don't want people finding. Make sure that you're vetting what's available for you. So today, if you'd like to ramp up your online connections, try retweeting an article. You can spend 5-minutes giving a recommendation online. And I really highly suggest if you haven't done this in a while, check the privacy settings on your social media accounts, make sure that you're comfortable with what others can see. And that includes Googling yourself because it's unlikely someone's going to meet you for coffee at. They've not met you without googling you first. 

[00:49:10] Jessica Glazer So the last thing I wanted to cover with you is really how do you manage anxiety? And everyone, all of us get anxious about meeting new people. It's completely normal. But it's important to remember that building a strong network is not a nice to have. It's a necessary leadership skill. And it's not about that chess game of getting ahead at the expense of others. It's about earning relationships. It's about building a strong support system. And there's nothing to be anxious about when you consider it from that perspective. You have to remember everyone that you know, you once met for the first time. So even your closest friends are people that once you didn't know and you had to build a connection to. It's also important to remember that if you're on this call, you're a valuable professional and you likely have a strong network of your own. And that's going to open opportunities for the people you're reaching out to. If someone agrees to meet with you, it's worthwhile to remember that they value that they are willing to spend an hour of time plus getting to and from the Starbucks or they're willing to set aside on a Wednesday morning, 30-minutes to talk with you and they are going to want you to succeed. So if you start getting nervous, try to keep that in mind. This person is not looking to laugh at you after the call or watch you fail. They're here because they think they might be able to provide some support of some kind and new possibilities are only going to arise if you try new things. So just like the comfort zone of a closed network, the more you can open your network, the more new possibilities you'll be able to really capitalize on.

[00:50:36] Jessica Glazer So today, if you're feeling anxious or if you use some of these tips and tricks and you find that you need to manage that anxiety, make a list of your positive attributes, you can ask your friends or colleagues to send you a couple. If you're having trouble thinking of your own positive attributes, you might want to prepare a short pitch so that you're ready for that question or tell me about yourself. You know the answer. You might want to think back to a time when you were nervous and things still went well. So what could you apply to this situation? And if all else fails, there's always trust, deep breathing and mindfulness right before someone's walking in or right before you get on that call to focus on the conversation, think about all the preparation that you've done based on this conversation. Remind yourself of the importance of networks and really make sure that you're feeling centered again. 

[00:51:22] Jessica Glazer So to close out, remember, there are 3 qualities that you're really looking for: an open, diverse and deep network. We're really looking, again, for open connections. You don't all know each other, boundaries that you're spanning on a regular basis and really that deep relationship that focuses on reciprocity, on trust and on frequency. And so we really appreciate you spending time today. And if you leave, remembering the following will feel like today was a success, that networking is about building relationships. Both types of connections are important, close connections and weak ties, that this is really a way of life. It's a way of helping other people as you help yourself. And it's never going to be too early to start, even if you're just launching your freelance work or you're just building a business. But it can be too late by the time you want to go public with whatever you've been working on, you're going to want a nice, solid network in place. It's not going to be the time to start first reaching out to people. Network analysis like we talked about, really considering those 3 areas, is going to help you to build your career. And you really want to be someone who gives first and gives often. And so with that, I hope you found some helpful tips and tricks and some new information that will help you to really build your network and to continue to build your own business. And so I'm open for questions and I look forward to fielding those for you now. 

[00:52:50] Emily Stringer Great, Jessica, thank you so much for all the valuable tips and tricks. Hopefully after this presentation, everyone on the line feels empowered to go out and begin building their professional network before we dove into our Q&A. We have a couple of items that we're going to put up here on the screen so that we can get the appropriate information to the appropriate folks. 

[00:53:12] Emily Stringer So first and foremost, would you like more information about Jessica Glazer and CCL? For those who request this information, the folks at CCL will get this out to you within the next couple of days. So we'll give you about 30 seconds to vote here. All right, we're at about 70%. We'll give you 5 more seconds. All right, and we will cut that poll.

[00:53:55] Emily Stringer Next, who on the line would like more information about MBO partners? So here at MBO Partners, as I had mentioned, we help independent contractors by providing them a way to more efficiently run their business of one. For those who request more information here, we will get that out within the next 24 hours. We are at 55% . So we'll give everybody about 5 more seconds here. And we can cut that, Paul. 

[00:54:30] Emily Stringer And finally, who on the line would be interested in receiving an invitation to our preferred talent network, MBO connect, yet another way to potentially build out your network and pursue projects with top tier clients. And we're at 60%, so we'll go about 5 more seconds here. And we will cut that poll. All right, great. Thank you to those who are still with us.

[00:55:06] Emily Stringer We have a couple of questions that have come in. The one that I've seen a couple of times repeatedly is will I receive a copy of today's slide deck and a recording of the presentation? Yes and yes. We will get that out to everyone within the next 7 days. Next for a couple of other items that have come up. Jessica, you did such a wonderful job of answering questions that were coming in throughout the presentation. I will skip straight to the things that we have not touched on. So for the others, we will get back to the email. 

[00:55:39] Emily Stringer The first one I have here is how do I prevent myself from being used for my network and not getting anything in return? 

[00:55:49] Jessica Glazer That's a very good question. I think one way to think about it is, are you repeatedly being used by the same person? And so is it just that, is this a concern that you're having because it's something that's coming up from 1 or 2 people that you know,  who keep utilizing your network? Or is it just a general concern because we're talking about networking now? If it's a general concern, I'd say, you know, looking at Adam's work on the concept of giving and taking, considering that we don't necessarily know how it's going to help us when we help others for a while, it might come back to us in different ways. That's one thing to consider. Another is, are you actually cashing in on favors when you need them? So you may find that if you're helping someone, you don't want to move into just that reciprocity. Like I'm only doing something because you are helping me. But what you can try to think about is, is there some type of thing that I need that I'm not asking for often enough? If you do find that it's just one or two people, however, that's a different story. If someone's just repeatedly asking you, can you connect me to this person on LinkedIn or that person on LinkedIn, it may be worth having a conversation with that person or really considering if this person is helping your network or draining your network. So, you know, if this is a particular area of interest, I'd encourage you to send me an email because it really has so many factors involved that it's hard to give a quick answer. But my emails up there on the screen, I'm happy to talk with anybody or have a quick phone call to help you triage this issue. But really it's worth thinking about. Is this a current concern or a possible future concern? And if it is the same person over and over, you know, there are ways that you can tactfully extricate yourself from that person that we want to make sure, again, this is a reciprocal relationship. It doesn't mean that we're always getting something from someone, but it does mean that we don't feel that we're being drained and used. 

[00:57:52] Emily Stringer I think that's excellent advice, Jessica. And, you know, in general, it's a concern a lot of people have about networking, and I think it's important to address the last question that I'll go into here, since we have two minutes remaining, is this I don't feel like I have anything to offer the people I want to network with. What can I give them in return?

[00:58:15] Jessica Glazer That's a really wonderful question as well. And I think it's a very common feeling. What I would say is a lot of times we think, oh, well, well, so. So let's take it from this perspective. A lot of times people think networking is a great way to build my business, get opportunities I wouldn't normally have. If we think, oh, well, I only have the opportunity. You know, that's what other people want from me, then, yes, perhaps we don't have the option to hire that person or to give them the same opportunities. But instead, if you think about what you might be able to do from a different standpoint, that can often open up a world of other things that you can offer to people. So it might be that you currently have moved into freelance work and you do spend a good amount of time doing your own development and education and reading. Well, if you know that the person who can connect you with all the people in their organization has very limited time to do that, perhaps you can introduce them to digests that you're on. Maybe you get, for example, the broadsheet daily email and you think this is really interesting. And I think that person would be interested in sending them the email and saying, hey, I don't know if you already get this, but this would be a really cool thing for you to get every morning. I read it every day and it really keeps me informed, being a person who shares information with them. If you see an email and you think that's interesting, sharing that with them, it might be that you can do some work for them pro bono as a way to say thank you for a connection. There's a lot of different ways if we reshape our lens, if we don't look at networking just as that way to get ahead, but instead as a way to build relationships, that's important. And if you think about that in terms of any kind of friendship, there are times when we have friends and we're going through something hard and they're really there for us and we really need them to be. And we feel at that time like we're not giving them the same amount of support as they're giving to us. And that's OK. But later, maybe when they need to be cheered up, we're really good at doing that or when they need some advice, we happen to send them a book about that. So try to think about how you can connect this person not just to opportunities, but to products or information or to time that they might not have otherwise. 

[01:00:38] Emily Stringer Jessica, I think that is an excellent tip, we all have something to share with those that we know and we all can add value to each other's lives. Said we will get things wrapped up here. Jessica, I really appreciate all of your input, your fantastic tips and tricks that you have shared with us all today. This is very valuable information, especially for independent contractors like that.

[01:01:04] Jessica Glazer Well, thank you for having me on the line. I really appreciate it.

[01:01:07] Emily Stringer Great end to everyone on the line. Thank you for joining us as well.

[01:01:14] Jessica Glazer I hope you all have a great day. Take care.