Your Professional Network – Why Is It Important?
Why Should You Spend Time & Energy Developing Your Professional Network?
Establishing your professional network has been championed by many for years as a must do. However today it is even more vital to establish your professional network due to the swell of social media outlets and the shift away from gaining success simply by hard work. If you want to grow, get more opportunities, gather a balanced blend of people that will help you get to your end goal, then establishing your professional network needs to be a top 3 priority. But how do you create your professional network? Who should you have in your professional network? Lets unpack these questions in this post shall we…
Creating Your Professional Network
If you do not have a professional network then the time has come to start building it. There is no set formula on how to build your professional network but there are some key components to make sure that you have when creating your professional network. You need to start off by asking yourself both “who and what you need to help yourself grow and develop into a stronger leader?” Next write those areas down that you just thought of. The next step is to see who you can come along side of to be a supportive role in their professional network. Chances are, unless you work in isolation, that you are part of someone’s professional network. Try and identify what that person, or people come to you for for guidance. By doing this it will help expand your view point of what you contribute and how you would like your structure to be.
Finding The Right People For Your Professional Network
Your professional network will not thrive and potentially will do more harm than good if you do not have the right people in it. Choosing the right people can be hard, you will need to exclude the doubters, the negative personality types, and anyone who is an energy sucker. Here are three groups of people that you need in your network to help you thrive.
Group #1 – Supporters
You need people who are going to support you through difficult times. These people will be a rock during turbulence, and will listen and support you in both a personal and professional level. You can go to these people to help sort out issues, who will listen first then speak. We all need these people to help deal with our emotions at times.
Group #2 – Challengers
You might guess these folks are the opposite to supporters. You need people to challenge you to reach your goals and purpose. These people are your accelerators, they will push you towards growth, offer keen insight on strategy and ways in which you can achieve your goals. It would be ideal to have mentors in this category. You will know best as how abrasive and pushy you want these people to be. Just make sure that you find the people to put in your professional network who are challengers those that will motivate and encourage you.
Group #3- Balancers
The balancers are those that help you stay balanced between your professional life and personal life. Balancers are key in your professional network. They will keep you grounded, give you objective advice, and will always seek to help you balance your time and energy so that you don’t burn your self out with stress. Balancers are great because they help calm your nerves, focus you on inward stability and are usually health conscious.
Final Thoughts On Creating Your Professional Network
As mentioned in the beginning of this post you need to create your professional network if you have not done so. Be selective with who you trust to have in your professional network, and put it as a high priority. If you have supporters, challengers, and balancers you are going to have the foundation and nucleus that is needed to excel both personally and professionally. So get on with creating your professional network!
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Hey good post, I never thought about building a network like this. I am going to use it for sure!
Thanks Joe. Hope it works well for you, make sure to get all three times of people in your network
Hey nice post. I totally need more balancers in my network! My work life balance is out of whack and I need someone to get me in line for sure. Thanks for the post
Hi Alex:
Balancers are a must and are there to help you not work yourself into the ground each and every week. I suggest you get on the hunt for a perfect balancers, personal trainers, life coaches, etc are great places to start.
-James
I thought that I had good challengers in my network but I was wrong. The few people I had challenge me to grow actually made matters worse, oof. I guess I just need to find the right people I suppose. Anyway, neat post keep it up James!
Hi Julie:
Picking the right people for each category is key as you have come to find out. Just keep searching you will find the perfect fits.
-James