Expand your reach!!

It’s perfectly natural to stick with people you know.  This is true whether you’re at a company meeting or at an outside meeting.

Gravitating toward the familiar can keep you exactly where you are in your career for years.  Check out the tips from the last post about clumping.

Moving up in your career can be a lonely situation.  It can also be enriching and rewarding (emotionally and financially) if you’re willing to break from your pack.

Try out these tips and let me know how they feel.

Tip 1:  You have to be active.  Reaching out to others is not going to come naturally at first.  There is a risk, real or imagined.  Make a commitment that you’re going to reach out.

Tip 2:  Set a goal.  Each meeting, internally or externally, set out to meet a certain number of people you don’t know or don’t know well and talk to them.  For external meetings I talk to at least 5 new people.

Tip 3:  Out of site….  Follow up with the people who you’ve just met.  Collect their cards or make a note of their names.  Your method of follow up is up to you and could be email, a note card, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.  Make sure the follow up includes a personal note mentioning something that you’ve talked about.  It’s annoying getting a connection request without any context.

Tip 4:  Make a note – NOW!  Write down your new contacts right away.  It’s so easy to get caught up in other things.  I sit down as soon as possible after an event to record who I’ve met.  In the notes section of your contacts, make a note of the details of where you’ve met and any other information you’d like to remember.  This will come in handy in the future!

Tip 5:  Contact.  Once or twice a week contact someone you’ve met through your networking.  Set up a phone meeting or a face to face meeting – in person is best.  The meeting is to get to know them better and build your relationship.  Remember, the meeting is about them, not you – so ask a lot of questions.  Some people you’ll want to continue to get to know and others you may not.  Be open and you may be surprised.