Are You Taking Full Advantage of Your Network?

If you’re networking only to land a new job or meet a new client, you’re missing out. There are three big ways to leverage your network, and grow your career, beyond the obvious:

• Use your network to exchange expertise with others. Interestingly, we are most likely to learn from our “dormant ties,” or former colleagues, peers, and friends with whom we’ve lost touch. The people who we’re not constantly engaging with often have the most to teach us. Reconnecting allows us to exchange information, share knowledge, and introduce each other to the new skills.
• Use your network to help others. When we help someone out, they are more likely to help us out in return. Play the long game. Think about your long-term career goals (one to three years from now), and identify people in your network who may be able to help you down the road. Now is the time to offer them help.
• Use your network to sharpen your communication skills. Networking allows us to sharpen skills that will help us in every other part of our careers: curiosity, persuasion, confidence, and executive presence, as well as learning how to speak engagingly and keep the attention of an audience. Identify one or two communication skills you’d like to improve (such as listening without interrupting or describing what you do succinctly) and practice those skills during an upcoming networking conversation.