03- How To Effectively Use Your Network

Summary

IIn this episode, I will explain the best way to effectively use your network.

Episode Transcribed

A strong network can be useful in many aspects of your career.  It doesn’t matter if you know thousands of people, have 1000 followers on instagram, or are connected with 1000’s of people on LinkedIn, If you don’t know how to effectively use your network, it is useless. Luckily, you can easily turn your network into a useful one. 

A couple of years ago I starting working on a project where I needed to find the right experts in different businesses in different countries and get their guidance and approval. I had no idea where to start. I had no idea which people in which businesses did what and who had the authority to give these approvals. I did the only thing I could. I used my network.

That brings us to this week's smartcut. One way to effectively use your network, is to ask your contacts for another good contact.

Networking is the process of interacting with others to exchange information and develop professional or social contacts. I like this definition because it explains that a network is useful because it is a place where you can find information. It also clarifies that your network could be your professional or social contacts. And this is important because you can use your social contacts to get information for your profession. For example, I was playing hockey with an old friend of mine in an adult league. He told me he worked at a company that I had been trying to get in touch with at work. I bought him a beer and got some great information from him that really helped me in my job. Then he forwarded me to a friend of his working at a different company that was even more useful for me to speak with.

When I didn’t know where to start and needed to get approvals from senior people, I first reached out to contacts in my network that had a big network internally and asked them if they knew who I should speak to. I then reached out to the contacts they gave me, explained what I needed, and asked them who I should speak to. That next round of people not only brought me closer to the people I needed to speak with, but while speaking to them, they also provided me with so much more information on their businesses, how they worked, and who were the important people to know. Somehow, within two weeks of meeting with people, I was sitting in the office with a direct report of the CEO, getting the approval I needed. In my project plan, I had predicted it would take between one and two months. Even if you have a small network, if you network effectively by asking contacts for other good contacts, you can quickly get where you need. Even in a massive organization of over 100,000 people. 

This technique is also extremely useful for your external network. For example, let’s say you need help with something for work in Microsoft Excel. You can ask your friends if they can help. Or ask if they know anyone who’s good with excel. 

Or maybe you are looking for a job. Ask your friends and family if they know anyone who works in that industry or company and then just set up a call with them. When you speak with them, ask if they know anyone who works at a company that may be hiring. It helps if you ask people with a big network, like your experienced contacts who have been working for years, or your outgoing friends and acquaintances who seem to know everyone, or people that have moved companies and had multiple jobs.

If you need to get information within your company, it also helps to start with someone with a big network. You can find people with big networks by looking for anyone who has been at the company for a while, or anyone who is outgoing and social, or someone that has worked in a different department within that company. But really, you can even start with the people that sit around you. Connections can come from anywhere. 

Think about the theory of 6 degrees of separation where everybody on the earth is connected by their contacts. The theory was proven by Milgram in 1967 to show that anyone in the United States is linked by an average of 3 connections. Knowing this, think about how easy it would be in whatever industry or company you are in to find the right person to speak to, only by asking a good contact for another good contact.

Using your network effectively to get information also has the added benefit of helping to grow your network. The more people you are forwarded to, the more people you can contact in the future when you need help, and the more people will know to contact you about something when they need help. Don’t forget a network goes both ways, where you need to help them if you want to be helped.

Conclusion

To summarize this week's smartcut, when you need information, don’t be afraid to use your network and ask your contacts for another good contact. Ask them who you should speak to about the subject. When you do this you will be surprised not only at how quickly you find the right person, but also about how much good information you learn on the journey. Someday you will be able to help your contacts with their endeavors as well, which creates a strong connection. 

I hope you all try to apply this smartcut to your career whenever you need something and dont know where to start. I hope you all feel comfortable utilizing your network and prioritize growing your network. When I was working on the project that needed approvals from people all over a global corporation, I never would have been able to get them if I hadn’t activated my network.