|
'Fear of rejection' is the
major reason why individuals looking for a career change
hesitate to use networking as the most powerful weapon in
their job search armoury. This is even the case with
senior people who you would have thought anybody would be
delighted to receive a call from. In 99.9% of cases
this fear is unfounded - most professional people are
pleased to receive calls from like-minded people and are a
pleasure and delight to talk to.
(In all my years of
networking and listening to people who are conducting
networking campaigns, I have only experienced rude
rejection once and that was from Bernard Matthews, the
factory farm turkey man. My advice is not to ring
him.)
Only yesterday, four of my
coaching clients came to see me to tell me about the job
and project offers that they were currently negotiating
and it got me thinking about how they had each
successfully overcome their initial reluctance to network
effectively. The 'courage' and 'character' they had shown
had made a huge difference not just in their jobs but in
their lives.
John Price has always had a
personal mission to make a difference in people's lives so
it was only a question of giving him some mentoring on his
networking to bring out and focus his natural talents for
bringing people together. Any initial reluctance to
network quickly faded after the first few 'advice
meetings' with carefully targeted contacts of mine and he
is now an advanced player with a growing network of star
performers of his own.
One of the amazing projects
he has become involved in is as General Manager of Remploy
Automotive growing them as a Tier 1 and Tier 2 component
supplier to major car companies. Remploy is the UK's
leading supplier of employment opportunities for disabled
people. It provides jobs and training in all parts
of the economy - as well as its own factories. It
assists over 2000 people with a range of physical and
mental disabilities to find work every year. In
addition, it supports 4,500 people in the employment of
other organisations and 6,000 people on it's 80 Remploy
factory sites.
As you know we have been
involved in major initiatives for years helping
disadvantaged and disabled people into work - so this is a
major league result for us. Don't hesitate to call
us if you'd like to link with John. (0845 130 4344 - UK
Lo-call)
Nigel has provided 'Lean
Solutions' in the automotive industry for some of the
world's most sophisticated car manufacturers and their
suppliers. One of the key strengths he has until now
undervalued is his ability to mediate with conflicting
sides - as one of his networking contacts put recently -
"You just come in - pour oil on troubled waters and
they are all best friends again, how do you do that?"
Nigel has used his
networking learning curve to develop his offering as a
consultant to companies who are having trouble with their
suppliers and who want to make the best of them. He
already has three major projects lined up and a queue
forming. If you'd like Nigel to take a look at your
suppliers and take advantage of his expertise give us a
call on 0845 130 4344 and we'll try and get him to fit you
into his demanding schedule.
After three years of
working ad hoc consultancy roles, going beyond networking
has catapulted Paul into a new full-time role with his
previous company's major rivals who sell capital equipment
into sports and leisure environments Starts Tuesday.
Now Paul is looking to use his new job (our coaching
support) and his twenty year expertise in the business to
improve access to sports facilities for disabled
individuals. Anyone who would like to help, please
call us and we'll network you on - 0845 130 4344
Andrew is using his
team-building and management consultancy experience to
network with like-minded individuals who are interested in
developing a sporting centre of excellence for kids.
From tentative conversations wiith his local football club
to meetings with Sports England, Andrew's networking has
taken off big-time and we are now preparing for a
conference at the beginning of June on 'Healthy Living and
Fitness' (for young people) where many of the people on
his Dream 100 Target Networking list will be gathering to
discuss the modern problems of stay-at-home/fast food/no
school playing fields kids.
On the same page in the
Independent newspaper last week there was one report on
the government's mission to 'do something about obesity'
in kids and another article that reported that 800
planning applications had been submitted in the last year
for the redevelopment of school playing fields. (National
Playing Fields Association) If you too feel that
there has been enough talk and something should be done
about it then please give us a call and we'll link you
with Andrew.
Many people make the
mistake of thinking that the more people they have in
their database the more effective their self-marketing is
likely to be. I recently saw it described as
"He who has the most heads, wins." This is a
fundamental error that can lead to so much disappointment
and wasted opportunity, because it is not the number of
networking relationships you have that is important but
the quality of those meetings of minds.
On the home page of our web
site at careersnet.com we say (before you can begin
networking) "You need to be able to clearly describe
what you want, so that when you research your marketplace
and identify the people you want to talk to you, you can
speak their language and sell your future."
I sincerely believe that
this should be posted on a stick note in mirror writing on
the forehead of every job hunter - so that when they look
in the mirror they are reminded to focus on what they are
doing, figure out what they want to achieve, talk to
people who have problems they can solve and help them
structure a way forward. Once you know who you need to
talk to it is very easy for someone like myself to
introduce you to a networking contact who can kick-start
building your virtuous circle of networking contacts.
|
About
The Author
Margaret
Stead - Dream Architect, helps
individuals, executives and business
owners market themselves online into new
jobs, careers - building customer-employer
relationships and increasing their job
satisfaction.
She offers
personal coaching, workshops, tutorials,
classes and reports on the telephone and
in one to one meetings that help people
just like you do job hunting that gets
results. You can learn more about
these terrific resources at www.careersnet.com |
|
|
