Your Career Success Is A Reflection Of Your Network
Hi! I am The Purpose Doctor, and my name is Ayobami Olugbenga-Wyse. I am a purpose-driven peak performance and career clarity coach. I help people map out their career paths with ease and to help them operate in the ideal career they are best built and designed for. Thanks for subscribing to my “Wyse Career Nuggets”, it’s my way to help you create a productive and highly rewarding career.
In the last career nugget, I shared how to deal with limiting beliefs in your career. Today, I will be showing you how your net worth is a reflection of your network and how to evaluate your network.
World-renowned motivational speaker Charlie “Tremendous” Jones, had a simple, yet powerful mission: To help people improve their lives through reading. And in his words, he said ‘You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.’ Honestly, this statement has to be nothing else but personal development 101.
Absolutely profound. In other words, the reason you are still where you are today is easy to know, the kind of books you have buried yourself in or not touched, and the kinds of associations you still keep. This is a very critical aspect of your career development my friend. If you don’t like what your career reflects at the moment, do two things for starters, change your associations and be more intentional about the information you ingest.
I am sure you have heard about one of the philosophies of success that states that, if you are broke and you find yourself moving consistently with 9 wealthy people, it’s just a matter of time for you to become the 10th wealthy person. And I dare say that the reverse is the case as well. If you are the only wealthy person in a community, then you are actually a poor man and a local champion. Bring these scenarios or philosophies into your career space, my friend. Your association is absolutely important to how much you want to succeed career-wise.
Career networking involves using personal, professional, or educational contacts to assist you with job positioning, job leverage, knowledge expansion, and optimizing your career goals. Very important questions you want to ask yourself is…
· WHO do you spend time with?
· WHERE do you spend time often?
· HOW do you spend your time?
The quality of your associations will determine the quality of impact, influence, and income you begin to generate as a career professional. Evaluate who you spend most of your time with. I learned from a friend that if you are having a conversation with someone for about 10mins, and realize they have wasted your time, the first two minutes are their fault, but the last 8mins is your fault. To those who like their “me-time”, it’s not a bad thing, however, there is a limit to the “me-time” you should be having because even though every man is like a tree, no man is an island. This is an aspect I have suffered from for many years. I advise you to make quick adjustments and step out as often as necessary.
The next thing is to evaluate where you spend most of your time. Are you at the right place at the right time? DO you know the quality of associations you keep also determine to some extent if you will be at the right place at the right time or not? You can get a well-paid job or lose a great job as a result of positioning. You can take advantage of a great opportunity or become a victim of circumstance as a result of your career positioning.
Another question to ask is how you spend your time. Successful career professionals aren’t necessarily the very hardworking type, even though it’s good, but the smart working type. SO work hard, but work smarter my friend. How have you scheduled your work routine and to-dos? How have you effectively or efficiently maximized your most productive work hours?
Networking is so important because as your career develops, and you become more successful, the actions that you take, start to affect more and more people. You might say you really don’t care who your success will affect, you must keep in mind that your gifts and talents can take you to the top, however, not everyone sustains themselves at the top. The population of successful people reduces as you climb to the top because not everyone knows how to manage to be at the top. Trying to climb to the top or sustaining yourself at the top of your career, requires evaluating people who hold the keys to significance, influence, or interests that translate into your career success or failures.
You can call these types of people STAKEHOLDERS, and it’s your responsibility and in your good interest to IDENTIFY, PRIORITIZE, & UNDERSTAND how to deal with these stakeholders who can be your boss, colleagues, family members, partners, mentors, mentees, etc.)
Your career network should be evaluated to identify who matters most and who matters less as you climb your career ladder. This evaluation is done by identifying those who are influential or interested in you. For example, those who aren’t so influential or show plenty of interest in you, just monitor these kinds of people minimally. If they are not so influential but very interested in your affairs, keep these kinds of people in the know of things happening with you. If they are highly influential but still minimally interested in your affairs, Just always ensure you have them satisfied because people’s level of influence in your life and career can change in a split second.
However, the kinds of people that you break your sweat for and sacrifice so much for, are those who are highly influential and highly interested in your affairs. You manage them closely, and engage them fully, by making a great effort to satisfy them.
So take time out to list your circle of influence and network and do yourself the favor to evaluate where they belong so you can begin to pay extra attention where necessary. How much influence or power do they hold to your career success or failure, and how interested are you in being successful or not.
I hope this has been very helpful. Share this with a friend, family, or colleague who might need this, and anticipate the next nugget where I will be talking about building great career networks. You can also book a FREE 30mins career clarity and coaching call at www.ayobamiwyse.com and feel free to follow me on my social media handles @ayobamiwyse to learn more.
Remember, all we do is win, and it always pays to be wyse.
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