This is the second installment of a four-part series on how to network bigger and better.
August 31, 2022
By Adam Rosa
You’re at your favorite restaurant again (why wouldn’t you be, it’s your favorite) and once again you go for the messy chicken sandwich and tater tots. And once again you’re mid-bite when someone walks in. This time, it’s not the CEO of that company you’ve been trying to close a deal with. It’s Darrell.
Darrell is your coworker, the only other outside sales rep besides you in your company. You’ve worked together five days a week, fifty weeks out of the year, for three years. This has been mostly through Zoom with that one company dinner just before COVID hit. You wipe your ketchup hand on a napkin this time and call out to him, “Hi Darrell!”
He looks at you, just as the CEO did. He sees you midbite, ketchup on your face, and notices you ordered tater tots over his beloved french fries. But unlike the CEO, he does not scurry away. He waves, grabs a menu, and heads over to sit with you. Congratulations! You’re networking internally.
That’s our focus this week—internal networking. What is it? The opposite of external networking, next question. For those who missed our installment on external networking, take a look, but I shall explain for your benefit.
Internal networking is all about forming relationships inside your organization rather than outside. You are not trying to find future clients or new job prospects; you are trying to nurture relationships inside the company in which you already work.
Networking internally is important for many reasons, but this article will dive into what we at Maestro see as the big three—mentorship, support & trust, and *drum roll please* friendship! Really, we mean, “having a pleasant, professional, and enjoyable work environment where everyone will be comfortable and content to produce their best work and enjoy doing it,” but friendship is quicker to say.
Mentorship is important in any profession, but it can be doubly important within your own organization. This is due to two reasons.
First, the people in your organization who you should want to mentor you (people who have been in your position for a long time or higher-ups) already know what it takes to succeed in your role. They have already achieved the success criteria to keep their job, or perhaps they were the ones who set the criteria themselves. Getting advice from these people in your company is key to ensuring a clear understanding of how to be successful and what the company is looking for.
The second factor is that these people also know the company. They know the tricks of the trade, the ins and outs of the business. They are the ones who can give you tips to save time on a report, what the boss likes to see in a presentation, what makes someone in the company happy or tick. Having a mentor inside the company is like having your own inside trader (but legal), someone with knowledge of how everyone operates who can save you time trying to guess and check how to get things done. You can be a superstar that wows everyone because they already know how.
To get a mentor in the company, do not do that one thing everyone is wont to do but no one really wants to do: schmooze. No one likes someone who is only saying or doing things to be liked, and the same goes for people in your company. Be yourself and the right mentor will present themselves. Someone will see themselves in you, like you for you, and/or want to give you the tricks they wish they had known in your shoes.
If this Wizard of Oz doesn’t present themselves naturally, identify someone in the organization who has a lot of knowledge, who you admire, or who is in a role you look up to. Find time to ask them about their journey in the workspace. “What are some of the best and toughest times you’ve had at this job?” is a great question to build relationships in the workplace—people love to vent.
This can be done after a meeting or near the lunchroom if you work in person (do people still do that?). If you work remotely, ask them if they’d like to have a digital introduction since you’re trying to get to know people at the company, or if it’s appropriate, send them a slack asking to pick their brain a bit about their experiences with the company. People love to share knowledge, and once you ask once, you will get plenty more information given voluntarily. Simple things go a long way.
Follow these simple suggestions and you’ll find yourself a sensei. Good luck, young grasshopper.
Trust and support are two of the most important factors to a good work environment, and they come through internal networking. While work sometimes feels like we log in, get our job done, and log out, possibly without ever talking to anyone or feeling like we need support from anyone, help from others always makes the work easier.
If you work at a company, your work is likely dependent on or will be depended on by someone else. Perhaps someone oversees scheduling your meetings, maybe your work is reviewed by someone else, perhaps some of your leads for a sale are supplied by coworkers.
Whatever it may be, having your coworkers trust you and support you goes a long way. It can result in them passing along a lead to you because they trust you with their inner network (and thus internal networking just grew your own network even more), or perhaps they trust you to do excellent work and recommend you to their boss.
In a workplace, having someone trust you to do work is the only way to grow and continue moving up. Your boss got somewhere because their boss trusted them to do that job well. When that person vouches for you, it might just be the difference in whether you get a promotion, a raise, or extra opportunities.
The age-old secret to developing trust and support is going to be revealed for the first time in millennia to all our readers for the low price of three payments of free ninety-nine. That’s right, for absolutely no money, we are revealing the secret to gaining trust and support at your work…being trustworthy and supportive!
Simple or complex as that may seem, it’s true. When you are dependable, kind, and honest at work, your coworkers take note. How do you show this?
Promise to get things done for them and then deliver. Meet deadlines every time. Ask them how their day is going before you start a meeting. And here is a big one, offer to help them on any project or task that might be overwhelming.
Be sure to do it when you have extra time yourself so that if they take you up on it, you can deliver. The best way to lose trust at work is to say and offer things and then come up short. Coworkers will remember the things you do, but they will remember double the things you don’t.
Remember to do these simple but effective asks and promises early, and then when it comes time to call in a favor or they are thinking of who they can trust to fill a big role, your name will be top of the list.
At the end of the day, we want to enjoy what we do as much as we can, and that means enjoying where we work and who we work with. We want our coworkers to be kind to us and us to them. You won’t be best friends with everyone at work, that’s unrealistic, but you can have a healthy working relationship with everyone, and when you do, it grows your network internally.
Navigating networking within your company can be tricky, but here at Maestro, we have you covered. The first thing to remember is that everyone who has been at the company already has their established work habits, preferences, and has likely created a work environment that works for them.
Coming in and disrupting that by trying to be everyone’s best friend can rub some or a lot of people the wrong way. Likewise, if you come in cold and unapproachable, everyone may feel you are dampening the work culture.
The trick is to be watchful. When you first join a company, be yourself, but be a listener even more than usual. See how people interact with each other, find out the work culture, and then figure out how you work into that mix.
If you work in an office, asking people to grab food or drinks after work can be a great way to test the waters and see who is going to be more social with you and who prefers to keep work as work. If you work remotely, this can be a bit trickier, but getting creative can help. Find out if there is a “just for fun” Slack channel at your work. Take note of how people interact and message in the channels or discuss at meetings.
If there seems to be no culture outside of work, we recommend once more the idea of asking people to take five minutes to do a meet and greet over a video call. Most people enjoy this as it breaks the ice when communicating professionally and talking to each other during meetings, and it lets you gauge how others interact with you.
Do they keep it formal? Are some more willing to make jokes and be friendly? When in doubt, follow the lead of others and try not to assume they are comfortable with things the same way you are. Asking the right questions and trying to gauge the right interactions is a great way to set up your own internal network for a pleasant and successful work environment.
Internal networking is crucial to creating a trusting and enjoyable work environment that sets you up for success in your company and career. Being a person first, getting to know your coworkers, and using simple strategies to meet people where they want to be met are vital. Find a coworker or two who has knowledge or information you admire and ask them about it. Be honest and dependable and your own in-company network is sure to flourish.
Expand your network to include Maestro! Connect with us at mastery@maestrogroup.co.
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