Speaker 1: Good morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the New Corner Office,
Speaker 1: the podcast where we share strategies for thriving in the
Speaker 1: new world of work, where location and hours are more
Speaker 1: flexible than in the past. Today's tip is to be
Speaker 1: a joiner. We all know that developing professional relationships is smart.
Speaker 1: No one succeeds alone. We need a supportive network. People
Speaker 1: create opportunities. Joining existing professional communities and get togathers is
Speaker 1: a great way to grow and deepen your network. Even
Speaker 1: if you tend not to be a joiner, and I
Speaker 1: put myself in this category, you might want to set
Speaker 1: your default in a slightly different place if you want
Speaker 1: to succeed as a remote worker. When you work in
Speaker 1: an office, you have a natural professional community. You work
Speaker 1: side by side with people five days a week. You
Speaker 1: get coffee with these peo people, eat lunch with these people,
Speaker 1: see these people while washing your hands in the restroom.
Speaker 1: All these casual interactions build bonds. When you work remotely,
Speaker 1: a lot of this disappears now. To be clear, it
Speaker 1: is very possible for remote workers to be social. We've
Speaker 1: done episodes in the past on starting virtual meetings with chitchat,
Speaker 1: about picking up the phone to call colleagues or direct
Speaker 1: reports after a meeting about creating virtual book clubs and
Speaker 1: so forth. I also want to stress that very few
Speaker 1: jobs are truly one hundred percent remote. Most distributed companies
Speaker 1: bring people together at least once a year or so
Speaker 1: for in person connection. Many do it more frequently, and
Speaker 1: many companies opt for a hybrid model two to three
Speaker 1: days per week at home two to three days at
Speaker 1: the office. That said, when you work remotely, it's easier
Speaker 1: to feel disconnected and harder to ensure other people keep
Speaker 1: you and your work on their minds. Remote workers have
Speaker 1: to be more thoughtful and strictgic about forming and nurturing
Speaker 1: professional relationships. Being a joiner lets you plug into a
Speaker 1: network that already exists, and that network can be a
Speaker 1: springboard for developing more meaningful relationships, So ask around. My
Speaker 1: guess is that you already know the main organizations in
Speaker 1: your industry, but maybe there are smaller ones that colleagues
Speaker 1: or friends have joined. In general, if there is an
Speaker 1: organization that seems like it might be valuable, I would
Speaker 1: err on the side of joining it. Why not You
Speaker 1: can usually cancel your membership after a bit, and you
Speaker 1: seldom have to spend much time on any given group,
Speaker 1: but it might be worth trying one out to see
Speaker 1: if it's a real winner. And the good news is
Speaker 1: that if you work from home, this can feel like
Speaker 1: a little bit less of a burden, even if you
Speaker 1: are introverted like me. After a long day of talking
Speaker 1: to people in person, I usually want to go sit
Speaker 1: in a room all by myself. I do not want
Speaker 1: to go to another meeting and wear a name, even
Speaker 1: if cocktails are involved. But if I've been by myself
Speaker 1: in my office all day, that's a different matter. An
Speaker 1: afternoon zoom call with a few professional acquaintances can be
Speaker 1: a nice change of pace and a chance to say hello,
Speaker 1: so try it out. One good way to get involved
Speaker 1: quickly is to volunteer with any annual conferences, even if
Speaker 1: they are virtual these days. You'll get to know the
Speaker 1: leadership in the big name people who are invited to present.
Speaker 1: This can be a lot of networking upside for a
Speaker 1: small amount of work. Then, as you see how things
Speaker 1: operate and what the needs might be, you can see
Speaker 1: how you can make the group even more useful to you.
Speaker 1: You can suggest an event or organize it yourself, whether
Speaker 1: that's a Q and A with a favorite author, a
Speaker 1: class about a particular skill, you name it. You might
Speaker 1: also consider joining some groups that are not specific to
Speaker 1: your industry. One upside of local chambers of commerce or
Speaker 1: professional women's networking groups and the like is that you
Speaker 1: meet people in lots of different lines of work. This
Speaker 1: can help build an even more robust network with future
Speaker 1: investors for your startup, clients for your business, and maybe
Speaker 1: even a future colleague in a new career. That's a
Speaker 1: lot of possibility for attending a lunch every other month,
Speaker 1: so on the margin, be a joiner. In tomorrow's episode,
Speaker 1: we'll talk about work friendships, which is a slightly different matter.
Speaker 1: While with friendships, I suspect that people do better with
Speaker 1: a small number of tight acquaintances versus a big pool
Speaker 1: of more tangential ones, this is not always the case
Speaker 1: with professional networks. Joining multiple groups lets you take the
Speaker 1: pulse of your industry and learn about all that's going on,
Speaker 1: and there's not a whole lot of downside to that,
Speaker 1: so it's probably worth the membership fees. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: this is Laura, Thanks for listening, and here's to succeeding
Speaker 1: in the new corner. Office. The new Corner Office is
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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite shows.