A New Way to Build Teams
To suggest that networking and career building is a new way to build teams may seem a bit odd. However, we stress collaboration to conduct projects. We want team members to share knowledge to help getting tasks completed. We encourage sharing expertise to train, mentor, and coach for our succession planning. When we talk about collaboration, sharing knowledge, and training, how are we to accomplish these without networking and career building?
Networking
When we are seeking a job, we network in every association, job group, meetup, or any other group that might offer a glimmer into a job lead. Then we get a job. Networking comes to a screeching halt. We don’t network outside our job, because now we feel there is no need. We don’t network inside the organization because, well, that’s just not the way we do things around here, it’s not our culture.
As an individual, it is imperative that you continue networking both inside and outside the organization. You will meet people you can help, and people who can help you. Networking is meant to be a two-way street. As an organization, networking should be a module in your career path program if you have one. If you have not set up one yet, networking needs to be an offering in your training programs. If you are too small to have a training department or formal training program, encourage networking in staff meetings.
Career Path Programs
Most any size organization can put together a career path program. Your business is either growing or it is dying. Growth is going to require more people; more people will offer the opportunity for some of your internal staff to pursue promotions. Allowing employees input into creating a career path program is a good idea. After all, it is their career, and this will create engagement both into career building and staying with the company reducing expensive turnover.
Career Day
We’ve all seen, been a part of, or found ourselves attending a career day either voluntarily or as part of our jobs. Job shadowing has always been a way to help create interest in another area of your organization for those who want to change positions or move up. A career day can expand on that idea and many more staff members could visit many more departments in a single day with an internal career day. Further, this can help build bridges between departments that typically may experience miscommunication, misunderstandings about what it takes to accomplish a task from another department’s perspective and build rapport and collaboration.
This type of understanding can help reduce chaos by not planning early enough when assigning a task to another department, or miscommunication when one department does not understand the tasks or limitations of another department or misjudging the staffing situation of a collaborating department.
Leader’s Are Willing to Change
Change may be difficult. But as a leader or if you aspire to leadership, you cannot hang onto the past. You must keep up with, and in many cases stay ahead of trends. Lagging in the past or being stubborn does not work here. You must build your own career, and a good leader helps team members build their careers as well. It is time to embrace a new way to build your career capital and better teams.
Thank you for reading this blog. If you would like a no obligation call on career building Let's get started
Graphic: BigStock.com