Leverage Your Network in a Fresh Way
Right now, many people are trying to up-level their lives in one way or another. Some are seeking work after a long stint of unemployment. Others have started new ventures and are wondering how to fund them.
In situations like these, people often revert back to their history and fixate on things that didn’t work out well or were hard to solve. Sometimes it’s useful to reference the past for answers, but too much retro-minded thinking can stall or block creative problem solving. When this happens, it’s time to get help by leveraging your network in a fresh way.Strategic Lunching
Let’s take a look at the challenge of seeking work after a long bout of unemployment. Here’s one of many creative ways to tap into the network you’ve already built. I call it Strategic Lunching:
- Invite three to five of your contacts to lunch. You can choose people who are all seeking work, or a mixture of employed and unemployed.
- Select people that you know are generous, reciprocal and overall positive in attitude. This is very important! Who you invite impacts the tone of the entire lunch as well as the quality of giving and receiving.
- Choose a place, date and time convenient for everyone.
- In your invitation, state clearly that each person will have 15 minutes to discuss something they’d like help with.
- Tell them you’ll facilitate the time and conversation.
- Bring paper and pens.
At the lunch:
- Ask everyone to write down a situation they’d like help with and the type of help they want—i.e., advice; just listening; referrals; brainstorming.
- Select note takers, allowing each person to focus on receiving when it’s their turn.
- Go around the table and keep track of the time. Give 5 minute warnings, so people aren’t suddenly cut off.
- Conclude the lunch with acknowledging everyone’s contribution. Remind people to follow up on anything they offered to do for someone.
If you already do this, that’s great! If not, try this intentional network leveraging activity. This will not be “lunch-as-usual”.
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