Hello. My name is Sarah Currie, and I am an introvert.
(image credit: intellectualbubblegum.com)
I recently attended a professional development session entitled “Getting Results without Authority,” which basically boils down to winning friends and influencing people. Of course, the key to building relationships with people you can influence is — say it with me now — networking!
One of the questions I wish I had thought to ask while the facilitator was still in the room (my esprit d’escalier) was whether he thought people such as myself could be influencers, or were we destined always to be the influenced?
Networking is something I find particularly challenging. In the real world, approaching a stranger, or even a distant acquaintance, fills me with anxiety. I have had moderately more success online; however, even with social media, digital communication can easily become a one-sided conversation rather than a dialogue. And eventually, to exert any real influence, a face-to-face meeting is going to have to happen. I’m sweating already just thinking about it.
My short-term career goal is to shore up the foundations of my relationships within my department (i.e., to establish my personal brand, so to speak). My longer-term goal is to move beyond the scope of my current role within my department to, hopefully, a member-facing or policy role within the broader organization or elsewhere. First. I need people to know who I am and to understand my value. I need to network. As the old saying goes, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.”
Another old saying states that the first step is admitting that you have a problem. Introversion is my problem, or rather, my challenge. My first course of action in overcoming this challenge and improving myself as a networker has been to sign up as a mentee for my company’s mentorship program. Although I am well-known (and hopefully well-regarded) within my immediate team, a mentorship relationship is an opportunity to prove and develop my value with a new audience.
A second, concurrent step on this journey of self-improvement is to work on my long-neglected LinkedIn profile. It has sat half-complete in the cloud for several years. In that time, the previous organizations for which I have worked, as well as my current employer, have become more active participants on the site. Reconnecting with former colleagues and joining some professional groups with similar skills, interests and goals will help expand my virtual network, which will hopefully lead to some not-so-virtual relationships with even less-virtual influence down the road.
Algonquin College Social Media Certificate Program 