How Do I Help You Grow Your Career?

"You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want - Zig Ziglar

Photo found at http://www.ziglar.com/quotes/you-can-have-everything-life-you-want

When our first priority is helping others amazing things can happen. As you focus on serving others, your organization and your customers good will come your way.

One of my favorite life quotes comes from the great Zig Ziglar who said,  “You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”

Since landing my first job at 13 years old delivering newspapers (remember those) for the Detroit Free Press to filling Vice President and President roles at different organizations I have been learning priceless career lessons. From education, resume writing, interviewing, management and everything in between I’ve been a part of it all.

So, how can I help you grow your career? Here’s where to start.

Start with your mindset

If you are always trying to figure out the next move to climb up the corporate ladder or positioning yourself for the next promotion chances are you will miss out on establishing a strong foundation. Approach everything you do with the mindset of serving, adding value and putting others first.

Always be networking

Networking doesn’t always mean cocktails at a mid-week meet up (although that’s not a bad idea). Connecting with co-workers in your department and outside of your department is critical to your success. Don’t underestimate the power of inviting someone to lunch or out for a cup of coffee.

Coaching – receive AND give it

No one ever arrives. It doesn’t matter how much education we have accumulated or how many awards we have won we can all benefit from having a coach or mentor in our life. Nothing beats having someone you can connect with for feedback and counsel. But if you can’t meet with someone in person there blogs, podcasts, books and an Internet full of  “virtual coaches and mentors”.

Truthful and transparent communication

Careers live and die on communication. Where truthful and transparent communication are a priority relationships thrive and your career is strengthened. It doesn’t matter if you are an extrovert or introvert you can be a great communicator.

 

 

Using Social Networking to Build Professional Relationships – part 4

Here's the fourth and final part of the article that I wrote and was published in the January issue of CBA Retailers & Resources

Networking – Keep up with your customers so you
know what their immediate needs and hot buttons are. Stay in touch with
suppliers and keep informed of specials and provide them with feedback so they
know what is happening on the frontlines.

Groups – Join a
group.
You can join as many as 50 LinkedIn groups. Use these groups to
increase your knowledge through the expertise of others. When you join,
introduce yourself and your services. Consider starting a group around your
company’s core competencies and let your voice and expertise be heard. There
are some excellent groups dedicated to Christian professionals on LinkedIn that
offer business wisdom as well as encouraging fellowship. A few groups that you
might want to check out include: Christian Business Leaders Network, Christian
Professionals and Christian Retail 3.0 (full disclosure: I manage this group).

Questions and Answers
– This is a great area of the site that pulls on the brainpower of others
to help you identify solutions and gain insight. Be a part of the community by
diving into the Q&A area of LinkedIn. Offering insightful answers builds
your value and raises awareness of your expertise. You can also tap into the
expertise of others by posing your own questions.

Publish your LinkedIn
URL
– One of the easiest but often most overlooked tactic is posting your
LinkedIn URL. An example of a LinkedIn URL would be – www.linkedin.com/cmrainey. Make
sure you are publishing your LinkedIn URL on all your marketing collateral,
including business cards, email signature, email newsletters, web sites and
brochures, so prospects learn more about you and can easily connect.

LinkedIn Recommendations
Nothing builds trust and confidence like a recommendation and testimonies
from happy customers.  Offer
recommendations of others and then ask them to reciprocate.

LinkedIn eMail – Use
the email function within LinkedIn to notify your connections about business
news, store events or product releases within your LinkedIn network.

These are only a sampling of the tools that LinkedIn has to
offer so take some time to discover all that the website has to offer. Compare
LinkedIn with the others listed above and see which one works best for you. But,
whichever social networking site you choose just Let 2010 be the year that you
engage with social networks to build your professional relationships and
increase your business.

If you don’t know of anyone to connect with on LinkedIn and
need someone to start with hit me up at www.linkedin.com/cmrainey. Let’s
connect!