Marcella Nelson is the president of Breakthrough Coaching and Consulting, which provides leadership and career coaching, organizational consulting and training services to corporate and individual clients. She works with leaders, teams, and professionals to remove barriers to success and accelerate the achievement of business and career goals. Marcella’s mission is to help people to have successful careers and companies to have successful employees.
Prior to founding Breakthrough, Marcella was an accomplished Human Resources executive with over 20 years experience in a variety of industries, including on-line information services, high tech, manufacturing and health care.
Marcella is a graduate of Smith College, has completed the Strategic Human Resource Management program at the Harvard Business School, MBA coursework at Babson College, and is a certified graduate of Corporate Coach University. She is a member of the national and New England chapters of the International Coach Federation and of the Society for Human Resource Management. Marcella is also a featured speaker and workshop leader on career, leadership, teamwork, and performance enhancement topics for organizations such as Bryant University, Northeast Human Resources Association, University of Massachusetts, Leading Women, Learning Connection, Southeastern Massachusetts Chambers of Commerce, and many other professional organizations, corporations and non-profits.
Visit Marcella's website at: http://www.coachbreakthrough.com
"It's not what you know but who you know." When it comes to growing your business, advancing in your career, or finding your dream job, there's a lot of truth to that old saying. The connections you make with others will be invaluable in helping you to achieve business and career success. With the holiday season and all those social events rapidly approaching, it's a great time to sharpen your networking skills. Here are some tips to help you make the most of those networking opportunities:
"It's not what you know but who you know." When it comes to growing your business, advancing in your career, or finding your dream job, there's a lot of truth to that old saying. The connections you make with others will be invaluable in helping you to achieve business and career success. With the holiday season and all those social events rapidly approaching, it's a great time to sharpen your networking skills. Here are some tips to help you make the most of those networking opportunities:
-Don't discount anyone – Who's in your network? Everyone you know – friends, family and colleagues, of course, but what about parents of your child's friends, people at the gym, your barber, UPS person, car mechanic. You never know who you know who knows someone you want to know. A friend of mine who's a CFO was having his hair cut and happened to mention to his barber that he was looking for a new job. His barber also cut the hair of the CEO of a local company who my friend wanted to meet. The introduction was made and my friend got a new job out of it. Be ready to tell your story to everyone you meet. And speaking of that …
-Know your story – Be prepared to tell your story in under a minute – who you are, what you do, how you uniquely contribute, what you want to do next and how they can help. People want to help but you need to tell them how they can and what about you merits their support.
-Have a system – Stay in touch, especially when you don't need anything! Have a system for making contact regularly. A friend who's a contract recruiter calls me every 3-4 months just to say hi, hear what I'm doing and let me know what he's up to. It's a short conversation and if I'm not available he just leaves a message. As a result, when I was a Human Resources director who needed recruiting help or if someone called me to ask if I knew a recruiter, I thought of Bob. I finally asked him how he did such a good job of keeping in touch. He told me that every week he makes it a priority to call 5 people on his contact list. He does that every week until he gets through the list and then he starts over again. Find a simple, efficient system to keep in touch and your network will be there for you when you need them.
-Be a giver and a connector – Nurture your network. Think about how you can be of help to others. If you find an article that you think might be of interest to them, send it along. If you get a lead or meet someone you think they'd like to meet, make the connection. If someone in job transition calls you for support, help in any way you can. Givers gain and the favor will be returned someday.
-Have a goal for every networking event – Networking events can be uncomfortable affairs if you go with no plan except to make small talk with strangers. Setting a challenge or small goal for yourself can make it more interesting and more productive. Whether it's meet 3 new people or give out (or collect) 10 business cards, it will give some focus to your participation. One more tip for these events – prepare some questions you can ask someone you're meeting for the first time which shows interest in what they're doing and the challenges they're facing. It will make the conversation less awkward and can open some doors you might be able to walk thru. Follow-up with those you meet even if just to say "it was great to meet you".
-Shift connections as your goals change – If your career or business goals change, it might be necessary to find new peer groups, role models, mentors, professional organizations. Clinging to the same old will only get you more of the same old.
Use the end of 2007 to build and strengthen your network and you will have taken valuable steps towards achieving your goals in 2008.