-
2 minutes
Networking
Networking is an important skill wherever your career may take you. Here we’ve grouped our networking resources into three playlists.
If you’re a networking novice why not check out the ‘Networking: Getting started’ playlist? It’ll give you an introduction and overview of what networking is and practical tips on how to get started.
If you’re interested in brushing up your face to face networking skills the ‘Networking: In person’ playlist is for you. This playlist also covers neurodiversity and networking, delivered by networking strategist, Jeni Smith.
Last but not least, if you want to find out tips and easy to follow guidance on how to network virtually and make the most of LinkedIn see the ‘Networking: Online (including LinkedIn)’ playlist. Resources in this playlist are delivered by Jeni Smith and Dr Hannah Roberts.
Currently playing: Networking: Getting started
Networking: Getting started
You can navigate through the playlist using the arrows (bottom right) or jump to a specific item from the list below as you prefer.
Videos in this playlist presented by Dr Eamon Dubaissi and Jeni Smith, founder of NetKno, give you an introduction and overview of what networking is and practical tips to get you started.
Hello. I’m Eamon Dubaissi, a Research Staff Developer with Prosper, and here I’m giving an introduction to networking. We shall start by exploring different definitions of networking, pulling out some core principles. We will then look at why networking is so effective as a career development strategy. Then we’ll look more closely at the power of networking, exploring a few key concepts with the help of networking strategist Jeni Smith. Finally, we will watch a couple of videos where Jeni discusses how you can build confidence ahead of networking events, and establish trust in the relationships you develop. What exactly is networking? Here I’ve taken three definitions to compare and contrast. When you Google it the definition is, the action or process of interacting with others to exchange information and develop professional or social contacts. Merriam-Webster says networking is the exchange of information or services among individuals, groups, or institutions, specifically the cultivation of productive relationships for employment or business. Finally, Dictionary.com describes it as a supportive system of sharing information and services among individuals and groups having a common interest. If you take these definitions all together, some key elements emerge. Networking requires someone to be proactive, to do something, words such as interaction and interactive. It involves information transfer, words such as exchange and share, between people, so it involves relationships and social contact, and it is usually related to a professional environment, so for example employment or business. Why network at all? What is the evidence that employing networking as a career development strategy is effective? Well, actually there have been many studies into the power of networking, but if we take a few examples here, starting with academia in isolation, a recent study of over 100 working academics found that most participated in some form of networking, and considered it beneficial for their career. If you see the title of this paper, it uses a quote; there is no career in academia without networks. Another study showed that graduates who received jobs through social contacts tended to get jobs that fitted them better in terms of their educational attainment, and these jobs offered better career prospects. Taking a longitudinal study from elsewhere, namely two major accountancy firms, it was found that networking is a form of knowledge-sharing that helps individuals to manage and develop their careers. They came up with the concept of the networked professional, a type of identity which benefits those displaying this behaviour in terms of opportunities received. Now, if we take post-docs as a whole group, there have been some publications on the value of networking. In this quote from Sarah Blackford, networking is sometimes viewed cynically as using people, or dismissed as the old boys’ network, but it can be more valuable than other job-related skills. However, in another study of post-docs who identified as having imposter syndrome, many said they had difficulty networking, with the thought of networking being draining inducing anxiety, feelings of incompetence, and a sense of not belonging. We recognise that it can be difficult for post-docs to engage in networking activities, which is why Prosper is spending time exploring it further, offering tips and strategies to help. Now, I want to take the opportunity to explore a few key concepts of networking. These have come from Jeni Smith, a networking strategist and founder of NetKno, who also appears later in the presentation with videos on how to build confidence and establish trust. Jeni describes the core components of networking as being know, like, and trust. People first need to know that you exist and what you do. They then need to like you, or your product and service, and finally they need to trust you and what you represent. It is networking that provides these opportunities to create and establish these core components. The next concept is network diversity. Jeni advocates for diversifying your network. In simple terms, if people don’t have conversations across boundaries they don’t stimulate new ideas and innovations. This is represented here with academia, where you may know lots of people within the confines of academia but less people in other areas. These other circles could represent companies, government, other technology sector, for example. The same applies to career development and career exploration. If you don’t have the conversations with diverse groups of people, how do you really know what your options are or build a picture of where you’re heading? The image represents you allowing others in to share information. The next concept is connection marketing, and Jeni describes this as the promotion of yourself and your work through effective relationship management and matchmaking. A nice line is to build your brand by being nice, where you can showcase your qualities in even very small interactions, and this helps to build a rapport. Remember, networking is not a one-way street. You can create opportunities, share information, add significant value to those who know you. This notion of adding value to others is evidenced in small gestures, for example giving introductions for opportunities, sharing knowledge, and being reliable, which all helps to build trust, and also providing ongoing support to nurture relationships. For example, simply liking and sharing on social media, calling the person, or larger gestures such as hosting events. At this point, I just want to divert to discuss one strategy that we strongly encourage at Prosper, and that is to conduct informational interviews. Before embarking on informational interviews, you might feel that you are taking up the person’s time or being a burden in some way without adding too much value to them in return. However, you should zoom out to see the bigger picture. First of all, most people want to help others, and if they don’t reply to you it is more likely that they are extremely busy, rather than being actively hostile. Don’t be put off. This is because it is rewarding to help others. Imagine your reaction to someone coming to you for careers advice. In addition, it is almost guaranteed that the person you’re speaking to has also been helped before in the past, and if they realise the value of networking they also know that your paths might cross again in future, which takes us back to connection marketing. To end the video, we will look at how to build confidence ahead of networking interactions, and how to establish trust with the connections that you make. In a moment I’ll hand over to Jeni Smith, who talks about where confidence comes from, why you can use self-reflection as a means to build confidence, and how goal-setting can boost your confidence even further. In the video, Jeni refers to some worksheets that are available on the portal.
Hello. My name is Jeni Smith. I’m a networking strategist and founder of NetKno, and today I’m going to be talking to you about networking confidence. Attending networking events and having confidence to speak to strangers is a skill, and that means you can learn it, but it takes time. Sometimes we need a bit of confidence to be able to take that first step into the world of networking, and that’s what we’re going to help you do today. Firstly, I want to talk a little bit about lobsters. There’s a wonderful book called ‘The 12 Rules for Life’ by Jordan B Peterson, and in one of the chapters he talks about a study that’s been done into lobsters’ brain activity and their hormone balance. Apparently, lobsters are pretty gangster, and they have lots of fights and stuff. When the lobsters fight, the winner of the fight ends up standing and walking around, strutting his stuff, so that the other lobsters can see that lobster’s a winner, not worth messing with. That happens because when a lobster wins at a fight they get a release of serotonin, and that also happens in humans, not necessarily when we fight. This is what gives this lobster confidence, and it’s one of the things that gives us confidence as well. Serotonin makes us feel good. It makes us feel happy, but as well as that it makes the lobster stand up tall, but it also makes us as humans stand up tall, have our shoulders back, stand up tall, and it tells the world that we are confident and we know what we’re doing. There’s different ways that we can get a hit of serotonin. We can get it through exercise, being healthy and active. We can get it through a good diet, lots of fruit and vegetables, fresh ingredients. We can also get it from reflection. Humans, when we reflect on our past achievements, we get a chemical release of serotonin, which in turn makes us feel confident. That’s what we’re going to create for you, is this chemical hit of confidence so that you can then approach these networking situations a lot easier and start building up those networking skills. In order to reflect, we need to look back at what you’ve achieved so far. We’ve got two worksheets for you that accompany this short video. Worksheet number one is asking you to look back at what you’ve achieved. Thinking about you, what are your three best qualities and best skills? When is a time that you’ve felt proud of yourself? What have you achieved so far this year? What is your greatest personal and professional achievement to date? In the worksheet – you don’t need to print it off, it’s editable – go in there and answer those four questions, and start reflecting on all the amazing things that you’ve already achieved. Then what we want to do is continue to build on this confidence, so we need to create more by achieving more goals. Worksheet number two is going to ask you to think about how you can showcase your three best skills that you’ve already identified, and make sure you’re sharing them with the world. Set yourself three goals for three different timeframes. There’s a one-month, a three-month, and a six-month, or a… Anyway. Three different timeframes. Go and set yourself three goals, one for each of the timeframes that’s listed in the worksheet, and name someone that you are going to tell about those goals, and who you are also going to share your successes with. When you share your goals with someone else, you’re far more likely to succeed because you feel accountable to them. Finally, how are you going to reward yourself? You should reward yourself when you achieve a goal. Whether it’s getting a takeaway, going on holiday, getting yourself a new pair of shoes, whatever you want, but acknowledging your achievements is really important, and it will help to build your confidence. Now you can give yourself a boost of serotonin and confidence whenever you need it. What I want you to do is take all the things that you highlighted in worksheet number one, what you’re most proud of yourself for, your greatest achievements, your best skills and qualities, and turn that into a list. You can colour-coordinate it, print it off and laminate it if you want, or you can just put it in your mobile phone, in your notes, and you’ve got a list that’s accessible. When you need it, you can give yourself that boost of serotonin by taking a few minutes to sit back, look through that list, and reflect on all the amazing things you’ve already done. Moving forward, when you achieve your new goals set out in worksheet number two, add those achievements to that list so you’ve got an ever-growing, evolving list of all the amazing things that you’ve done and are continuing to do, personally, professionally. That is really going to help you build your confidence and approach uncomfortable situations to give you that opportunity to build up those networking skills. There you go. I’ll see you again soon.
In this next video, Jeni talks about establishing trust, and why trust is important within your networks and relationships. She talks about character, competence, honesty, reliability, and knowledge, and how these come together to establish trust. Finally, she talks about finding a why, to attract the right people and build trust with them.
Hello. My name is Jeni Smith. I’m a networking strategist and founder of NetKno, and in this short video we’re going to be looking at how you can build trust across your network and in your relationships. There’s a fantastic book called ‘The Speed of Trust’ by Stephen M. R. Covey, and one of my favourite quotes with it is this; ‘Trust is equal parts character and confidence,’ and that’s what we’re going to be looking at in this short video. Character and confidence; honesty, reliability, and knowledge. These are three things that can help you showcase your character as a person, and also your professional competence. Honesty. Being yourself. It can be quite scary to be your true, authentic self, especially in a professional setting, but being who you are, people want to get to know you, and that’s you being honest. Making sure that you’re being yourself, and people will respond to that. Telling the truth in all situations. If you can’t meet a deadline, tell the truth. If you’re going to be late, tell the truth. That shows that you are an honest person, which builds trust. Asking for help. If you need something or you’re stuck on something, ask for help and it gives others the chance to be there to support you, which again deepens the relationship and helps build trust. Reliability. You can’t trust someone if you don’t think that they’re reliable. Always do what you say that you were going to do. Make sure that you get back to people and respond to them in a timely manner, and meet the deadlines. If you can’t meet a deadline, go back to point number one and tell the truth about it. If you say you’re going to meet a deadline, make sure that you do. All these things will help showcase how reliable you are. Doing this consistently over time will allow you to really build trusting relationships. Finally, sharing your knowledge. You are so knowledgeable at what you do, and so much experience to share. Give advice and support to others. Become a mentor and showcase how fantastic you are and all the things that you’ve learned. Write blogs, posts, and share information on your area of expertise. Share information that you’ve written or share information that other people have written. People in your network want to learn from you, so showcase how knowledgeable, well-read, and informed that you are by sharing this information within your network. That comes for experiences as well. It doesn’t necessarily have to be information. Share your experiences to showcase all the things that you’ve achieved. Finally, building trust with people. When we have something in common and shared beliefs, this is another fantastic way to build trust. There’s a great book called ‘Start With Why’ by Simon Sinek. He says, ‘People don’t buy what you do. They buy what you do it.’ That’s the same for anything. This applies to businesses and leaders. We don’t really care what it is they do. We care why they do it, and it’s important for you to share your why. What is your why? What are you interested in? What are your values, your passions, and the causes, the things that you actually care about? We’ve got a worksheet for you to do that’s going to help you find your why. It asks things like, what do you daydream about? Why do you do the research, the work that you do, and how does that work help people, or animals, or the world? Go and download that worksheet – you don’t need to print it off, it’s editable – and fill in those four questions to start finding your why. Then, once you’ve got those answers, that’s the information. That’s what you should be sharing with the world through your social media, through conversations, and people that have got the same passions and care about the same things that you do will be drawn to you, and you’ll build trusting relationships. There you go. See you again soon. Bye.
Thank you for taking the time to engage with this video. I hope you’ve been inspired to go out and network, and be a bit more conscious about what you’re doing and what benefits it has.
[END OF TRANSCRIPT]
Hello my name’s Jeni Smith. I’m a networking strategist and in this session, we’re going to look at relationship management techniques. So practical steps and things that we can be doing to get the most out of networking opportunities. So things that we do before we even get there, stuff we can do straight afterwards, and then how we can nurture relationships on an ongoing basis. Networking’s not just about meeting new people, it’s about nurturing the relationships in the network that you’ve already got. We’ve all got networks; you all know loads of people. So before you even get to a networking event, here are some things that you can do to make the most out of it. See if you can get hold of a delegates list. So GDPR kind of ruined this for everyone, but still potentially some websites will provide lists of people that are attending, or you can contact the host to ask if they’ve got a delegates list that you can access beforehand. Just do some research. See who else is going to be attending the event, get a feel for the type of people that are going to be there. Search and use the hashtags associated with the event. This is especially applicable if it’s a conference. Most events now have their own hashtag. Use Twitter, use LinkedIn, search it, and start having conversations with people that are also going to be attending. ‘Oh, I’m going to this event too, be great to chat to you.’ Use it yourself, put it out there to the world that you’re going to be going, so other people can find you, and start having conversations with you, before you even get there too. Arrange meetings with them, especially again if it’s a large conference over a few days. You want to utilise that time. So pre-arrange meetings with other delegates. Say, ‘It’d be great to catch up for a coffee,’ or if it’s just a smaller networking event, maybe arrange to have a coffee with someone before or after the event, so you’re utilising that travel time as well. Reach out to the speakers. They’re just humans, they put socks on one at a time on a morning. Reach out to them. Tweet them. ‘I’m really looking forward to your talk at this event next week.’ If it’s Richard Branson or someone, they’re probably not going to tweet you back, but just a normal human speaker, they’ll probably be really chuffed, you’ll probably make their day. Invite your contacts along. So if you’re going to an event that you think’s going to be useful, and valuable, and interesting, invite people in your network along, share it with those people, and that’s a great way as well to potentially catch up with people that you’ve already got in your network, you’ve not seen them for a while. ‘Oh, I’m going to this event, do you want to come along, we can have a coffee before or after.’ Lovely. Prepare questions. Think about what you might ask during that Q and A opportunity. It’s a great opportunity to introduce yourself to all the other delegates and have a conversation with the speaker. It also makes you more approachable after. So if you put your hand up, you ask a question, especially if it’s a great question, the other delegates afterwards will come over and chat to you, and be like, ‘I thought that was a really good question, I was thinking something the same.’ Lovely. Great thing. Great opportunity. So now we’ve been to a networking event, we’ve done all this wonderful work, we’ve read the room, we’ve got into conversations, what do we do straight after? What’s the etiquette? So connecting with people on LinkedIn, fantastic. Following them on Twitter, wonderful. Make sure that if you do do this, similarly with sending an email if you’ve got someone’s business card or email address, make sure that you personalise the message, and try and add some value straightaway if you can. So you had a conversation with someone, afterwards drop them an email, ‘It was great to meet you.’ Gets your email in their inbox. They can’t lose that. Lovely. They can lose a business card; they can’t lose that. ‘Nice to meet you at this event,’ mention the event. ‘We chatted about X, Y, and Z, here’s a link to a blog that I read recently about that. I thought it might be useful.’ Wonderful. I want to meet people that does that for me. Or even better, ‘Nice to meet you at this event, I want to introduce you to someone that I think would be worth having a conversation with,’ and really network your network. Fantastic way to add value. Now on an ongoing basis, again make sure that we’re nurturing these relationships in our network, engage online. People post content on social media because they want attention. Shocking. Give them a little bit of attention, press a little like button, like, share, comment, whatever. Engaging with people online reminds them that you’re there, they’re reminded of who you are. It also, when people engage with our social content, we get a happy hit of dopamine, that’s why we’re all addicted to social media. It makes us feel good, and if you can be the cause of someone feeling good, that’s going to create positive associations in people’s minds about you. So if you do need to ask a favour, or if you want to catch up with them at some point in the future, they’ll be more than happy to, because you’ve just been there supporting their content. Fantastic. Make sure that you are continuing to share information and knowledge with your network. They want to learn from you. Showcase how knowledgeable you are, that helps build trust. So sharing information and knowledge that’s yours, but also that’s others. So if you read an article, or a paper, that you think’s really valuable, share that with your network. It adds value to them on an ongoing basis. Network your network. So make sure you’re always making introductions. Even if it’s not for anything specific. Even if it’s more of a, ‘Look, you two are working on something similar, I think it’s worth a conversation,’ and just facilitating those introductions between people. Then having catch-ups. Put some time into the people. Put some time into relationships. Send a message, send an email, book in a phone call, book in a Zoom call, or even better, the best of all is to sit down and actually have a coffee with someone, spend some time in their presence. That’s really where we build trust, and in order for people to recommend and refer us, they need to know us, they need to like us, and they need to trust us. So that’s a great way of really nurturing and just catching up with people, and see how they’re doing, spending time with them. So there’s some ways in which you can nurture and build your networks, and just add value, add value to them. Be lovely and add value. There you go.
[END OF TRANSCRIPT]
Hello, my name is Jeni Smith, I’m a networking strategist and during this session we’re going to look at how we can add value to the people in our network and the impact that that has. So when it comes to adding value, this is all about building that like element of know, like and trust, which is so important when it comes to building effective relationships within our network. So I refer to this as connection marketing. So it’s all about you building your personal brand by being someone who’s nice, which sounds dead simple, but there’s a little bit more to it than that. So in more detail, connection marketing is the promotion of yourself and your work through effective relationship management and matchmaking to create opportunities, share information and add significant value to people who know you. So the big point to highlight here is the ‘add significant value’, because when we add value to the people in our network, we become someone who’s valuable to know and more people want to know us. Plus, when we add value to someone, they can’t help but want to do that in return. So every time we put something positive out there and we help someone, it comes back to us 100 times over. So there’s different ways that we can add value to the people who are in our network. We can refer people for work. So if someone has a job opportunity that they need to fill and you know someone in your network that would be the perfect candidate, make that introduction, make those facilitated introductions. You’ve got someone there who gets, potentially, a fantastic new job opportunity and you’ve got someone who fills a position with someone who’s brilliant. So you’ve got two people there out in the world who think you’re fantastic simply by passing information between them or making introductions. We can also make introductions for general opportunities. So you don’t have to refer people for a specific job or a sale; it can just be the fact that you know someone in your network, you meet someone new and you think, ‘You know what, you two have got something in common. I’m not really sure what it is, but it’s worth having a conversation.’ Sending that email, ‘Hi, I’ve just met so-and-so, cc-ed in, please have a chat. I think you’ve got some stuff in common. It’s worth having a conversation.’ You never know where those introductions are going to lead and this comes back to, again, networking your network. Knowledge transfer, adding value to the people in your network by sharing your knowledge and experience with them. They want to learn from you, I want to learn from you, connect with me so I can learn from you. So sharing your knowledge through your social media content, through public speaking, through writing blogs or doing videos, but also sharing the knowledge of others that you come across that you find valuable, pass that our there to people in your network too because they’re probably going to find and get some value from it, as well. Invite people to events. If you’re going to a networking event or a conference and you think it’s going to be useful, other people in your network might find it useful too. Share that information with them. It’s all about transferring knowledge and information to create opportunities and add value, and event invitations are a fantastic way of doing that. Supporting people’s social media content. We know that people love to get a bit of attention from their social media. Giving them that bit of attention, sharing it with your wider networks and just being generally supportive of people, support their social content. Also being there as an individual, someone who is supportive, that’s reliable and consistent that others know that they can pick up the phone and ask for advice and you’re going to be there, and that’s a fantastic way to add value to the people that are in your network.[END OF TRANSCRIPT]
Hello, my name is Jeni Smith. I’m a networking strategist. During this session we’re going to talk about career progression through networking, and how it can help us progress in our careers and get where we want to be. So I’m going to highlight a bit of research that was done by UCLA. It was called the ‘Centre of the Universe’ study.
What this study did was looked at a group of individuals, and these individuals were based out in the French Riviera. They all had the same educational background. The only core difference between the group was that half had a strong personal network, and the other half didn’t. They followed their career progressions over five years to see what happened, where they ended up, and if having a network impacted their career progression at all. Unsurprisingly it did. The results were that people with a strong personal network moved up their industry ladder faster, so they progressed in their careers quicker, they had better job security, so they were less likely to be fired, or to move organisations, so they were more secure in the jobs that they had. They were paid more. So the people who had the strong personal network, were paid more than those that didn’t, but really interestingly was that they were actually less productive in their day jobs. So the jobs they were getting paid to do, they were getting paid more, but they were actually being less productive in those jobs.
Why is that? Why were employers allowing this to happen? Or how were they being able to get ahead through having a strong personal network? So when you have a lot of strong relationships, and a personal network, doors are open for you, people put you forward for opportunities, you find out about opportunities before they’re public knowledge. People refer you, recommend you, because they know you, they like you, and they trust you, and they’ll put you forward for exciting new projects, and get the chance for different progression that you wouldn’t have, were it not be for the fact that you’ve got these relationships. All these general referrals either you give referrals to others, or others to you, allows you to move forward in your career quicker, it allows all these doors to be opened, and it’s internal networking that has that real impact. So when you’re working for large organisations, whether it’s in or outside of academia, beyond academia, having relationships within the organisation in which you are working can really impact how you progress within that organisation. It’s a massive asset. These are valuable skills that you have that employers value to the extent where they were actually paying staff more to be less productive, because having the ability to build, and maintain, and nurture effective relationship, is a massively valued skill. So if you can start practicing, and being able to do that, that’s something that can really set you apart, and allow you to really progress in your career a lot faster, and more effectively.
[END OF TRANSCRIPT]
Hello everyone. I’m Eamon Dubaissi, a Research Staff Developer with Prosper. Many people have fears of speaking to others, and it can be helpful to look more closely at these fears to see if you can address any of them. In this video, we will be looking at fears that you may have of speaking to fellow professionals, both within and beyond academia, and in different scenarios or environments. As you watch the video, think about any fears that may resonate with you and ways in which you might challenge yourself to try new approaches. We will look at some of the common situations where people have barriers, many of which are psychological, when they are talking with other professionals. We will look in more detail at what some of these fears are. Finally, we will provide some tips on how you could begin to overcome them. Fears of speaking with others can arise in many different situations, such as one-to-one conversations; networking events such as conferences; meetings, formal, informal, in person and online, and of course, informational interviews to understand more about careers. In these situations, there could be different scenarios. You could be speaking to someone more senior to you, you could be speaking with someone with different expertise to you, or you could be speaking up in a more public setting with many people, which comes with different pressures. You could have difficulty with all of these or a combination. Some may be more difficult for you than others. This is your chance to reflect on which situations you struggle with the most. Even if this is not a problem for you, perhaps you could use some of the tips to improve your practice. In many cases, the fears associated with the situations and scenarios have a common origin. It sometimes helps to name those fears so you can home in on what you might do to address them. Here are some of the most common fears. In any situation where you are speaking, being questioned, or putting an idea across, you may have a fear of looking foolish, embarrassing yourself, or being humiliated. You may feel like this even if it has never happened to you before. Many of the other fears come from this inside fear in that you may embarrass yourself. Impostor syndrome is not so much a fear as a feeling, but it can prevent you from participating or pursuing something. You might say to yourself, ‘I’ll be found out if I put myself in certain situations,’ ‘People will realise that I don’t actually know what I’m doing.’ This is a common feeling and we touch upon it in greater detail elsewhere on the portal, so please check out those resources if it applies to you. An inferiority complex, again, not a fear, but persistent thoughts, can also inhibit you. It’s similar to impostor syndrome but it’s not necessarily that you feel that you are no good, or that you don’t know what you’re doing, but that you feel that other people are more accomplished, capable or worthy than you. This can have certain benefits if it motivates you to compete or drives you on to improve. This may have been important in our ancestral environment when survival was everything. However, when an inferiority complex goes too far and becomes all-consuming, getting stuck with those thoughts and feelings, it can diminish your confidence, leading you to withdraw socially and prevent you from engaging with others. Perhaps the fear of being judged or criticised can stop you from sharing your views or engaging in certain situations. The very nature of academic discourse can be highly critical, for example receiving reviewers’ comments for your grants and publications or having to defend yourself and your work at conferences, interviews or even in your local environment. This may have an impact on your actions. You might have a fear of making a bad impression. You may feel that the stakes are too high for you to fully contribute or be yourself in certain situations. Another fear is of consequences. In certain situations, there may be a power imbalance, so you are afraid to give your views, if you think they might not be well received or could have an impact on you later down the line. Other worries and fears might include the fears around the very act of speaking, do we actually have anything to say or ideas to contribute? Are you worried that you might stumble over words or be unable to find the right words in the right moment? Perhaps you’re not speaking in your native language and it’s more difficult to get over your point of view or create the right impression. This might stop you from contributing. Maybe you fear the unknown, or it might be an unfamiliar environment, or you have a fear of failure, for example, when you are speaking in public. On the other side, you might have a fear of success, for example, you might be thinking, ‘What if this meeting leads to a new opportunity that I’m not ready for, or distracts me from what I’m currently doing?’ There are a lot of fears and worries, but remember that most people have these and you can work on overcoming them. We’ll now discuss some general ideas for addressing these fears. A lot of what this comes down to is developing your self-confidence. Now, I don’t want to trivialise this and make out like it’s a simple fix. Developing your confidence takes time and can be a slow process. When you feel confident in yourself, you will naturally approach situations in a different frame of mind, more positive and less anxious. Look back at times when you felt more confident and contrast that to times when you have been low on confidence. Perhaps the same or very similar situation looks very different. Even if you don’t feel so confident, you still need to remember your self-worth. You have achieved things. You have something to offer, or you wouldn’t be where you are. Approaching a conversation or engagement with a mindset that you can add value to others with what you know can help you to contribute. You might help others solve their problems or spark new ideas by speaking up. If it works for you, you could practise positive affirmations. Say to yourself, ‘I’ve got this,’ or ‘I’m a great communicator,’ or, ‘I have a lot to contribute.’ Also, try reframing negative self-talk, for example thoughts about embarrassing yourself. Try altering this talk to people are, on the whole, not malicious. They want to help, and even if you do stumble over words or appear shy, they will overlook this or not even notice. They may even have some of the same feelings to yourself. Try to humanise your interactions in any conversations you have. Whoever they are, they are just humans too. Prepare and practise. Whether you’re going into a meeting where you know everyone or an unfamiliar situation with new people or organisations, you can prepare. For example, ask yourself, what is the meeting about? Who are the people that are attending? Do you know anything about the organisation? This helps you to feel more confident and might be a source of inspiration for questions and comments. Related to this, depending on the situation, you could practise the first line of what you would say or maybe even an elevator pitch if you want to get over who you are and what you do succinctly. Surround yourself with people who are positive and supportive. If you can, try to avoid those that are hypercritical, at least until your confidence improves. Understand and raise awareness of both your strengths and your weaknesses, but focus more on your strengths, and keep reminding yourself of what you are good at. If you are more introverted as a person, embrace it. It doesn’t mean you have anything less to offer than your more extroverted colleagues. Introverts are often very curious, really listen to what is being said and prepare well. People respond better when it is clear that they are being listened to or when they are asked thought-provoking questions. Consider your body language. It’s not always just about what you say, it’s how you actively listen with an open body language, smiling, nodding. These all create a good impression. Conversely, be aware of crossing your arms, tapping your feet, and your eye contact that’s either too much or too little. Some tips to get heard with your voice, tone and language include replacing ‘mm’ with short filler words and phrases like now, you see, however. You can use silences as a means to lean into any points that you make, and it also gives you time to take a breath. Tell a story with your words. We have more on storytelling techniques elsewhere in the portal, so take a look. Understanding and adapting your own mindset is key. With a growth mindset, you are aiming for progress rather than perfection. You can improve how you engage with others over time. Meanwhile, by embracing an entrepreneurial mindset, you might challenge yourself to take some sensible risks during situations where you’re engaging with others. Both of these mindsets are expanded on elsewhere in the portal. When you are in conversations, deliberately look out for common ground, something you share or have a mutual interest in. This immediately builds rapport and helps the conversation to flow. If you’re prepared, you may even know something about them or their organisation that you can bring up. Exercise self-compassion. If you’re nervous, recognise it, but don’t be hard on yourself. Treat yourself as you would a friend, and remember that everyone brings something unique and different to the table, including you. So now, we’ll look at the three different scenarios that you could encounter during any conversation or meeting, formal or informal. We’ll start with speaking to those that are of different expertise, skillsets or specialisms to yourself. In research, this could be a one-to-one conversation or meeting with a collaborator, or an interdisciplinary meeting. You may feel apprehensive or intimidated, because they know more about a particular subject matter than yourself. Another time that you may feel this is when you’re making career decisions and you want to reach out to others for help, for example, when arranging informational interviews. By definition, you want to gain some information from them, perhaps about an area that you know very little about. This may make you feel a bit inadequate or uncomfortable. You may have some of those fears of looking foolish or being judged, or not knowing how to converse using the right language. In terms of tips for speaking with professionals that have different expertise to your own, remember the key word is different. It’s not that you don’t have any expertise. Aim to present yourself as a fellow professional. You also have value. You may not know about the specifics of the area under discussion, but you do know a lot. It can help you if you prepare a powerful introduction. Remember the importance of an opening line and perhaps an elevator pitch that is short and concise. If dealing with someone you don’t know, remember that first impressions are important. So be friendly, smile, use an energising tone of voice. If you’re nervous, try to turn these feelings into excitement, they are similar feelings, so they can see that you’re keen to talk to them. Share why you called the meeting and why particularly them. It’s a chance for you to show that you know who they are and what they do. You could end the interaction with an action point, the next steps to keep momentum. In other situations like meetings where you’re not very knowledgeable about the subject area, you can still contribute. You can support others when they make their points, nodding, reiterating the point, or that you agree. Showing active listening and asking questions can keep you involved and show that you’re interested. It also boosts your confidence. Also, if you are prepared enough to ask a few questions, this will help psychologically, enabling you to build rapport and relationships with others. In all of these situations where you feel like you are less knowledgeable than another person, or people, you are speaking to, keep in mind that you can also add value to them. Maybe not at that exact point in time, maybe sometime in the future. Perhaps you can resolve to help someone else using your own knowledge and expertise. Hierarchy and seniority can be a barrier to engagement during conversations and more generally. As well as the fears of looking foolish and being judged, you may feel inferior. You may have worries over consequences of speaking up, or perhaps you are concerned about being disciplined or told off. Perhaps you have a fear of confrontation. When dealing with professionals in more senior positions, you can suffer with what is called authority anxiety, specifically around your one-to-one interactions with those in positions of authority. If you want to address these issues, it might help for you to reflect on why you feel like this in the first place. Some factors may be external, for example, how you have seen a colleague being treated by the individual that you have difficulty speaking with, or perhaps rumours that they can be difficult. Other factors may be internal. They may be deep-rooted from your childhood in terms of respect for hierarchy, or a particular situation you found yourself in when you were young. It can help to simply know where these things to come from to then try to disassociate from the reality of the current situation. Using positive affirmations, repeating them, and being consistent, can help you change your association with authority figures. Even visualising yourself speaking to them and what you would say can help. Again, humanise them. Focus on the person, not the power. More often than not, they, too, have a boss, and are more concerned about them than any small mistake you might make. It may help to have a plan when you’re going into a conversation. Lead with your headline. Share your thought process, and ask for their advice. This can change the dynamic of the conversation. Be aware of your body language and try to avoid being defensive. If this is a particular concern for you, then practise. Find a leader that you know a little, you admire and respect, and ask them for a meeting. They’ll probably be flattered. You also have the opportunity to think about how you can add value to them. Keep firmly in your mind that people in senior positions, like your manager, want things to run smoothly. By asking questions and speaking up, they can see that you share that view. The final scenario is speaking up in a public setting. So we’re not talking about presenting or giving a talk, as this is a different type of interaction. Prosper has resources on presentational skills elsewhere on the portal, so check those out if you would like to improve in that area. Here, we’re talking about situations in meetings of several or more people, where you might be invited to speak up, ask questions or contribute in some way. You might know the feeling where you have a question or comment in your mind but you feel nervous to share it. So what could be some of the reasons why you feel this way? What are the root fears? Like for the other scenarios, the fear of looking foolish may be a large contributor to you holding back from expressing your views. Saying to yourself things like, ‘This question is really stupid, I’m going to embarrass myself in front of everyone,’ this feeling could be heightened further in a situation with several people in the room rather than a one-to-one conversation. Another one might be self-preservation. You might feel that the risks of saying something wrong or out of turn, even by mistake, could be very personal and immediate, whereas the broader benefits to others or the organisation of speaking up is less clear. On balance, you might not see it as a risk worth taking. There may also be a culture of myths about the work environment. You may think, ‘Keep your head down, I don’t want to be a target,’ or, ‘This happened to so-and-so when they spoke out.’ Perhaps you don’t see people at your seniority level contributing, so you feel like you shouldn’t either. There may be lots of assumptions being made, for example, that your boss would not like it if you said something or it might cause issues for somebody else, or create extra work for yourself. There are lots of benefits to speaking up at work. It helps to build relationships with co-workers that are mutually beneficial. It gives topics for further discussion and debate. It shows you care about the topic, the person and the outcome. Also, do consider the context you are speaking up in and the audience you are speaking with. Weigh up the pros and cons. Ask yourself if it is helpful for people to hear from you at that particular time. The fear of speaking up in a meeting, for example, can be completely paralysing. When you want to say something, you rehearse it in your mind, but when you overthink it and don’t ask your question or make your comment, afterwards, you might be frustrated with yourself, making things worse in terms of your self-confidence. Many high achievers in academia are also highly sensitive to criticism. This can cause them to stay silent, even when they are an asset to teams and workforces, because they tend to think very thoroughly about ideas and solutions to problems. So let’s have a look at some tips for how you could approach these public meeting scenarios in a different way. Like with the previous scenario, taking the time to reflect on why you fear these situations can help. Identifying areas of concern or ideas you have before the meeting and think about ways you could share it. If the pros outweigh the cons, then it’s probably worth sharing. Bring notes into the meeting with you, or write notes during the meeting if that’s helpful. If you can, choose a format that is most comfortable for you to share your views. Why not ease yourself into the meeting? It might help arriving early and speaking to one or two co-workers to help you feel more comfortable. When you’re ready, make a commitment to yourself to say something when the opportunity arises, as early as possible in the meeting. If you don’t, anxiety can build up and put you off from doing it at all. It can help to surround yourself with supportive colleagues. Remember, if you’re nervous before making a contribution, it might be because it’s something really important that could make the difference to someone else. Don’t focus on the number of contributions you make, focus on asking thought-provoking questions. You can follow up with ideas after the session, too. It shows you are listening and that you care. When you first start contributing, it doesn’t need to be a lengthy input. Say something short and concise, just to help you feel comfortable in taking part. Perhaps take on some tasks for the next meeting so you are being active rather than passive, and over time, this will help to reduce any fears or anxieties you have about these engagements. Aim to shift your mindset. For example, if you’re telling yourself, ‘My idea is incomplete, so I’ll keep it to myself,’ change it to, ‘It could be the inspiration that someone else needs, so I should share it.’ To summarise what we’ve touched upon in the video, if you find certain situations when you’re speaking with other professionals difficult, take time out to really think about why that is. What are your worries or fears? It is often the same root fears that underpin many of these situations. However, addressing these fears is not simple. It requires deliberate practice. Consider setting yourself some goals around some of the situations and scenarios that are a particular challenge for yourself. Perhaps use some of the tips provided to frame these goals. The content in this video relates to many other Prosper resources. This includes those on building self-confidence and overcoming self-sabotage, as well as improving your communication skills. Other resources on switching your mindset from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset and developing an entrepreneurial mindset may also be useful in this context, so please check them out. I hope you’ve found the content in this video useful and you can take some of the tips forward with you. Thanks for watching.
[END OF TRANSCRIPT]
Hello, my name is Jeni Smith, I’m a networking strategist and during this session we’re going to look at network diversity, and this is something I’m really passionate about and can be hugely impactful.
So I’m going to start by telling you a tale, a little story of a man named Galileo, and Galileo was many a things to many a people. He was a scientist, he was a philosopher, he was an astronomer, and one of the things that Galileo discovered was that the moon has mountains. So until Galileo came along, we all thought that the moon was a perfectly round sphere floating in the sky and he came along, looked through his telescope and said, ‘No, no, my friends, the moon has mountains and craters,’ and everyone was shocked. Ah, but he was right, he was, the moon does, in fact, have mountains and craters. How was Galileo able to tell this? Did he have access to any fancy new technology, any fancy telescopes that the other astronomers didn’t have access to? No, he did not. Did he have access to any additional information? So did he know some stuff that the other astronomers didn’t know, that no-one else in the world knew about that meant that he was able to make this discovery? No, he did not.
Or was he a time traveller? Did Galileo come into the future, see that the moon has mountains and go back and tell everyone? No, he did not. Galileo was able to tell that the moon had mountains because he had diverse knowledge. It was his experience in geography that allowed him to recognise that what he was looking through, the exact same telescope as everyone else, he was looking at was the shadows cast by mountains and craters. So diverse knowledge is what allowed him to do this.
Scientists who have got hobbies outside their area of expertise, especially in performing arts, and things, are three times more likely to win a Nobel prize. So this diverse knowledge, having knowledge and experience in different areas can make you spark innovations and spark ideas that can be hugely impactful. The problem is, especially with networking, what happens is we tend to have here’s the people in academia, there’s the academics, there you are – lovely – asking questions, doing research, finding out, solving the world’s issues – amazing. Then over here we’ve got the people in technology, the techies making things work faster and making our lives easier – amazing.
Then over here we’ve got people outside of academia, we’ve got the businesspeople who are making the economy go round and buying things and selling things and creating new stuff and products and… Wonderful. The problem is that we all stay in our own lanes and when we do that, when we only talk to people that we know, that know what we know, we never learn anything new. I’m going to say that again for dramatic effect. When we only talk to people who know what we know, we never learn anything new. What we need to do is we need to start taking down these barriers and sharing this knowledge and information that we have with each other so we can learn from each other, so that the academics get to talk to the people outside of academic and people in tech talk to the charities and the charities talk to the academics and everyone shares this amazing knowledge and experience to spark these fabulous, wonderful new ideas.
Now, the reason that we tend to stay in our own lanes, there’s two reasons. Firstly, by default, academics go to academic conferences and meet other academics, people in tech go to techie events and meet other people in tech. So by default, we tend to network with people in our own sectors. We also find it easier to communicate with people who think the way that we do, that understand what our lives are like. It’s just easy; we built trust with people that we have things in common with. So it does take a little bit of a push to take that step out and start building these amazing diverse networks and start sharing all that knowledge and learning from others, as well, and that’s where amazing things happen.[END OF TRANSCRIPT]
Associated resources
These resources are linked to the respective related videos above but are provided here too.
Introduction to networking
- Networking confidence part 1
- Networking confidence part 2
- Networking trust
- Networking resources
- Introduction to networking resources grouped
Further networking resources
- Top tips for attending networking events
- Small talk resource
- Networking action list: Before
- Networking action list: After
- Networking action list: Ongoing
- Networking actions lists (grouped)
LinkedIn networking resources
Other resources you may wish to check out
Research Culture Uncovered podcast from University of Leeds;
An article from LinkedIn How do you network inclusively?
Mapping your warm network resource