Climbing the corporate ladder isn’t for everyone. There are expectations that that you will do more outside of normal work hours.
Attending conferences, dinners, happy hours, or attending meetings in other time zones are but a few examples. These are some of the sacrifices to your personal time that you may need to do. For example, when co-workers were in town, there would be dinners and happy hours that were planned that I would need to attend. These were considered good “face time” opportunities where you could connect with senior leaders and peers on a more social level to build stronger relationships.
Some people may have chosen to pop in for one drink or an appetizer and then head home. Others wouldn’t go at all due to other commitments that they had with their family. At the time it felt like a career limiting move if I didn’t attend. Looking back on it, I am not sure missing one happy hour would make or break my career, but that was the culture we worked in and I created a story that it was an expectation.
The thought of attending these events would create some anxiety for me before I arrived. My introvert story started playing loudly in my head and it told me that I wasn’t good at these networking things. I tried to calm the story down by making a plan. Who did I need to connect with while I was there? What did I need to make sure that I talked to them about? I always had such a great experience when I was there, but those moments before would stress me out.
Now I can see that I created all of those unhelpful expectations and stories in my head. When I coach people in these situations now, we talk about how they can show up as themselves. There is no need to be pressured to be like everyone else. All that they need to focus on is just being in the moment and enjoy hanging out with friends and co-workers. They can be authentic, curious and have great conversations. That is what helps them build the relationships that people remember so that they stand out from the crowd.
How are you doing at networking and creating visibility for yourself and/or your team? What actions could you take to increase it? If you want to set up some time to chat about your specific situation! Here is the link: Let’s Chat!