10X2=Promoted! Other Tips for Connecting with 10 People

This continues our series outlining how the 10X2 philosophy helps you get better assignments

Enoch connected with people in a variety of ways. His expertise with gadgets enhanced his reputation as the “gadget guy.” He consulted with companies to program their web sites and design their computer systems. He also served on the downtown alliance council to improve businesses. He even volunteered for a community jobs program. He also joined a marketing group to help companies market more effectively. He even authored a book on finding a job. Enoch’s reputation for varied expertise connected him to hundreds of people and businesses who frequently said “Get Enoch!”

Connect Through Community Organizations

Community organizations and service clubs provide extraordinary opportunities to connect with 10 people a month. Many younger professionals resist joining because of the weekly commitment, reputation for older memberships, and social media as the preferred way of connecting. Nevertheless, traditional service clubs still offer excellent connections to influential people. Most also focus on a charitable endeavor allowing members to contribute to society.

Service organizations include:

• Rotary
• Women in Business
• Kiwanis
• International Women’s Club
• Lions
• Junior League
• Eagles
• Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE)
• Freemasons

Community organizations mostly include nonprofit, charitable organizations. You may volunteer to serve in the organization or on the board. Once again, they offer excellent opportunities to connect with other service-minded people. They also offer the sense of returning something to the community and altruism.

Typical organizations found in most communities include:

• American Red Cross
• Community Action Services
• United Way
• Community Food Bank
• Women’s and homeless shelters
• Fountain House (self-help programs)
• Circles Initiatives
• Boys & Girls Clubs
• American lung, diabetes, breast cancer, and other organizations focused on specific ailments

You may contact your local United Way to discover the breadth of nonprofit organizations in your community.

Other Methods of Connecting

We conclude this section focusing on connecting with 10 people a month with a reminder about:

Professional or trade associations

User Groups

LinkedIn, Facebook, and other social media groups

Country clubs or recreation centers

Monday we begin discussing how to communicate your 10 value statements to management

10X2=Promoted! Connect Professionally & Personally

This continues our series outlining how the 10X2 philosophy helps you get better assignments

Sam understood the ability to connect to people professionally as well as personally. He served as committee chairs for the local Chamber of Commerce. He hosted the ribbon cuttings for new businesses, but kept in touch with the owners afterward. He ate at the restaurants and shopped at the stores. He also went out to dinner with people, visited their homes, and got to know their children. He understood the value of true friendship both personally and professionally.

Connect Professionally

You probably understand about connecting professionally. Regular professional connections provide opportunities to:

• Improve your skills by learning alternative methods, tips, shortcuts, and other techniques
• Learn written and unwritten rules, plus insights into the culture, of the company
• Remain informed of policies, directions, projects, goals, and challenges in the company
• Share ideas, suggestions, and proposals for moving the company forward toward its goals or by removing the company’s challenges
• Discuss their career aspirations, goals, frustrations, and challenges
• Identify other people, programs, or organizations that can help you enhance your productivity, efficiency, effectiveness, and quality of your work
• Review trends in the industry, new software releases, best practices, and other helps

Connect Personally

Connecting personally requires more tact and nuance. We will begin with the cautions

• Some people may perceive personal connections as a breach of etiquette.
• Getting too close personally can create a perceived hostile workplace.
• Take care not to enquire about, or share, too many personal issues about family, significant others
• Avoid interoffice romances or entanglements as they tend to create problems

With those precautions, you may connect on a personal level as well as a professional on the following topics. You may both discuss theirs and share yours:

• Trips, vacations, cruises, and other outings
• Birthdays, anniversaries, and other special days
• Hobbies, sporting ventures, and extracurricular activities
• Personal achievements, goals, and aspirations
• Personal challenges, problems, and frustrations
• What you can do to serve one another so that you can grow your careers together

Friday we share additional ideas for connecting with 10 people a month

10X2=Promoted! How to Connect with 10 People

This continues our series outlining how the 10X2 philosophy helps you get better assignments

Bruce, the CEO of a very successful web development firm, understands the power of connecting with at least 10 people a month. In fact, he connects with twice that many as part of promoting his business. He also encouraged his staff to connect with 10 people a month. He registered his entire staff with a business association and provided time to attend. He found they performed better because of these associations.

Traditional Methods for Connecting

Previously, we discussed people with whom you may connect. This post we will highlight how you may connect. You will recognize some methods for connecting. Other methods may seem more unusual.

The least effective and the least personal include

• Send an email or text
• Make a phone call
• Nudge, poke, or connect on Facebook, LinkedIn, or other social media
• Follow, forward, or share their Twitter feeds

More effective and personal involve:

• Phoning or Skyping to keep in touch, talk shop, discover how you can help
• Meeting to share breakfast, lunch, or drinks
• Go to a movie, concert, play, or other entertainment
• Playing a round of golf, racquetball, tennis, bowling, or sailing
• Attending conferences, workshops, and seminars together
• Traveling or other informal settings

The Power of Pools

Sarah and Jared Stewart, authors of  City of Influence, encourage you to swim in pools (follow the links to view video clips). They rent entire theaters and invite their friends to attend major motion picture openings.

They share “Fish have to go out into the current to gather nourishment, but when they are finished they escape into a pool. People tend to spend the majority of their time in a fast-paced current doing the 'tasks' of their business. The problem with spending most of your time in the current is that most relationships are built in pools. It's only in pools that you slow down long enough to see people as people, and begin to connect with who they really are.”

Wednesday we highlight how to connect with and mix professional and personal conversations

10X2=Promoted! 10 People With Whom You May Connect

This continues our series outlining how the 10X2 philosophy helps you get better assignments

Patrick enjoyed getting to know people. He liked discovering what they did within the organization in which they worked. While fairly opinionated, his outlook on life and naturally positive attitude endeared him to many colleagues and co-workers. He listened to people and learned from them. He found ways to help them do their jobs better, to serve them so their career grew. As a result, people looked out for Patrick. They found ways to help him and his career grew. He received several key appointments because people enjoyed working with him. He always made them look good too.

People Inside the Company

Our 10X2 philosophy encourages you to connect with 10 people a month to get the best assignments or promotions. Within the company you may connect with:

• Your mentor: a well-seasoned and respected member of the organization moving up towards better positions themselves
• Co-workers: both on your work team and on other work teams within the company
• Managers: of both yours and of other divisions or work teams
• Support staff: such as accounting, purchasing, fleet management, facilities, information technology, human resources, warehousing, shipping, or other people who support your current job or the one you want

People Outside the Company

You should also connect with people outside the company.  They provide you a perspective about your industry, your community, and your potential. You may consider connecting with the following people:

• Colleagues in your industry: people doing the same job as you do and people working in similar companies as yours
• Former Co-Workers: people from any past company who moved onto other jobs or stayed with a  company you left provide excellent opportunities to learn more
• Alumni: people who went to the same high school, college, university, apprenticeship, vocational training, seminars, or workshops
• Members of Trade or Professional Associations: do not limit your connections to just people who are not in the same trade or profession, reach out to other associations

Monday we highlight how to connect with 10 people a month to enhance promotions

10X2=Promoted! 2: Purposes of Connecting with 10 People

This continues our series outlining how the 10X2 philosophy will help you get promoted

Sharon worked on a temporary contract for a global nonprofit. The job appealed to her desire to improve society. She earnestly sought to learn from others within the organization. She found a good mentor who guided her growth in the company. She also developed a good network of friends. She ate lunch with several different people each week. She listened to them and learned what she could from them. Soon, her temporary contract became permanent. She received 4 promotions in 13 years. She now heads one of the most respected humanitarian organizations in the world.

First Purpose: Build Relationships

Developing friendly, professional relationships remains your primary reason for connecting with people. If not, you may become selfish and manipulative. Jared and Sarah Stewart, authors of City of Influence, encourage you to develop relationships Just Because.

We agree that relationship arrogance (link to this video) can destroy your City of Influence. Relationship arrogance occurs when you choose to develop relationships in order to get something our of it. You miss possible treasures of thought or personal enrichment when you build relationships based on your selfish motives.

Second Purpose: Learn to Serve More Effectively

The Stewarts also encourage you to learn, serve, to grow great relationships. They highlight it with a short video describing how this relationship key helped Ray Kroc become a billionaire.

When you ask questions and listen to others you can learn what:

• Goals they have that you might help them achieve
• Challenges or problems they experience
• Written and unwritten rules guide the corporate culture
• Resources exist within the company to help improve performance
• Trends, directions, and upcoming changes in the company
• Positions and opportunities that will open

Third Purpose: Demonstrate Your Value

Connecting with 10 people a month allows you to demonstrate your value to them based on what you learned. You may provide the skills or expertise they need to accomplish their goals or solve challenges preventing success.

Friday we describe which 10 people you may connect with each month to get promotions

10X2=Promoted! Applying the Formula to Get Promotions

This begins our series outlining how the 10X2 philosophy helps you get better assignments

Eric understood the need to reach out to co-workers in his department, colleagues in other departments and other companies. He read and practiced the concepts outline in the book Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi. In addition, he ensured that he met the company’s expectations of his work. He even exceeded their expectations.Most importantly, he communicated his return on investment to management. As a result, he received invitations to serve on the most prestigious projects and the best assignments. They promoted him 4 times in 12 years.

3 Keys to Getting the Biggest Raises and Best Promotions

You may feel that we’ve blogged on this topic before. We have. The concepts remain beneficial to people in any occupation. So, we will continue to explore and repeat the advice to help you increase your income, satisfaction, and rewards of your job.

Companies still reward employees who satisfy three concerns. They don’t reward them as well as in the past, but they still do. To get the biggest raises (if they give raises) and the best promotions of work assignments, you must:

• Meet their expectations—and more
• Fit into the team and organization
• Communicate your ROI (Return On Investment) to management

How 10X2=Promoted!

The 10X2 philosophy states that doing 2 activities 10 times in a certain amount of time guarantees success. We can apply the philosophy to getting raises or promotions in the following way:

• Connect with 10 people a month
• Communicate 10 value statements to management a year
• Communicate how you helped them achieve their goals or resolve their challenges

You must perform on the job. The 10 people you connect with each month provide excellent resources for discovering, exploring, and verifying what management expects of you. Other people can also help you perform the job more productively, efficiently and effectively.

Too many employees expect management to notice their good work. Today’s span of control issues and distant teams make that improbable in spite of technology.

Wednesday we highlight the purposes of connecting with 10 people a month

Some Practices in the Workplace Hurt People

Occasionally, we review how workplace attitudes, policies, and practices affect workers

I mentioned Gus in an earlier post. He and 8 other drivers left a grocery conglomerate because the company would not give them raises, but gave bonuses instead for 8 years. All nine of them got jobs with a long-distance trucking shipper. After 3 years, the company tripled how much each worker had to pay on healthcare premiums. In addition, the company is proposing a 15% cut in wages for all drivers. Management claims the need for lowering wages because of competition from cut-rate trucking companies. Profits to shareholders, however, increased by 17% in the last year.

Business Focus on Profits

B-School students learn that their role is to maximize profits for shareholders.  Some companies carry this advice to unhealthy or unlawful extremes: Enron, Arthur Andersen, Shearson-Lehman, and others come to mind. Trust in financial and other corporations plummeted since 2008.

Companies currently enjoy great corporate profits and executive rewards. Competition from cheaper labor markets, Asian production facilities, and other factors that create cheaper competition provide excuses for cutting overhead even more drastically. American workers have sacrificed a lot while shareholders profit:

• Loss of benefit defined pensions for contribution defined pensions
• Loss of healthcare, life insurance, and other benefits
• Lower salaries, bonuses, and other income
• Reduction in training, involvement in professional and trade associations
• Harsher and more restrictive employee practices
• More impersonal workplaces (some companies refuse to allow managers and supervisors call employees people, but insist they call them resources)
• One division of a major company stated that policy now dictated a standard 50-hour work week instead of 40-hours for all exempt employees
• Penurious wage increases for most of the workplace and huge increases for executives—even when their management loses money or closes the company

When Do We Find a Balance

If companies and management do not find a kinder, more just method of dealing with employees, then employees may find respite in collective bargaining (which legislatures are trying to eliminate).

Monday we begin a new series outlining how the 10X2 concepts will help you get hired faster