Personal Contacts: The Key to Successful NetworkingWritten by Virginia Bola, PsyD
When word "networking" is used, we tend to think of upwardly mobile college graduates with a bursting day timer in hand chatting up competition at business meetings, conventions, or workshops. The average blue/pink/white collar worker disconnects, feeling that they could never be that pushy, don't know enough people to even start attempt, and that method only works in competitive business environments.Wrong! While networking can, and often does, follow such a scenario, concept is much broader than that. The premise is that most people find a job through someone they know. It may be a direct referral or, more likely, indirectly hearing about an opening that seems suitable. Procedurally, networking could not be simpler: contact everyone you know to see if they have any firsthand knowledge about job opportunities. Then contact all people they know. Obtain referrals to other people from everyone you contact and in a short period of time, you will have a veritable army of people working with you to find right position. An organized approach to this time-demanding but highly effective technique is discussed in depth in my workbook "The Wolf at Door: An Unemployment Survival Manual" (Authorhouse, 2003). Contact lists in various categories are provided as well as schedules for follow up and strategies for maintaining strength and commitment of your lists. For now, let's look at different levels of networks you can develop. 1. Sizzling Contacts. These are people you know personally. They include your family, friends, former coworkers, and acquaintances: your barber, your mailman, your doctor, your real estate agent, guys you see at golf course, women at your club, your children's teachers, other PTA parents - anyone with whom you have regular contact. Often, you need go no further. How many of us obtained our first job through our family or their friends? It is a common occurrence. Look for a moment at ethnic groups and how they operate. Most new immigrants find a position through personal contacts. Hispanics are famous for bringing in their brothers, cousins, and nephews when there is an opening. Most companies who hire mainly Spanish-speaking labor never advertise. All they have to do is tell their employees that they need more workers and next day dozens of assorted relatives show up and they can make their selection. There are large ethnic communities in different parts of country: Vietnamese, Armenian, Indian, Korean, Chinese, Irish, Portuguese, Samoan, and Filipino. In almost every group, initial job search is strictly word-of-mouth. Later, as individuals, many workers become culturally assimilated and move into more mainstream jobs but core of group, especially those with poor English skills, tend to remain within their original subculture. There are, for example, airlines whose entire ramp staff at some airports are Pacific Islanders, manufacturing companies where usual language on production floor is Portuguese, and supermarkets where workers (and customers) are overwhelmingly Korean. Contrast successful employment rate of these groups with, for example, African-Americans who are very loosely tied to their communities. Until recent attempts by Church and civic organizations, networking was almost non-existent in African-American culture and a consistently double-digit unemployment rate directly reflected that lack of connectivity.
| | The most under rated method to achieve success!Written by graham and julie
The most under rated method to achieve success is: The power of Visualisation. The best kept secret of success on sports field and in athletics is: The power of Visualisation. The situation where mind is in charge of body. Athletes and other sportspersons constantly use power of thought to change their lives. To bring them success. When all else is equal master card is: power of your mind. Your mind is most under rated method to achieve success. It’s a known fact that we subconsciously work towards that which we can visualise. The secret is; to ensure that visualisation is good for you. What you visualise is what you want to achieve. As long as you hold a picture, a visualisation, in your mind you are naturally drawn towards it. Sports people are proving time and time again that power of thought, power of visualisation, can run your life. A fact that is dismissed by most of us on planet. We are too busy doing. Too busy making next buck rather than stopping and seeing if there is another method that can make life easier.In other words, how you can change your behaviour from one that is always doing. Always searching for success. To one that by following a few simple rules can have success in palm of your hand. To be successful you have to change place from where you start.. As Dr. Wayne Dyer writes "all of our behaviour results from thoughts that preceded it...so thing to work on is not your behaviour but thing that caused your behaviour, your thoughts” It’s all about mind over matter. There is no doubt that thoughts are a non physical powerful energy that can influence other people and things. To get most out of life you must give to yourself. If you are putting 90% of your attention and effort into other people and work and 10% into yourself. You are on wrong track. You are going in wrong direction. You need to concentrate more on self. We know, you were brought up being told that that is selfish. You have to think of others. Put others first. But that just puts you back in trap. You have to focus on yourself. Understand who you are and what your deep seated passion is. Understand why you are on this planet. What your core skills are. Then when you focus on yourself and your skills you achieve success, gain happiness and peace and become a much better person to live with. If your thoughts are not right then nothing will work. If you cannot visualise where you want to be then you have little chance of getting there. Remember your thoughts are powerful. The most powerful instrument that you posses is power of your thoughts. Thoughts are responsible for world you live in. They mould and shape your attitudes. They are creative force in your life. Every thing you do is preceded by a thought. The quality of your thoughts determine quality of your life. Do you want to know how important your thoughts are? Arthur Preston Smith asserts in his PhD Dissertation ,submitted in 1998, that The power of thought can also assist in healing of serious illnesses. He states in conclusion of his dissertation that: ‘this evidence strongly supports proposition that thoughts, attitudes and beliefs can significantly affect health’. Thoughts can and do affect way you live. Thoughts can and do affect your health. Thoughts can and do affect your life style. Thoughts can and do affect your success rate. Thoughts can and do affect your level of happiness. Dr. Ernest Holmes, founder of Science of Mind also stated that: ‘Hence, drugs and surgery can buy time for patient to correct his thinking, even if they cannot cure or prevent disease in end. The disease will likely recur in some form if thinking does not change’ (our emphasis) Not only do your thoughts affect your health, research is saying that visualisation can actually improve your health. What more evidence do you need to accept that your thoughts are powerful. Your thoughts run your life. Sportspeople and academic researchers are proving that your thoughts are key to a successful, healthy life.
|
