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"The Crossroads Nation" was the title of an Op Ed column by David Brooks that was in the November 9th issue of the New York Times. It is worth a read as a stand-alone piece if for no other reason than it can serve as a bit of an antidote to some of the poll numbers that speak to how disillusioned many of us are about the prospects for our country going forward.There were a couple of other points made in this piece that I kept going back to:
- "...creativity is not a solitary process. It happens within networks. It happens when talented people get together, when idea systems and mentalities merge."
- "Information networks need junction points. The nation that can make itself the crossroads to the world will have tremendous economic and political power."
I guess the reason that these thoughts struck me as they did was because while Mr. Brooks certainly expressed it far better than I could, the essence of what he was pointing out is very much akin to what we have tried to convey to our members over the years. In short, the care and feeding of your personal and professional network, while certainly not the only factor, is by far the most critical factor when it comes to managing one's career.
Unfortunately, I think that networking gets a bum rap much of the time because it tends to come up in the context of a job search which in the minds of many immediately puts it into an image of people contacting friends and business associates with a "hangdog" "hat in hand" "do you have a job for me" attitude. And, I have to say, that for those who enter a job transition and hunker down behind their PC in an effort to "protect" themselves from the foregoing scenario, it often feels exactly that way, and unless they do something about it, can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The good news is once we are able to get people to come out from behind their monitor wall and into a place where they can indeed unleash the creative power of talented peers and/or can give and receive relevant information both face to face and electronically, the fear of failure and embarrassment is replaced with positive steps forward and confidence in the future. That's when they start to realize that working, or not working, there is real "power" to be had. We tell them that, in our experience here at ExecuNet over the past 22+ years, 70 percent of the members we talk to tell us that the change they made was the result of networking, and I would add with no little pride, that their involvement with us was a key "junction point" for them.
It is a good feeling.
Dave Opton
Dave Opton founded ExecuNet in 1988 to provide a trusted environment where senior-level executives could build career opportunities by facilitating connections to other executives, experts and key market insights. Dave has drawn upon his 35 years of experience in human resources to develop and grow what has become the leading business and career membership network for executives and senior managers. A widely recognized executive career management expert, Dave is regularly quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Business Week, Fortune, Fast Company, and other leading business publications. Mr. Opton received his BA from Indiana University. Dave blogs at Six Figure Learnings
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