I’m going to be honest, I used to hate the idea of networking and building relationships with senior leaders. I always thought of it as fake and not authentic.

In fact, I had a mentor tell me straight to my face that I wouldn’t get far in my career because of it.

And he was right.

I got passed over for two different promotions because I felt it was more important to speak my mind against senior leadership than it was to work collaboratively to solve problems.

I figured it out later, but I could have progressed in my career so much faster.

Networking and building your influence up, down, and across is one of the most important skills we need to develop if we’re looking to be more effective.

So this week, I wanted to share a few different resources for you so you can avoid my same mistakes.

Resource #1: Strategy Worksheet

I’ve created a fillable worksheet that will help you strategically identify which relationships you need to develop within your organization as well as specific tactics to build each relationships. Feel free to download it here and share with anyone else you feel would benefit from it.

Resource #2: Difficult Conversations Podcast

In case you didn’t know, I recently started a podcast with Lucie Tesarova around the art and science of difficult conversations. You can listen here or anywhere you typically get your podcasts. We also had a recent role play where we demonstrated the difficult of cross-departmental collaborations. You can hear that episode specifically here.

Resource 3: Upcoming webinar

Save the date! On March 7^th, we’re holding a live webinar on How to prepare confidently for difficult conversations. It’ll be a tight 30-minute session focused on giving you practical tools and strategies and resources. Learn more here

I hope these help in your journey,

ChrisPS – Is there any topic you’d love for me to cover in these weekly tips? Respond back and let me know!