It’s time to make the critical shift from leading the business by yourself to leading an organization of people. At P2Excellence, we help you navigate the uncharted territories of organizational growth with clarity and confidence.
The other day, my husband and I took a drive. I felt like my parents! They used to drag us into the car every Sunday to take a drive. If it was summer, we ended with ice cream. In the fall, we stopped and gathered leaves. On our recent drive, we did both. I realize now that Sunday drives were a way for my mom to get out of the house. And goodness knows, I needed to get out of the house. Even if, for safety’s sake, it was simply a car ride.
In this issue of Tuesdays, Anne Warren and I have focused on the importance of virtual networks. If you have subscribed to Tuesdays for a while, you know how critical I think good networking is. It’s how we get things done. It’s how we grow our own skill set and our own opportunities. That means we all have to be intentional about framing what we want from our network, and then building our network, using our network, giving back to our network, and sustaining our network. And, of course, deciding what needs to change in our network. Tools abound. LinkedIn is critical. But LinkedIn, especially today, is a tool but only one tool.
Frankly, being forced to be virtual provides a good time to clean up our network and repurpose our reasons for having a professional network. This issue on virtual networking is the first of a 3-part series. Our last article will be a list of FAQs, best practices and recommendations. I’d love to collaborate with you on building a list that will be helpful to others. Email me at nvepraskas@p2excellence.com to share your ideas or ask questions.
This week I am personally committed to deciding the purpose – the WHY – of my professional network. Later I will focus on how to improve and leverage my commitment to connections. But this week, I am tapping into Simon Sinek’s work on Find Your Why and focusing his brilliance specifically on my networking. It will require a little work to define the “What I do” to network and “How I do it,” but mostly I want to get clear on “Why I do it.” I suspect I will learn that my “WHY” has changed in this season. I challenge you to do the same.
And Please Remember…
Take a few minutes today to lengthen your body, realign, and breathe. COVID is exhausting. Remembering to breathe brings energy and calmness. It reignites purpose. So here are two suggestions.
A Chin Tuck realigns our head and counters all those hours starring at a phone or computer screen. Sit or stand upright. Legs uncrossed, feet grounded. Look ahead and tuck your chin. Feel your head pull back . Now tuck tighter and feel as though you were trying to have your head touch a wall. Hold for a count of 5. And do this 5 times.
And then once you have relaxed, stretch tall and take a deep breath into your stomach and then into your chest. Hold for 5 and then repeat for 5 breaths. Your body will lead you. Let it. You matter to me and I know that self-care is an important part of caring for others. The world needs you.
