Benefits of Networking

Today my topic is focusing on what the benefits of networking are. Several years ago I joined Linked In and connected with different individuals of whom I either knew of prior to the creation of this account and connect to those of whom I met along the way. Now I understand that people may only want to connect with people that they already know which is fine, however, that may not be enough to just connect to these people. I believe that the entire idea was to follow up with these individuals that you connect to since that is what the whole purpose of this social media business is all about.


We all want to connect to people for various reasons whether it's to help grow our business or pursue job opportunities. I'm one of those individuals who went beyond my comfort zone to join this online social media and have attended multiple events not only just to connect with people, but to learn something new every day while getting out there. So far I've met many different people, some who are entrepreneurs, others who are in transition, etc.


Now I understand that some people are busy with keeping up with their businesses and then there are some who are trying to get out there. During these tough economic times, there were also times that I was feeling like nothing was happening. In order for me to get through these winds of change, I would often turn to other people along the way in order to get through this and then I would give my time to the community to keep me going and focus on other people's needs for awhile. We can only do so much about what is going on right now in the world and can only hope that the leaders of this country are making their best efforts to help bring this country back on it's feet. What we can do however, is try helping each other out in the best way we know how. I've discovered this through introducing people to each other and volunteering my time within the community. Sure there were some things that I've never experienced before, however, if you know me well enough, that's never stopped me from accepting new challenges and it feels great each time I've allowed myself to step outside my comfort zone.


For example, I've been in the Information Technology field for approximately 10 years now and decided that there were some things that I could volunteer for out in the community to stay busy and to make me feel good about the things that I was working on. Along the way, I've met many different people that I've probably would not have had the chance to meet had I stayed within my comfort zone all of that entire time.


The one thing that comes to mind was a PC Refurbishing non profit organization that I signed up for within the Cuyahoga County Board of Developmental Disabilities. What this program is based upon is local businesses within the area donating their pc equipment to this program. Volunteer PC technicians would assess the hardware parts as they come in from different organizations. They pull out the hard drives and wipe them with the Department of Defense wiping tool and replace any parts on the CPU that are not functioning. Occasionally, we receive laptop donations, however, sometimes the most challenging thing we face is not having enough hardware parts on the laptops themselves to put together a decent running laptop. We make the best of the situation.


Over the past year, I've spent countless hours giving my time to this group and have met many different technicians with remarkable skill sets. As a team, we have managed to combine our expertise and work together to come up with some fantastic results. These machines are then donated to people with disabilities. One of our technicians donates his time teaching a class on pc usage to these people and everyone enjoys his enthusiasm, kindness, and patience towards everyone. Henry managed to get acknowledged for all of his time and hard work that he puts into his role. This place can bring such an amazing transformation to each person who has the chance to volunteer something to the community. This happens to be better than dwelling on how that one past company let you go after so many years of loyalty that you had given to them. Believe me, I've spent a great deal of time listening attentively to these individuals and I understand what you have been going through.

Now is your chance to get out there and believe me when I say that you will get more out of everything when you give. This does not have to be anything extravagant, simply just introducing two people that might benefit from each other. One man had mentioned in a conversation that he felt that people around him didn't trust him enough to do his job. My question for him is what does he do to earn the trust of others? Volunteering is one of the many ways that you can do this if you are job seeking or for those that just started working somewhere, start proving to your employers what you can do for them and start earning their trust by being honest and true to yourself. After all, we need to start thinking, what can I bring to the table for these people?


We also have a mentor who starts out the new technicians with the guidelines for building machines, handling pickups of donated systems, and distributing them to the consumers when they come in with requests. His background is in eletrical engineering and he has truly demonstrated his compassion for helping other people and knows how to bring out the strengths in everyone that he teaches.


Also, I had mentioned Cleveland GiveCamp in my last blog and there is one additional recurring one that comes around every year. The American Diabetes Association fund raising event with Patti Clair. For anyone who is interested in volunteering, that event is very exciting to volunteer for in that it brings different healthcare organizations together for a good cause. Cleveland Clinic is a bronze sponsor of this event.


Committee members come up with very creative ideas for raising funds for this event. One example that stands out in my mind is with Stephanie Steirn's Fencing event that takes place exactly one weekend prior to the Step Out Walk that will be taking place this year on October 2nd. She has come up with many other creative ideas in both the past and the present.


Like Pat Lyden from the Suicide Prevention Education Alliance for Teens once said, "You Get What You Give". I believe I've also heard something similar along those lines from a movie titled, "Pay It Forward".


I hope to see that there will be more indivuduals taking the time to follow up with one another. Please take the time to reach out and go beyond just making contact connections on Linked IN. For when you start reaching out to others is when you will start seeing results. This doesn't happen overnight, it takes time.


One comment that I received when someone was trying to introduce themselves to a few people on here was, they don't know that particular individual. Well here is my take on this as well. I agree that people should introduce themselves properly first before trying to add another person on Linked IN. On the other end of the spectrum, if a person appears to be reaching out to connect and they are doing it appropriately, it may be a better idea to get yourself introduced by a mutual contact that you both know or taking the time to attend these networking events first and introduce yourself there. Now if you want to expand your network, then it might be a good idea to take the time to meet new people instead of just making assumptions about a person. That's part of the purpose of networking. Yes it's about who you know, however, it's also about getting to know those individuals that you might not know as well in order to find out who they are because that might be the person that gets you to a great lead. If you really think about it, when going to work for a company, it's imperative to get to know your team.





Until next blog.....