Networking when remote: 3 ideas for future leaders

🚨 Highlight of the week

Networking when remote: 3 ideas for future leaders

Not everyone is loving the idea of remote becoming the norm. A recent report from the National Society of High School Scholars (NSHSS) surveyed more than 11,000 high school and college-aged and found that only 23% say remote work is important to them. The reason? The fear of missing out on networking and career development opportunities.

But as Harvard Business Review (HBR) points out in one of their latest articles, networking is still here — it just looks different. And it brings new opportunities for the digital-native generation. Here are three ideas young employees can leverage to network and learn from senior leaders:

1. Help executives understand new technologies

From TikTok to VR or the Metaverse, Gen Zers have incredible knowledge of new trends and innovations. So when looking for opportunities to connect with senior leaders, don’t focus on what you can learn from them, but how you can help them achieve their goals. Understand how can new trends and technologies help advance the company goals and find opportunities to share your knowledge, from lunch and learn sessions, to securing a spot in the all-hands meeting, or as simply as creating a newsletter or a slack channel to share articles. As HBR points out, “you’ll quickly establish yourself as a forward-thinking, emerging leader. A win-win!”

2. Make it about them

We all love to talk about ourselves. And executives are no exception. So when asking someone 15-min of their time, make it all about them. Ask about specific milestones and challenges in their careers, just make sure to come prepared with thoughtful questions and listen carefully. This is one area remote work makes easier: saying yes to a 15-min virtual coffee as opposite to a 15-min real coffee in a coffee house.

3. Offer your services

Executives are busy people. So one of the best ways to get time with them is to take work out of their plate or help them be better or faster at it. For example, if social media is your super power, offer tips and frameworks so they can grow their audience and improve their results. Or if you’re a good designer, offer to create some visuals for their next presentation. Think about what you’re great at, what they care about (but lack expertise), and you’ll earn yourself face time and potentially mentorship.

💡 Async tip: If timezone or busy calendars make it hard to start building these connections, don’t give up. A idea is to do any of this on video: explaining a new technology, sharing ideas to improve engagement on social media or even asking a few questions. It’s as personal as you can be without being face-to-face, less intrusive than sending 3 follow-up emails, and you can add value right away.

🍿 Great discussions

• LinkedIn released their report of “41 Big Ideas that will change our world in 2023”. The top one? Hybrid work will be here to stay. Read more here.
• Jason Read, PhD sparks the discussion of collaboration overload in this LinkedIn post sharing one of the latest HBR articles.
• Matt Schnuck talks about The Remote Work Paradox and shares ideas to avoid burning out your team.

🤓 Cool findings

• Mobbin let’s you save hours of UI & UX research with a library of 100,000+ fully searchable mobile & web screenshots.
• Curations is a free open source project that enables designers and developers to elevate their work by providing the possible best resources.
• Canva is the latest app to integrate an AI-powered copywriting assistant in their latest product, Canva Docs.

💌 From the Community

• Canua, a personal finance assistant, launched this week on Product Hunt! Check it out and sign-up for free 🙂
• Uberall’s VP of Global Partnerships, Robert Bruil, gave a talk at #DIAMUC 2022 to teach how to show up in search and attract the right customers to your business if you are an #insuranceprovider.
• 360Learning launched a free networking community for learning and development professionals. Applications here.

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