Norfolk Women Leaders Association Chapter Meeting: The Art of Networking

Okay, great. I went with a very minimalist PowerPoint because uh I am I'm good at words and terrible at pictures. So, um I I went with something very simple, but I've been asked to talk a little bit about the art of networking. Building meaningful professional relationships. And I'm not sure about the art aspect, and we'll talk about that a little bit. Um meaningful professional relationships is really what we're getting after. you know, we all have plenty of professional relationships or, you know, friends at work, but um but what's meaningful and then how can we uh how can we use that to to you know, further our careers or do the things that we think networking can do for us?
All righty. How do I forward my slide here? There we go. Okay. So, um just a quick agenda. We'll talk a little bit about what networking is from my perspective, whether it's an art or a science and what's networking got to do with it. Um, things that it can do, um, things that it can't do, and some strategies maybe that you might not have considered if you are wanting to to emphasize networking within your career.
So, what's networking? You know, is and is it a business or a personal strategy? And my answer is yes. And here's a definition from the market business news, you know, that talks about the process or action of communicating with others. Um, exchanging information. I love the end of this where it says they're forever trying to expand. Well, I guess if you're in the business world, you're constantly trying to expand your connections perhaps because what you do for a living is to try to make money. Um, in government, it's a little bit different. you know, the return on investment for the work you do in government and military is often hard to quantify, but um I do think that there are solid reasons for wanting to do networking.
And I think these are my view of why people actually do it. Well, for one, to get help. Um you know, no man's in an island. There's a lot of of information or strategies or knowledge that you can't have personally. So, you want to reach out if you're working on a project or or working in a new area uh to get help, a little help from your friends. Um to find jobs, that's a biggie. That has actually been the one of the most important reasons why I haveworked. Um because it has actually helped me further my career. Um I typically don't move jobs unless I'm pretty solid that I'm going to be able to do it.
Um, I've been fortunate to have gotten most of the jobs I've interviewed for. Um, but I really had to be sure that I was ready for that before I made the leap. Um, and I do think that, um, uh, a couple times I've been I've had encountered some very life-changing events, a couple that I mentioned earlier. And so, uh, finding new jobs or finding jobs and, uh, and maybe forming those jobs is something that's really important that I think networking can help with. And then finally, just engaging with like-minded people. I mean, I like people. I'm an extrovert. Um, I I was okay during the pandemic, but I maintained a lot of personal connections. I think like-minded people, um, it doesn't have to just be like-minded people from your business perspective.
It could be just people like you who don't accept no for an answer, who get tired of hearing we've always done it that way. Uh we want to do things differently. We want to we want to find people that we can engage with that are like us.
So is it an art or a science? Um these definitions come from Don Wagner. He's uh part of Sunwapa Solutions and he talks a little bit about you know whether it's art or science. Um some people are strongly in the camp of art and some people are strongly in the camp of science. I think that's really a personal thing. Um I think it's really a matter of your particular personality. Are you someone who's more emotional and and excited and interesting about creating new relationships and spending time with different people and and getting involved with other uh groups and organizations? Um, and just because you just like to to take it on a wing, you know, you might be at a conference or you might be working a new job and you find someone you really want to engage with and you want to tack their business card right to your screen because that's the person you want to lean into whenever you need something or when you just want to have a great conversation.
Uh other folks are more scientific in nature and they they might like create their LinkedIn profile to be specifically targeting certain organizations or find out that the person they just met is actually connected to 10 other people that they met. You know, it's kind of that seven degrees of Kevin Bacon. You know, if you run into someone and you've find out later that that person knows this person and that person used to work with this person. Um but they they have a little more of a um a specific approach in mind. Uh, I don't, but I think again that's highly personal.
So, with a little apology to Tina Turner, what's networking got to do with it? Um, and what I mean by it is is your job, your career, or maybe it's a good performance review or it's respect or it's being known. Do you want people to know you and and respect you and actually say great things about you? Um, that's that could be a reason to do to network. Um, but there's a lot of excuses, too, because as I said, I'm an extrovert, but a lot of people who aren't are kind of not that excited necessarily about spending a lot of time with other people. It just it drains them. Um, like we heard from uh Admiral Han about the fact that sometimes she just needs to get away from people and sit down and think and and you know, have a little separation.
Um, a lot of people just say, 'Well, I just don't have time for that. You know, I've got a job. I'm working here. I don't have much time or you know I'm doing fine. I don't really need to go to all those networking conferences and you know uh don't need to do speaking engagements or or connect with people. I I'm I'm doing just fine. Thank you very much. And I think a lot of people think that you know what what is the benefit really? Um and and it's not super tangible. It it could be you could be actively networking with a lot of your peers and for a while you you lose track. You are busy.
You've got other things going on and you don't necessarily feel like you know you have the need. But when you need something and when you when you need to either be heard or connect with a new job or get some help on a project then you go oh you know I really need to keep my network alive.
So this is my war story slide, but it talks a little bit about what I think networking can do. First of all, it can really help you. It might help you find that ringer or that subject matter expert um for something you're working on. It might help you um understand how you would expand your organization or you know do hiring or or uh adopt new technologies. It's that job opening aspect. maybe you want to understand about an organization that you would like to target and eventually end up at. Um, so there's lots of ways that it can actually help you. Um, so I'm going to give you a little war story and forgive me for referring to a couple notes here, but um, I had a good friend who was a a former boss and and one of my mentors and he left the organization we worked in together and went to another place that I had really been trying to break into for a while.
I just I just couldn't make it happen. And I' I'd heard that there was a job I was interested in and and somebody else got hired for it even though I applied. And I thought, okay, well, you know, it's just not might not be my time. But uh then later I found out that the person they hired didn't show up. They just decided at the last minute not to take the job. So then I was able to reach into into my uh my good friend and uh you know, and find out that uh that there were ways that he could help me find the job.
and he helped me fine-tune my resume. He took a look at some of the things I was saying in my application and uh and and got me there. So, that was huge. Um, I think networking can also save you. It can save you from a dead-end job or it can save you from a toxic relationship or just save you from a, you know, something that just isn't working for you anymore. Um, so I I mentioned this before in our in our conversation about how I was working for the four-star command and it and it dissolved and that was just so traumatic. That was a really big deal for not only me but many many hundreds of people who worked for this organization.
And I had to find out um, you know, just by going around and talking to people and sharing bootleg copies of work charts to see you know who I was supposed to be working for. Um, but as I mentioned before, I I got lucky in that once I stayed connected to sort of the underground on what might be happening with that organization in the future, I found out I could I could do something else if only I uh um had a proposal. So, that's when I went back to someone I knew and said, 'This is what I can do for you.' And that person agreed. And fortunately, I was able to to shift. The last part of this is mislead you.
you know, if something sounds too good to be true, it just might be. Um, and I also mentioned this earlier. Uh, it's kind of how I came to this job that I I'm in right now. Um, it was kind of a random around the fence sort of way of of of finding out about this job. But I had um I had been networking with some folks in the Air Force and working with them on a couple things. and I said, you know, I'd really love to get involved in the data organization uh that you guys are working on cuz I think I could bring something to the table. It would be really, really fun to look at it from a different perspective.
Um, but there was just never any openings. A couple times I was told of openings, they weren't really a good match for me. So, just randomly, and I had never done this before, um, found out the name of the person who was who is the current data officer over here, and I just sent them an email. Hi, this is me. I realize this is your job. Um, I'm very interested in um in working for the Air Force um before my career ends and I'm just curious if you know of any opportunities. I'd appreciate you just letting me know. And he was very responsive and said, 'Sure, that'd be great.' And then lo and behold, a few months goes by and I get this to get a message from this person saying, you know, 'Hey, we we're looking to hire.' And I said, 'Oh, well, that's very interesting.' And at the same time, my boss in my current job invited a bunch of senior people from that organization over to our building to have some conversations.
So, I'm walking down the hall and I ran into some people that worked for the Air Force and my boss said, 'Hey, um, you need to meet this person.' And and, uh, here's here's another person you need to meet. And I was pretty grateful. And then after the meeting, I was approached by one of the folks who said, uh, you know, did you apply for this job opening? And I said, well, yeah, actually I did, but I never heard back. So, I figured, you know, just wasn't a right fit. And he goes, well, you know, that's interesting because I am the actually one of the people who was on the hiring panel, and I would love to uh go back and see like, you know, was your resume submitted?
Was it something I needed to reook? Well, long story short is he did and uh that's what ended up propelling me into the job. Well, that all sounded really great and like the best luck of my life until I showed up. And I think I've already shared a little bit that when I showed up um there was a underlying uh challenge going on in that organization for this particular job. And uh in my in my opening interviews with a lot of different parts of the staff, um I was immediately told by very senior people, 'Oh, guess what? That person's leaving. We're we're getting rid of them. You're going to take over.' Which was pretty amazing. So, um I just it's been a challenge.
I've just had to step back and and take some of the advice that we talked about earlier. you know, be patient, be be humble, seek help. Um, don't think you have to do it all at once. Um, be resilient, keep keep your inner strength. You know, if it's exercise, if it's your faith, those things are important to me. Um, just just keep it up. But just be aware if you're out there networking and you meet someone and you think everything sounds perfect. Well, it just might not be. That still doesn't mean you shouldn't do it, but just be aware. And then the last one, I really I thought about this a lot. I I think it can even hurt you, believe it or not, because the more that people know you, this is my premise, the more likely you could become a potential target.
And and that sounds really kind of, you know, scary and that you think, well, you know, am I being paranoid? Should I just fly under the radar and just shut up and color and do my job or because once I get out there and I find lots more um people working in my field, then sometimes people will not appreciate what I'm doing and might even try to to uh you know come up with a different plan to to get in my way or to step all over me. And actually, sadly, this has happened. This has happened a couple times in my career um where I was I was fully connected with some people within the organization and I took on a new project and the people involved said, 'Oh, um this is this is a contracting matter and I need you to go find out if we have done certain provisional authorities or waiverss to make sure we can hire some very well-placed people.
Uh can you find that out?' And I said,'Absolutely.' And so the next day I reached into my network of people that I knew who were contract specialists in the command. And I said, you know, hey, I've got this question. It's really important coming from my project lead and I really need to understand if we've done things right because I really feel like we have, but I need your help. And they said, 'Let me let me resource it.' And they came back and told me, 'Oh, no. Everything's great. You did everything you needed to do. This was the reason why. Everything's good. So, I'm excited. I go back to the guy who tasked me to find figure out the problem.
And I say, 'Good news, sir. We didn't make mistakes. We're good to go. We're going to be able to hire these people.' And lo and behold, an email had crossed in time, which basically was a direct order from him telling me not to talk to that person. Do not contact the people in contracting to ask this question. And so I thought, well, he can't possibly be mad at me. You know, I can say I'm sorry. Maybe I didn't quite uh follow his direction because I didn't see his direction. I was off solving the problem. And uh um the the the end of the story is that uh that became a a very contentious thing. Um he was convinced that I was, you know, not following the chain of command, that I was grandstanding, trying to do things that he didn't ask me to do.
and he really did try to damage my career. Um, fortunately through some personnel folks helping me out, I was able to escape any um any negative impacts to my career because technically he wasn't my raider. But that's the kind of thing where I feel like, you know, knowing people is really great and working with people is really great, but sometimes people don't want you to do that or the more they find out about you, they may think that you're someone to compete with or someone that they don't want to uh to work with because they wonder if you're trying to uh you know get around the rules. So that's that's when I think honestly there are times that networking can be harmful but do it anyway.
That's my final guidance. Just do it. So how should you do it? There's a lot of different ways to do this. And I think we in the business that we're all in, whatever that is, uh only think about networking with regards to what we do for business. But there's a whole bunch of different ways to network. Um obviously on the job you can you can take on you know a special assignment or a special role and you know getting back to that I'll do that mentality which says you know the boss wants this problem attacked who wants to stand up a tiger team. Okay do that because you if you have the cycles to do it it's important because you'll probably meet and integrate with a lot more people uh that way and grow your network.
Um or you can stand up and create communities of interest. This is something I've done in the past too. It's one of the ways I got involved with doing um things with artificial intelligence and with data, which is my job, um is to create a community of interest and just talk about stuff that we heard in the news or things that were happening in other organizations and then share them. Uh and I made so many connections that way and uh some of those really came in handy later on. And you can always attend conferences or meetings or summits. You can do the things that we're all doing right now, you know. someone asks you to speak, someone asks you to be on a panel, you know, do those kinds of things if you have the time.
And of course on in the social outlet arena, you could create a social media profile like LinkedIn, but if you do like don't just let it sit there and die. If you're going to do LinkedIn, for example, you need to get in there and actually engage. You know, keep it current, keep it updated, um, and, you know, look at look at what other people are posting and, uh, and share that. Or you could even do a reunion group. Um I've been involved in all these different organizations and sometimes we'll just, you know, we'll contact each other and say, 'Hey, let's have a happy hour or lunch. Let's um let's find out what we're all doing now.
Um maybe we can engage with each other in new ways.' And then there's the volunteering aspect, which is more of an external um strategy where, you know, you can join various civic organizations like Clean the Bay or Adopt the Highway. Um, I have two children that are grown, but they grew up in schools around here. And I spent many hours in booster clubs for sports and and theater and arts and all those things. But even if you don't have kids, um, or your kids are grown, you can still participate. And I have found so many times that I was working right down the street from someone who is actually in my line of work or connected professionally and and I was able to strengthen that bond just because I did something that was totally, you know, different from my from my day job in my community.
And then there are other community support opportunities like working with kids or doing mission work or, you know, volunteering at various places like food pantries. So there's always an opportunity to meet someone new and uh and remember it's about building a meaningful relationship because you will meet lots and lots of people, but you'll need to be a little circumspect about who you think is a meaningful relationship. But the only way you're going to gain those is to is to network in the first place.
So um just to wrap up, um I'm a believer. I think you could tell that uh I do think that it does take time and commitment. It it really does. Anything that you really want to do with respect to your career or or uh you know the kinds of things that you're interested in, you're going to have to commit to it and it will take some time. Um, but don't wait until you need it because you may have just lapsed and all of a sudden those relationships have changed and the the waters have changed and and suddenly you're thinking that you needed to uh to link up with some of your former colleagues and uh you can't find them anymore or they're doing different things.
So, uh those relationships can get stale and they can even expire. So, don't forget that. And you don't really have to be an extrovert. In fact, you know, this look at this amazing successful woman that we heard from earlier and so many other people that I know. You don't have to be an extrovert to to be, you know, a good networker. Um, you just have to, you know, have it as something that you want to focus on um and spend some time doing it. And it should not take all of your day, but it should take some of your time if you are actually u interested in in getting some results. And don't forget that you can do this outside of your work.
As I mentioned, sometimes those are the best kinds of uh connections you can make because they are not only, you know, specific to subject areas, but they're they're meeting people who are in your community and and are uh interested in in things uh more than just your day-to-day job time together. So,
so thank you for taking the time to listen to me today. And if there are some questions that I can um attempt to answer, please over to you. Well, K, thank you so much for that wonderful presentation. And yes, we've received a few questions. Um our first was just a comment from Kora who says, 'I still volunteer for my kids sport although they are now in college. It's nice to meet new people and provide what I've learned.' So yeah, thank you, Kora. Um, so we'll go to our our next question from Bey and she says, 'Any creative ideas for networking? When I lived in DC, I would go to University of Georgia gamewatch parties.'
Yeah, I I didn't mention that, but that is actually a good way to do it. I know my alma mater, which is James Madison, has a lot of sports related um, you know, opportunities for doing watch parties or, you know, going to games together. But there's also the professional societies maybe from your um from your academic background. I know that I've gotten involved with um you know doing some of these kinds of conferences and and following some of the work that was done at my alma mada in the in the polyai arena which was my major when I was in in undergrad school. Um, I I think that it's it's it's a little bit personal in that how you prefer to do it, but I think there's just opportunities galore.
Um, and uh I would just say if you get invited to to participate in something like what we're doing today, you know, a lot of people say, 'Oh, I'm just not comfortable talking to people or or you know, I get bored sitting at lunchons all day.' There there are lots of other things you can get involved even in activities on um here at Langley, you know, we since I work for the military, there's a lot of military and civilian people in my organization and a lot of times they'll drag you into things that you never thought you'd do like, hey, we're having a sports day or or we're having a a cleanup day or uh you know, we're going to support um you know, the this the troops and and we're going to volunteer for the air show or things like that.
So just kind of keep an open mind is is what I would say. Very well said. Thank you. So I think this will be our final question and we'll ask you for final thoughts after that. Kathy says, 'How great that we've had some talks about introverts and our challenges, but one of them is networking. I feel like networking these days is only adding people through LinkedIn. Seems like we really seems like people really don't want to network. they feel intruded intruded upon. So, how have you put yourself out there to network when you already feel like it's so uncomfortable?
Yeah. you know, and I don't think CO did us any any uh, you know, favors because we we all hid behind our screens and we we we resulted, you know, our jobs ended up being teleawwork or fully remote or things like that because honestly, I have had so many sidebar conversations just leaving a meeting, a face-to-face meeting at any one of my jobs. Um, and and that has led to the best possible networking. I mean I I got invited here to a forum that my predecessor went to and it was actually something that was a little I thought above my head. There were there were people who were SCS's and they were very very important people in the command and um I said gosh I'm really not you know just because I ended up taking this person's job doesn't mean I'm really as smart as they are.
And they said oh no no we we want you here. We want to bring you in and we want to help you um understand some of the major things we're doing and we want to introduce you to people. So, I kind of got networking out of sitting in a meeting that that seemed a little odd, but but that really was helpful. Um, and it, you know, I I think just getting out and going back to a face tof face environment. I I I'm all about doing some telework as well. I I'm spoiled. Sometimes I like to have some quiet time to do some writing, uh, do some reading and self-study. And that's difficult at my job when people are constantly knocking on my door and walking in and and wanting to engage with me.
Um, is that, you know, it's it's important to to kind of have that mix. But I I do fully appreciate that um, we get an awful lot of out of our face tof face interactions and we should not go 100% away from that. That's Kay's opinion.
Well said. Well, as we wrap up for the afternoon, do you have any final thoughts or words of wisdom for all of our viewers today? I I don't have a lot of wisdom. Um, but I do have a fair amount of experience. So, um, I I would say just just don't be afraid to to make a change. Uh, it kind of goes back to those questions we were talking about earlier. Don't be afraid to make a change. And one of the ways that you can secure what what might be a safe change for you is just trying to understand, you know, the environment that you're in. Um the prior job that I had before I came here was working for the army and our job was to kind of to describe the world to the army.
And that sounds like a really big job and it certainly was. But the idea was that you know we were trying to create a situation in training or we were trying to um create data and information about what was going on in the world from people to society to weather to the air you breathe to the ground we look at to the bad guys all those things and it's just super important to to keep in mind that you know it's it's a great big world out there and there's a lot of different ways in which we can share information so um I think uh you just don't be afraid to to take on something that's very different or even um scary.
Uh when I started working in the data science arena before I became, you know, in the data officer, I worked for a gentleman who said, 'Hey, um you're going to be my new data science branch chief.' And I'm like, 'What's that? I don't know anything about data.' He goes, 'You'll learn. You'll learn.' That's all two words. I was like, 'Okay. and and that led me on a on a journey that has brought me to where I am today. So, uh don't be afraid to jump in both feet. Um yes, it's going to be scary. Sometimes there will be bad things that happen in general. Just keep keep pressing and just just don't be afraid to uh embrace the change.
And sometimes being able to embrace the change if you're not the kind of person that wants to take big bad risk is is knowing the environment. And a lot of that has to do with knowing the people. So that's where the networking comes in. Well, Kate, thank you so much and thank you for doing double duty today. We really appreciate your time. No problem. This was fun and this is a good thing to do. So, uh, everybody out there, you know, keep it on in mind and the next time we need someone, step up. Yes. Well said. Thank you. Well, thank you to all of our speakers today, both our panel members and our keynote speakers.
And thank you to all of our viewers as well. Without all of you, these events would not be possible. So, until next time, this is Ginger Wattley signing off. Have a great week, everyone.