Tapping into the Power of Your Network
I had the great opportunity to share about tapping the power in social networks for business and careers with a group of Harvard graduate students on November 19, 2009. It was sponsored by the African Caucus student group of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. I’d like to give special thanks to Julia Mensah for the opportunity. Below is a summary of the workshop.
I, myself, am a task-oriented person. This means I travelled the hard road to learn the significance of people in getting results and business success. My training ground was Africa for the past five years. While expertise played a part in my success, relationships also played a significant role.
When I started to research the notion of social networks, I learned that social networking was even important for Bill Gates. When Gates started his firm, his mother used her social connections in Seattle to provide Gates access to key business people.
One of my biggest observations is that social networks are very important when one is initiating a new idea, whether in business or covering social issues. So, just as we spend time developing the next greatest idea, we need to focus on developing the ecosystem that will support the idea through its lifecycle.
Cultivating your network is an intentional activity. It’s easy enough to understand because we know that relationships take work.
The workshop highlighted practical means for cultivating your network. For example, sharing useful information with people is a simple, but effective way to provide value to others.
To learn more, you can download Tapping into the Power of Your Network (276) presentation. You can also listen to a recent radio show, “Power Push: Using Social Capital for Success.”
Tags: Africa, African, business, connections, expert, in, network, new, on, radio, system, the, training, workshop
