Bucking the Gloom and Doom
May 22nd, 2009 by Carol Heady
Recently I was a guest speaker at a networking event for business owners and entrepreneurs and I decided to maximize the theory of positive thought, and talk about how to buck the gloom and doom. I strongly believe this is a choice and this is exactly the time to be exercising your brain to think positively. I shared three strategies that I use and believe are helpful in any economy, but are especially critical now. I have written previously about two of the three strategies which are the use of Accountability Partners (See January Archive) and Strategic Alliances (See February Archive). What I will concentrate on in this article is the strategy of Advocates.
All three strategies require you to leverage your social capital. What I mean by social capital is your relationships and networks. All of us have relationships and networks that can be leveraged to thrive in this economy and any economy for that matter. We can think about our networks in terms of concentric circles, your inner circle consists of the 8-10 people (friends, family, colleagues) you are closest to and support you 100%. No one enters this circle automatically-you invite them. The second circle is considered your advocates. These are the people who know you, will endorse you and speak on your behalf (colleagues, clients, friends). The third circle will represent your broad network of people-these are the business associations, community organizations, faith community, volunteer associations/groups, etc. The most outer circle is everyone in your database. The idea here is to build and develop your relationships so that they become your advocates.
There are two recent experiences that illustrate how advocates make a difference in building/growing your business that I will share. I have developed relationships with an EVP and SVP at a client firm and I had to present a proposal for two additional training programs to the CEO. These two individuals became my advocates for the programs, one took the time to prep the CEO prior to the presentation and “we” successfully closed the sale within 20 minutes. The other experience involves an individual working for a staffing company who I met as a result of his predecessor raving about my work (she was an advocate without me knowing at the time) and that I was a good contact for him. Over the past two years we have developed a relationship and a few months ago I was ready to launch a new business model for group coaching programs and decided to ask for his feedback and opinions. He thought the business idea was fantastic, on target and would definitely fill a current need with unemployed individuals. He has become my advocate for the program; he talks about the program with suitable candidates and is willing to do anything to help me be successful. Now that’s an advocate!
Relationships take time to build; they are the essence of what helps businesses thrive. Take time to build meaningful relationships, begin reconnecting with people, stay in touch with those who you already consider your advocates and start leveraging these relationships and thrive in any economy!
A resource I recommend is a book written by Wayne Baker, Achieving Success Through Social Capital
Comments and questions are always welcome to the author; you may contact Carol Heady at 845-226-8047 or carol@learningandperformance.net.
