The Power of Networking

Welcome to your Morning Boost, your daily leadership advice to help you lead your school community. Brought to you by AWB Education and sponsored by Grundmeier Leader Services. We're together, we are transforming education, one leader at a time. Now here's your host, Adam Bush. Happy Monday. I'm Adam Bush, and I'm thrilled to kick off this week with an exceptional guest who's going to share his insights that are not only relevant to the world of performing arts and everything else, but also are profoundly applicable to us as school leaders. This entire week, we have an immense pleasure of hosting doctor Albert Bramonte. Today, Doctor Bermonte will be talking about the power of networking and the crucial importance of cultivating and keeping a strong, supportive professional circle. This is something that can either lift us up or hold us back, and doctor Bermonte is here to show us how to make it work for us. Well, thank you, Adam for inviting me to be here. Absolutely, thank you. So it's the important thing seal for any leader to do is to networa able to network, and that's whether you're working as a coworker or even even building a way through a company. The important thing is to network and to build connections in your field that can that can help you, but also that you can help other people. So some people feel that networking can be transactional, you know, heavily transactional, which in one aspect you could say that. But what I often approach networking is when you're meeting people, whether it's at a conference, a launching, or just even a scrab network networking event, is to always approach that contact as a way for you just number one, just being interested in them without expecting anything in return. So what type of work are you doing? I'm curious what type of work are you doing? And the general I'm curious, not superficial garis, but genuinely curious about the type of work they're doing. And really important of communicating. So keeping good eye contact, you know, if you're in person, and just being an overall good, good listener is important. M H. Get to know their name and say their name a couple of times, you know in the conversation, you know, say like, oh, you know, Jim, this was important, or Jana, or you know, like this is what I like what you said here. So because people like this sound that are on nate in moderation. Mm hmmmm hmmm, yeah. Because if it's successive, it becomes polital condescending. So the important thing is to develop the connection, and you want to develop a warm connection. So again it's not just hag, what can you do for me? It's more of I want to know what you're doing, so I'm curious what are you interested in? And that's have like a tip like if you kind of walk the approach with like you know, start like almost every question, well not every question, but most questions of hey, I'm curious about you know, what did you do? What exactly are you working on the moment? And people love to talk for themselves, so you get them warmed up and then they're gonna turn and state and so what do you do? And there's your opening to to some degree, I mean, tell them what you do, and then you ask, you know, can you exchange information. I wouldn't recommend necessarily going up to somebody these strange and say, you know, here's my car, because then it becomes a little okay, and really talk about what you're interested in. And then the important thing where a lot of people fail with networking is they don't follow up. You take a lot of people. And now I was guilty of this too for a while, where I have a stack of business cards at my desk and I don't even remember you know some of these people. So the important thing is like right immediately, like even the next day, twenty four to forty eight hours, no more than forty eight hours sending you a note you know, hey, I really mentioned the name. Hey, I really appreciate meaning you the other day. If it's any way I can support you, you know, please let me know. I'd love to keep in contact. And so what you're doing is you're developing warm contact over time because people want to see it to be a genuine connection. And I'm all about genuine that's not this fake transactional Hey what can you do for me? Yeah, which happens a lot, you know, where sometimes people expect like, hey, how can you help me? And help me rather than if you approach it, or how can I help you? People are going to be more open to hearing things. I mean, we know why you're going to a networking event. It's it's kind of you know, understood the end role. You're going there to get people to help you out too. But I think if you approach it and less fell the way by building a genuine connection, not just a transactional what can you do for me type of things, but I want to get to know you genuinely and who are you? You know, what makes you. Tick and how can I help you? So this way, there's a one law on psychology called reciprocity, which is if you help somebody else that will get some sort of interest, they're going to move more likely to help you. Help you return. A huge thank you to doctor Albert Bamonte for starting our week off. This is a great topic. I really appreciate this, such an impactful discussion. That's awesome stuff. We're what you do is so vital and the support that you give our community is really what makes a difference. So thank you for joining us today. I look forward to the rest of this week. This is going to be great. Thank you well. Thank you listeners again, have a great Monday. Look forward to some more from doctor Albert Bermonte this entire week as we really dive into his mind and how we can help lead our schools and our buildings every single day. Thank you for listening. We will talk with you again tomorrow. You have been listening to your morning boost by AWB Education in partnership with Grunmeier Leader Services. You can find out more about our services by clicking on the links in the description. Remember you are doing this vital job that only a few can do. So, until next time, thank you for your service to your community.