Connect Your Way to Career Happiness

For me, one of the chapters in Work Strong that resonated most strongly with me was chapter 3, A System for Working Strong in the 21st Century. Career happiness is partially a process of improving your ability to be more effective in developing and maintaining meaningful relationships. Immediately, you should tap into one of the greatest resources you possess as a professional, and that is your connections. You will gain a more positive influence in higher education by utilizing your current relationships and networking base.

Rank your connections based on what they can provide you and what you can provide for them. I use a simple pyramidal A, B, and C system for ranking my network of connections.

A Connections, the top of the network pyramid:
These are people in your circle with whom you share needs and goals. These relationships are ones where you have something to contribute to them and they have something they can contribute to you in return. This is a balanced relationship, and as such, requires more maintenance than B and C connections. These are people that you should be reaching out to on a regular basis. I use my social media tools to keep up with these connections. I follow them on Twitter and have a special category for them in my GMail address book.

Maintaining this level of connection could be as simple as writing them a weekly email updating them on a project or new venture you are working on that they might be interested in, to having daily phone calls with them. If they happen to be local, set up times once in a while to have coffee or lunch with them. These moments where the two of you can reconnect, share moments, and trade ideas pay off big time later on. Having several (but not too many as they take a lot of work) of these connections at your disposal enhance your current work place happiness.

B Connections, the middle of the network pyramid:
These connections are largely the folks you meet at conferences, department meetings, or even at a friend's weekend barbecue. The B level connection is one that might, someday, move into either the A or C levels. I tend to put people in this category when I first meet them, get their card, and strike up conversation with them about our common interests. If out of that conversation I think there might be something there that could benefit me, I make sure to reach out to them periodically. I might not need something from them specifically and I might not have anything they need at this moment, but our work or interests are aligned enough that it is bound to happen.

Academia is a great place for these connections, because invariably you run into people from your field doing neat work. Someday you might want to collaborate with them or ask them for a connection to someone else that they know. From a social media standpoint, these people make up the bulk of my LinkedIn connections and LinkedIn Group memberships.

C Connections, the bottom of the network pyramid:
The largest group of connections you have in your life are C connections. They are not necessarily less valuable, but you only have so much time in a day to maintain relationships and these connections are not the ones to put significant time into. The connections that find themselves in this category are people from past workplaces or projects from which you have parted company.

I often wrangle with what to do with people who are in this category. You like them enough, but the reality that they will provide anything supportive to you from a career perspective means they are in this category. To manage these contacts, you would want to make at minimum an annual contact with them. These are the people on your holiday card list, your organization's annual newsletter mailing list, or just drop them an email once in a while to update contact info and see what they are up to. You might find that something has changed and you will be glad you did not discard them years ago when you thought you had nothing in common. I use my friend categories on Facebook and lists on Twitter to help me manage these contacts.

Managing your time and your connections will vastly help you increase your career happiness. If you have control over your list of connections and have established relationships, you will experience a more meaningful career. Doing this will also assist you in the moment you do seek to move on to something new.

You won't have to rush around to build up this list of people you know because you have been maintaining it all along. Connecting with people increases your happiness, and doing so within your area of expertise is great for your career. Don't make connecting with others stressful. Manage connections and make sure you are getting something out of the relationships you put the most time into.