Before you head off to your next leadership forum, offsite meeting, or company retreat, watch Bobbie LaPorte’s August 27 “Calling the Game” video. You’ll gain practical guidance on ways you can promote your team’s work, strengthen connections, and advance your own career.
Steps to Prepare, Connect, and Advance Your Career
Hi, this is Bobbie LaPorte, back with another week of “Calling the Game,” where I share my own experience and insights while giving you valuable tools you can use to call your own game…and plan the best moves for you and your team.
This week, I want to continue on the importance of bringing people together vs. always meeting remotely and why that is so important to your career success.
With many upcoming cross-company meetings planned over the next few months—such as leadership forums, departmental planning offsites, and company retreats—I encourage leaders to take advantage of these important opportunities to promote their team’s work and advance their careers.
I’ve established the case for being more thoughtful and intentional in preparing for these meetings. Now I’d like to share some specific guidance to prepare for these meetings – from who to seek out and why, and what to say.
- Before you develop your meeting plan, get clear on your team’s value contribution to the company and who should know about and could potentially benefit from what you do.
- To support these conversations, develop some talking points on recent successes and how they created an impact on the company’s most important goals.
- Find opportunities to connect with your boss’s peers and share what you/your team are working on. This makes both your boss and you look good and can create more advocates for your work.
- Find career learning opportunities. Think about a senior leader in the organization that you admire. Is there a recent success this person has achieved that you can acknowledge and ask about how they made it happen? This shows respect and appreciation for their success – and you might learn something new.
Finally, make sure you follow up on any key conversations—to thank, acknowledge, and share information. Your goal is to keep the conversation going and the connection growing.
If this sounds like self-promotion…..yes, it is. Most of your peers will take these opportunities for granted…just “showing up,” hanging out with people they already know and coasting through the meeting.
But if you are serious about managing your career, if you understand the importance of building a cross-functional network that can provide visibility and advocacy for you and your team, and if you believe you can always learn from others’ career journeys, you should invest the time to be prepared for these high-value meetings.
OK, that’s it for this week’s “Calling the Game.” Hope this helps you gear up for a great week and navigate any curveballs that may come your way!