Sital Ruparelia

Depending on which report you read, London’s financial services district will over the next 12 months lose 10,000, 20,000 or 40,000 jobs following on from the sub-prime crisis. Wall Street will be similarly hit and the ripple effects will be felt across many of the financial centres across the globe.

One of the lessons I have learned about managing careers through previous downturns is the critical importance of your network in weathering an economic storm. As the son of an Indian family it’s something that is drummed into you from a young age – “It’s your family and friends that you can lean on in times of trouble” as my father still tells me today!

Similarly, in the current economic climate, the experience on your CV or resume alone will not save you from the effects of the downturn. Neither will your amazing talent, intellect or hard work.

What will help you is your network – your friends, colleagues and your extended family.

If you need a new job, advice, money, emotional support or just someone to cry with in your beer at end of a bad week, you need to turn to your extended family, friends & associates.

Relationships are like muscles – the more you work them, the stronger they get. Now is the time to be strengthening those muscles.

Here are 3 tips to give yourself a relationship work-out and so strengthen your ability to deal with whatever fall-out comes out of the credit crunch.

1. CONNECT WITH YOUR CONTACTS MORE FREQUENTLY

Successful sales people speak to and connect with their prospects and contacts regularly. They are constantly cultivating existing relationships and building new connections.

As the CEO of You plc (or You Inc) you should be doing the same thing.

Whether it’s a face-to-face meeting, a phone call, email or text, you should be connecting with people – friends, family, former work colleagues and clients – regularly.

Yes, I know – you are busy and haven’t got the time. But it’s not about ‘time’, but about priorities. If you make cultivating relationships a priority now, you will create a support structure around you that will protect you regardless of how long and deep the recession is.

2. BE GENEROUS

The currency for networking is generosity, not greed.

It’s not what your contacts can do for you – but what you can do for your contacts. So get into the habit of understanding the goals and challenges your contacts face and ask: “how can I help you achieve xyz?”

Then you can connect them with other people, give them information and ideas that they will value and which will help them achieve what they want.

The more people you help, the more people you’ll have helping you and the more help you’ll have helping others – it’s a loop. (Read that sentence again!).

But that help may well come from somewhere else – it’s like a boomerang and may well come back from another direction or source.

So quit keeping score.

3. ASK & ACCEPT

Many people are great at building relationships and helping others, but are afraid to ask for help or advice themselves.

And worse still – when help is offered they are too proud to accept it.

In addition to being generous, you need to know when to ask for help if you want to succeed.

So make sure that when you’re connecting with your network, they know want you want, whether it’s a new job, a sounding board or just a kick up the backside to get you out of a rut. Like any other relationship, the sooner the other party understands your needs and the quicker you are willing to accept help, the more successful you will be

Your Field Work

Over the next 7 days:-

a) Set up an informal lunch / coffee or drink with a contact – maybe an ex-client, ex-colleague, a recruiter or even an old college friend – someone that you haven’t spoken with in a while.

b) Catch up on what is happening in their lives & careers and learn about each others objectives and current challenges. Then think about how you can help them.

c) Put a recurring note in your diary to meet a contact every 2 weeks (or weekly if you can manage it). It doesn’t always have to be face to face, it’s fine to have a ‘virtual coffee’ over the phone.

“Sure – that sounds great, but I haven’t got the time!”

This is the classic line you will hear from most people. Let’s get real. When you say you ‘haven’t got the time’ it’s just BS.

What you’re actually saying is that other things are more important. Attending to emails, meetings and conference calls to run the business is more important than taking just 60 minutes out of your week to look out for yourself and your career.

It’s about priorities – we make time for what’s important to us.

So do yourself (and the other person) a favour this week by getting out and connecting with some people.