Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Assessing the Strength of Your Network

How strong is your internal network? Answer the following questions, adapted from Baber and Waymon's article, to help you assess the network you've established within your company.

* What people do you know at different levels of the organization? Do they know you? Your name? What you do?

* Do you know all people with whom you come into contact either directly or indirectly while performing your job? Do they know you? Your name? What you do?

* Do you participate in any cross-functional or interdepartmental activities?

* Do you quickly find out what's going on in the company, particularly through informal channels?

* How do you connect with people at work? Do you seek out and take advantage of opportunities to meet face-to-face to address complex problems and plan/implement projects?

* Do you talk regularly with colleagues about your work and industry trends that affect it?

* Do you stop by your co-workers' work areas to say hello and socialize, even if you don't need anything?

(Six related posts continue this discussion of internal networking. Check out part 1part 2part 3part 4part 5part 6 (this post), and part 7.)

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