Search Like a Connector

What do you do in your spare time when you’re not working? What is your favorite hobby or activity? My husband Steve always responds with, “I collect people” and he means it! And for him, it is a wonderful outlook. For me, though, making those connections doesn’t come as easily.

For some of us, we may not be strong in this area, but after living with someone where socializing is required to survive, I have learned how to improve myself in such “people-facing” situations. You can too. It takes practice but the more you do it, the better you become at it.

LEARN FROM A WOO

In Gallup’s CliftonStrengths Assessment, a person’s talents can help describe them as a “Woo.” These are people who love the challenge of meeting new people and winning them over. They derive satisfaction from breaking the ice and making a connection with another person.

As CliftonStrengths explains, we all have certain natural talents. They come to us easily. However, this does not necessarily mean those habits are our strengths (yet). We have to work on, focus on, and practice our talents to turn them into a strength. And who knows, you may have a talent or talents you aren’t aware of yet.

Author, Marcus Buckingham, calls this a “Connector” in his StandOut assessment. Connectors look at people and automatically ask themselves who they can connect them with to make everyone more effective, as well as what idea can I give them to help them do something they didn’t imagine themselves.

This talent is the source from which you get your power, trust, fear, intelligence, etc. It goes back to one of your strengths. Connecting people is what motivates you to act. This is where you get energy from to move forward, set goals, and follow through.

THE SEARCH FOR RIGHT CANDIDATES

It is also how we reach out and connect to find the right candidate to fit our open positions.

Our companies, departments, and teams all need Woos and Connectors. It’s how we reach out to others and build relationships. None of us knows when we might need the assistance of someone outside our close family and friends zone.

This hit home to many of us when the pandemic began and everything was chaos. With so much disruption and unknowns as to whether or not our companies could survive, we were all reaching out and connecting to others (not necessarily close to us) just to figure out options and gain insight. It may have been out of our comfort zones, but it can be an empowering experience that improved relationship-building abilities.

The same goes for finding candidates. Are you truly exploring all your options to fill that next job opening? If not, start with the personal. It’s about reaching out to your connections and relationships. If you rely solely on an online recruiting platform, you might be disappointed. The feedback we’ve gotten from employers and employees is that there may be candidates applying, but many aren’t the right fit and there’s a high incident of ghosting. All of this wastes valuable time.

CONNECTING IS NOT AN EVENT

Making connections is a continuous “reach out” to others. Strengthen relationships today, even though there may not an ulterior motive. Plus, when you reach out to someone with an ulterior motive in mind, it’s usually a little obvious. People don’t appreciate that. What they do appreciate are honest connections. From this relationship, one can go back to a person when you have a particular need, like searching for a candidate introduction.

The key phrase here, for us not-so-strong connectors, is “take the time.” I often wonder how so-and-so is doing and sure would like to find out, but because of my busy schedule, I tend to forget the physical act of reaching out by phone, email, text, or LinkedIn.

CONNECTING IS STRATEGIC

Create a reason to connect and revisit with someone. My husband is genuinely concerned about making a connection. That takes thought and a connecting of the dots between an idea or conversation and someone who might benefit. It is a part of strategic thinking as well as wanting to be helpful. When meeting people, put on your thinking cap and always ask yourself how you can help this person or connect them to someone else. It is not always about what you need from that person. More often than not, it is about helping the other person.

If you’re trying to figure out how you could implement a strategy around this, consider this: A strategic partner of ours just sent us a short summary of what their company is up to as well as a templated email we can copy and paste so we can easily send their job opening (links included) to anyone within our web of relationships who might be a good fit. How easy for us to just copy, paste, and send when someone comes to mind.

CONNECTING HAPPENS OUTSIDE OF WORK TIME

Connecting isn’t a 9-5 job. Even when you’re not at work, you should still be connecting. We recently spoke with an individual who is desperately trying to find a job. However, she is doing nothing as far as reaching out to existing relationships or building a network of connections. She is simply putting in her time (i.e. her workday) and applying through online recruiting platforms. She considers her time outside of work family/private time even though she has been to church, shopped in her local community, volunteered, and attended sports activities —all excellent connecting opportunities!

I recently reached out to a Facebook friend whose son works at a large company and might be interested in meeting another friend’s daughter (who happens to be looking for a career move). What a complicated web, but it makes sense if you are willing to make the first move, break the ice, and reach out with an introduction. If I hadn’t had a trusting, respected relationship with multiple people here, it would never have crossed my mind to connect.

It is up to each of us to create awareness of who we are and what we are looking for by connecting and building relationships before they are needed. Reach out and align with others. Create that web of connections that will serve you well down the road.

WRITTEN BY TERRI WILCOX, THE RESULTANTS

Author, Terri Wilcox, is co-owner and a business advisor with The Resultants. The Resultants are a business advisory team that advocates for the best interest of your business, using a process that has proven time and time again to help companies build value and achieve personal and professional success.

To learn more about Terri and The Resultants, visit TheResultants.com.