Compared to other function leads, as an operations lead, you are less likely to connect with people outside your organization.
By design, you are focused internally. You keep a finger on the pulse across the system. You’re nurturing relationships, optimizing resources, and carving efficiencies to keep progress rolling.
That doesn’t leave much opportunity to focus on professional networking, so it’s not unusual to get caught in your own echo chamber.
That hinders creativity and dampens your potential for growth and advancement.
Does this sound familiar?
In this episode, I’ll help you think about what keeps you caught in your own operations bubble. I’ll also talk about what it takes to burst out of it so you can recharge and infuse your thinking with possibility.
3 Reasons Operations Executives Get Trapped in Their Own Bubble
You’re likely getting caught in a bit of a bubble due to all it takes to keep the trains running on time.
Operations is like a dynamic 4-D puzzle. You’re never bored! Who’s even got time for things like networking?
But if you don’t network regularly, there may be other reasons at play underneath being too busy.
Examples like:
- You might not think of yourself as someone who gets out there to network. That is, after all, something your peers in client-facing teams are responsible for. And perhaps you prefer it that way.
- You might consider yourself to be an introvert. If so, stretching outside your communications comfort zone might feel a bit too taxing and not worth the effort.
- Maybe meeting new people sets off your sense of ‘imposter syndrome’. It can be hard to start a new conversation when you’re worrying that they’ll see past your title and judge you harshly. Perhaps it feels safer to expand your world through books, articles, and podcasts.
Whatever your reasons for keeping networking low on your priority list, you’re losing out.
The Opportunity to Build Your Intellectual Capital
Regardless of your title, tenure, or industry, relationships make the world go around. Conversations outside of the norm stretch you and boost your personal intellectual capital.
I encourage all my clients to invest time and energy in networking. It’s important regardless of how satisfied you are in your current role and org.
Because old keys don’t unlock new doors.
Professionally, a strong network helps you have a better sense of the landscape. It gives you greater access to and insight into innovations and opportunities.
Through networking, you can:
- Expand your strategic thinking muscles and frameworks,
- Explore different innovations that could be applied in your workflows,
- Learn about new ways to build trust across the C-suite and the greater org,
- Gain insight on how others are inspiring innovation and fostering collaboration.
Whether you’re growing your team or exploring your upward options in this fluid market, nothing beats having a strong network.
In a recent LinkedIn survey, as many as 73% of respondents said they were hired after being introduced by someone they know.
Personally, networking forces you to zoom out to explain what you do to someone else. There’s something to be learned from introducing yourself and what you do. It’s funny how speaking something out loud to a new audience can impact and inform your view of it.
What It Takes to Burst Out of Your Operations Silo
So, okay, there are lots of reasons to network. I’ve just scratched the surface here.
And wherever you’ll be networking, it’s time to get the networking juices flowing.
Here are a few practical tips to help you lean into that.
- Consider the long game. Building a diverse and strong network takes time and intention. It’s ok to take small steps. It may take a while for the small steps you take now every week or month to accrue to something that feels valuable. It’s okay. Just keep taking the small steps.
- Develop your facility to ask deeper questions. No need to have the most perfect-polished elevator pitch. Lean into questions that get beyond ‘Where are you from?’ or ‘What do you do?’. Dig deeper to learn what they are looking for and what’s next on their horizon.
- Consider what fuels your tank. What intrigues and inspires you? Ask open-ended questions that draw that out in your conversations. For example, if innovation lights you up, you might ask an industry peer, ‘What’s the most innovative thing your team has done in the last year?’.
- Notice who you’re prone to network with and why. Then stretch beyond that.
In a class once, I was challenged to talk to someone I absolutely would never have thought to talk to. I was 24 at the time and working in a publishing company. Though I was terribly shy I wasn’t going to back down from a dare. I walked up to this big, gruff-looking 60-plus-year-old biker dude to start a conversation.
Turns out he co-ran one of the local print shops my company contracted with at the time. And we had a fascinating conversation. All that is just to say – check your judgments and assumptions about who you might connect with.
As an operations executive, you already can see the big picture and connect the dots around it.
Networking can be just the thing to recharge your batteries. Leverage it as a resource for thinking in new ways that help you get to the next level, whatever that is for you.
And speaking of getting to the next level, I have written a resource especially for operations heroes who feel stuck or stalled and are looking for a jumpstart to get to what’s next. It’s called “4 Steps to Gain Control of Your Mind, Time and Career So You Can Love Your Work Again and Advance.” You can download it for free, just visit yourfuturerealized.com/guide.
You can’t stop the chaos, but you can change the game.