|
2013 Thought
Challenge
Networking...Have a plan and work the plan before you
need it!
Kevin M Plante
Director, Loss Prevention Reporting and Analytics
CVS Caremark
If you were training for a marathon, when would you
start? A day before the race? A week? Probably not if
you actually want to be successful. What if you’d never
run for any long distances before? Would you need three
months to get ready? Six months or even a year, perhaps?
If you really want to run well and have a relatively
good chance of finishing (or surviving) the marathon,
you probably need the better part of a year to train
under normal circumstances. That said; why would you
wait until you need to look for a new job to begin
networking with people?
Over the last few years, many loss prevention
professionals have found themselves victims of
reorganizations, downsizing, condensing and shrinking
departments and have found themselves on the
unemployment line. Once the shock of it all sets in and
the realization of what happened is understood, you need
to figure out what your next steps should be. It’s
important to ask for help. Find out what opportunities
are out there, talk to people, call recruiting agencies.
The question a lot of people would ask is how many
places do you have to go to ask for help or to find out
where those jobs are? The answer is easy - if you
haven’t networked yourself properly, you may have
unintentionally limited your resources.
When people hear the word “networking” they usually
think about social media like Facebook and Twitter for
their personal contacts and Linked IN for staying in
touch with their professional contacts. These social
media options are a lot of fun and are a great way to
give people an opportunity to keep up with others no
matter what they do or where they go, but there is so
much more to networking than that.
When someone I worked with almost 20 years ago called me
on the phone out of the blue one day, it took me a few
minutes to even place the name with a face in my mind.
Once I remembered where I knew this person from, there
was a little small talk – “how’s the family...um...do
you have kids?” and then the reason for the call started
to become clear: “Hey, um...I just lost my job at ABC
company last week and I was just calling to see If you
happen to know of any positions within your company that
I might be a good candidate for?” I most certainly would
want to help this person but truth be told, if I have
other colleagues that I know better that were in the
same position of looking for employment, wouldn’t I be
inclined to help them first? Of course I would.
Have a plan – It is important, all the time, to work a
plan to keep in touch using The Five Elements:
| 1.
|
Use social media tactically
and regularly. Consider having a strict policy
of only having friends and family connected to you
on Facebook. You probably don’t want your boss
seeing pictures of you from high school at some
party! Use Linked IN as your outlet of choice for
professional contact management and staying in touch
with colleagues. Get in the habit of updating each
regularly so people can read about what is going on
in your life at their leisure. |
| 2. |
Find local events that offer
situational networking and information sharing.
I like to go to regional Law Enforcement meetings,
smaller retailer meetings at malls and the Retailers
Association of Massachusetts LP committee events. We
have quarterly meetings that combine learning,
information sharing and networking. The people who
go to those meetings represent many of the major
retailers in New England and many law enforcement
agencies. There is nothing like putting a name to a
face and giving out business cards offering to help
and collecting business cards in case you need them
someday. |
| 3. |
Attend professional
conferences. ASIS, CFI, NRF and RILA all hold
annual conferences. Organized Retail Crime has
sprouted many regional conferences throughout the US
that you can attend each year. Each conference is an
opportunity for education and networking. All
associations are aware of each others’ events, so
events are usually spread evenly throughout the year
so you have multiple opportunities to get to at
least one per year. Also, if you hold a professional
certification, you may find all of these eligible
for use as Continued Education Units (CEU) towards
your recertification. |
| 4. |
Work with area colleges.
Find a college in your area that has a Criminal
Justice Program and offer to mentor aspiring loss
prevention professionals. It may help you because
not only do you get to know students, but you also
get to know professors and department heads in the
school. All people who could help you if you find
yourself in need of employment or if you are
interested in good advice on continuing your
education. Who knows, maybe teaching at college
level could be something you might decide to do
someday! |
| 5. |
Talk to people in person.
There are so many ways to communicate with people at
an impersonal level – texting, email, messages
through social media – but what about the old
fashioned way like calling people on the phone – or
better yet – meeting them face to face if you can?
Find the 20 people you really, really want to keep
in touch with and can help you – maybe you admire
them because they’re smart or work for a great
company or have been in the business for years – and
maybe that 20 person list changes sometimes – call
them or try to get together for coffee. Find one
hour on one day each week and make those phone
calls. By the end of the month, you’ve talked to all
20 people and actually had a meaningful conversation
with them. |
So what happens when you successfully navigate the “five
elements of networking”? You get to know people and they
get to know you. You become a resource for people
because they get an idea of what your experiences and
expertise is while you learn from them. Maybe you find
one of them a position at your company or perhaps you
find a friend of theirs a position where you work or at
another company based on information you heard from
another contact. Now your network is larger and people
know who you are.
If you find yourself in the unfortunate position of
looking for employment, you will most likely ask
yourself “now what do I do?” The first thing you should
do is reach out to your contacts and ask for help. The
better you’ve networked leading up to that point, the
better chance you’ll have of getting the help you need.
There’s an old saying that says “It’s not what you know,
but rather who you know”. When you need to differentiate
yourself from 100 other people with similar experiences
and education it does help to know someone. Don’t wait
until you need to network; instead make
networking part of your regular routine. Start today
because you never know when your marathon will need to
be run and you’ll need to be in great shape for it.
Kevin can be reached at 401-770-8083 or
Kevin.plante@cvscaremark.com |
