4 Roles to Have in Your Network

Episode Transcript

Hello and welcome to the Daring to Succeed podcast. My name is Julianna Yau Yorgan and I’m a career coach who helps introverts succeed in the workplace by unleashing their introvert superpowers. 

Today, I’m going to talk about the four roles you want to fill in your network, why these roles  are important and how to find and nurture these relationships.

I chose this topic because a lot of introverts are uncomfortable with just randomly knocking people to say hello, but trust me networking doesn’t need to feel so random or so awkward. 

By understanding the four types of roles that make a strong professional network, you can give yourself a bit more of a framework to work within so it doesn’t feel so random. 

So let’s take a look at what those four roles are. 

The first role is the Connector. A connector has a large, focused, and/or engaged network and just loves to connect people. Typically, they’re very social people and they work in HR and/or are hiring manager. Connectors are important for your network because they can do exactly that— connect you with the people that you need to reach out to. These could be recruiters hiring managers or potential mentors.

Connectors may also think of you when opportunities arise and connect you with the people that need to know you exist. 

Reaching out to a connector is easy. You can do this with a simple introduction with your career history and your networking goal. 

If they are someone who you develop a rapport with you can nurture the relationship by proactively connecting them with people in your network who fit their network profile and reaching out occasionally to see if they need any connections. 

The second role for your network is a Mentor. A mentor has a career that you admire or is someone that you want to learn from. They just love to help, support and develop others and are typically in leadership or senior specialist type roles and have overcome career challenges or obstacles.

Having a mentor or multiple mentors in your network can be valuable in your professional growth because they can help your career progression with their past experience. This differs from coaches, who help you discover the best path for your unique situation. One that’s just yours.  

Connecting with potential mentors is easy. Just ask to learn about their own career path. Mentors typically love to share their journey and the challenges that they have overcome. 

Nurturing a relationship with them is also easy— just ask for their advice and show gratitude for their help. 

The third role to have in your network is an Advocate. An advocate is someone who is a team or company builder who is really invested in attracting strong talent. They understand the value of strong talent on cross-functional teams to achieve goals, and that just makes their lives easier.

They’re typically in leadership senior Specialist or HR type roles. People don’t always think of finding Advocates but they can be so powerful in keeping your career progressing because they will speak on your behalf when you’re not in the room and they will recommend you for opportunities that come up. 

Connecting with Advocates is a little bit different than mentors or connectors.

Advocates will usually show their interest and offer help to you. So just be open to noticing these people in your world and accept their help when they offer it.

Because they typically genuinely want to support you, nurturing the relationship can be as simple as offering them to help with challenges or projects they have. Otherwise, they’ll likely reach out to you. 

And the fourth rule to have in your network are your Cheerleaders. These are really just your biggest fans. They may not have influence in your field of work or the company you work at and really typically they’re just in your personal network or are

peers in your professional space.

While a lot of people downplay the importance of Cheerleaders. They will be there to provide you with support without expecting anything in exchang. Similar to Advocates, Cheerleaders will just show up in your life. So welcome them and nurture those relationships. You never know when you need someone there to love and support you unconditionally. 

So those are the four rules you want to consider for your network: a Connector, a Mentor or multiple Mentors.

An advocate or multiple Advocates and definitely  your cheerleaders.

And if you’re ready to network with more purpose and not feel like you’re just randomly asking strangers for something check out my free masterclass: Network Like an Introvert. 

I’ve completely reworked it to deliver over an hour of video lessons and workbook walk throughs in short one to 10 minute videos. 

All of the lessons include free downloadable resources worksheets or workbooks and transcripts. So if you want to take a look at that, I’ll make be sure to have that link in the show notes for you. 

Okay, that’s it for now. I hope you found this helpful and I’ll see you next time.