WSJ Your Money Briefing - Stop Networking, Start Connecting – It Can Boost Your Career

Episode Date: October 24, 2024

Connectors have a diverse network of contacts, always know who to reach out to, and their careers benefit from it often with bigger raises and promotions. WSJ columnist Rachel Feintzeig joins host Ariana Aspuru to discuss how you can become one.  Sign up for the WSJ's free Markets A.M. newsletter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

OCI is the single platform for your infrastructure, database, application development, and AI needs. Do more and spend less like Uber, 8x8, and Databricks Mosaic. Take a free test drive of OCI at oracle.com slash wall street. Here's your money briefing for Thursday, October 24th. I'm Arianna Espudu for The Wall Street Journal, filling in for J.R. Whelan. When was the last time you played matchmaker and made the perfect pairing of two people in your personal or professional circles?

Being a connector at work can give you a boost and even lead to some promotions or bigger raises. So most of us live in echo chambers, you're just in one world. Maybe you get really deep in your department, people who work in your geographic area, people who focus on the exact same niche projects as you do. So if you're a connector,

you're reaching out to people across an organization, you are more in the flow, you get all kinds of information, you hear about opportunities, little bits of gossip that can help you know what's going on. We'll talk to Wall Street Journal columnist Rachel Feinzig after the break. AI may be the most important new computer technology ever,

but AI needs a lot of processing speed and that gets expensive fast. Upgrade to the next generation of the cloud, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure or OCI. OCI is the single platform for your infrastructure, database, application development, and AI needs. Do more and spend less like Uber, 8x8, and Databricks Mosaic. Take a free test drive of OCI at oracle.com slash Wall Street, oracle.com slash Wall Street, oracle.com slash Wall Street. One of the best people in your network

might be known as the connector. WSJ columnist Rachel Feinzig joins me. Rachel, I'm imagining those little Lego pieces that you use to get those two, like, pivotal blocks together on that huge project you're working on. But what does someone who is a connector do? The connector is the person who's always scanning

their internal mental Rolodex, thinking of who in their world should know each other. Someone told me about how they actually ended up introducing two people that ended up getting married, and she had the thought, like, what if I know two people who should be together in some way, whether it's professionally or friendship or even a relationship, and it just doesn't happen

because I don't put them together? Connectors have that sense all the time, and they're always thinking, who can solve each other's problems. It seems mutually beneficial, right? What does the person making those connections gain? Call it luck or karma. It does seem to come back to that connector type. It really fosters a sense of trust and this mutual kind of we're all in it together feeling where people do want to help you in turn.

So I talked to people who ended up getting jobs, all kinds of opportunities, sitting on special committees, ended up coming their way because they were the kind of people who took the time to always be trying to help people in their networks. And I'm sure it also just feels good to like make that connection. Totally, people told me it's like a high,

someone compared it to taking a vitamin, like it just makes feels good to make that connection. Totally. People told me it's like a high, someone compared it to taking a vitamin. It just makes you feel like a good person. I think there's this genuine rush when two people just totally hit it off and you know that you're behind it. What sort of advantages does a connector at work have? So if you're a connector at work, one of the things is that you are by nature have your hand in different networks.

So most of us live in echo chambers. You're just in one world. Maybe you get really nature have your hand in different networks. So most of us live in echo chambers, you're just in one world. Maybe you get really deep in your department, people who work in your geographic area, people who focus on the exact same niche projects as you do. So if you're a connector, you're reaching out to people across an organization, you are more in the flow,

you get all kinds of information, you hear about opportunities, little bits of gossip that can help you know what's going on and also come up with kind of bigger innovative ideas and people will turn to you because they know that you know all these things that are happening and you're really good at solving problems. Is it possible for someone to become the connector in their daily lives? Anyone can learn to do this. One of the big tips is developing

that diversity of networks. Like, you can't really connect people unless you know a lot of different kinds of people. And I heard from experts that a lot of that comes not from going to the same old industry happy hour, because it's just bringing you deeper into that echo chamber. And so what you want to do is actually do things that are a little bit more fun,

where you can naturally connect with all different kinds of people, whether that's doing a community service event or joining a dodgeball league. You want to form those really genuine connections at that genuine trust. Then you have this like really wide network to pull from. One of the things in your story that you mentioned I think is really interesting is that you say that the key is to give before you ask. What do you mean by that? If you tap a favor, if you ask someone for something

while you're building a relationship, people compared it to like, you're already in debt. Someone told me like the brain has basically a mental accounting of these things. What you wanna do is be helpful first, both because it's the right thing to do and because then it just generates the sense that you are a giving person, a warm person.

People are going to want to help you in turn. So when actually starting these introductions, let's say I wanna be a connector, I'm gonna go ahead and make that first contact. Do I email? Do I call? How do I do this? Email is usually a good place to start.

Oftentimes you wanna get permission beforehand for both people, give them a heads up. People told me they set it up as two different paragraphs where you're introducing the person, you're explaining why you think they're a perfect fit to work on this pressing project or question that the other person has. People told me you want the second person that you're introducing to be the one that is less powerful or that has more to gain from the interaction because you're kind of queuing them up to then take the next step and loop back to form that meeting.

There's nothing worse than an introduction that kind of just hangs there. You want there to be a next step. And I even heard from some master connectors that they will then go back to that person who has more to gain after they've sent the email and be like, the email is out there, like pushing the person to then make sure that they follow up.

Because you want to close the loop and make sure that connection happens. What should people avoid doing in this email? You want to give some context. I heard from people on the receiving end of this who would get thrown into connections and be like, I don't even know why I'm here. I don't know what's going on.

So you want to make sure you could link to people's LinkedIn profiles. Do the research, do the work for the person on the other end so that it doesn't become just another thing on their to-do list or something to give them anxiety. SONIA DARA GILMORE Aside from this email introduction, what are other ways that people can foster connections in their own circles? KATE BOWEN So you can do this in person too.

I talked to someone who threw these dinner parties at his apartment. He's been doing this for years. It actually started because he used to go out to your same old, same old networking events. He was living in DC at the time and he realized like everyone needs to eat dinner, like don't people get hungry eventually. And so he would have people over after these work events around 8 o'clock. He would cook dinner for people and doing it in your home or in a more social setting. It's that same idea as the community service event or the dodgeball game.

It just fosters trust so naturally and it's fun for people. And like he said, who doesn't need to eat? Rachel, has this story given you a new outlook on how you're connecting with people in your own life? Totally. After talking to all these super connectors, I can relate to that thrill of just having it be something that almost gives you gratitude in your daily day and makes you feel like a good person and like you're helping others. My husband's a physician so I know there are people out there who are like saving people's lives and changing the world every day but a lot of us are just, we're making a difference

in our own little way. And this is a way to feel like you're really having an impact on a lot of people's lives no matter what kind of profession you're in. That's WSJ columnist Rachel Feinzig. And that's it for your Money Briefing. This episode is produced by Zoe Kolkin, with supervising producer Melanie Roy. I'm Arianna Espudu for The Wall Street Journal. Thanks for listening. AI may be the most important new computer technology ever, but AI needs a lot of processing speed and that gets expensive fast.

Upgrade to the next generation of the cloud, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure or OCI. OCI is the single platform for your infrastructure, database, application development, and AI needs. Do more and spend less like Uber, 8x8, and Databricks Mosaic. Take a free test drive of OCI at oracle.com slash wall street, oracle.com slash wall street.