What is networking?
Dictionary.com defines the noun as: a supportive system of sharing information and services among individuals and groups having a common interest and the verb as: to cultivate people who can be helpful to one professionally, especially in finding employment or moving to a higher position.
I take it a step further by merging the two definitions in the forming of FOCM Networking. This is a site (system) for sharing information and services among individuals who have a diverse range of interests for the purpose of helping each other more than just professionally, but also socially and financially.
What is networking?
Dictionary.com defines the noun as: a supportive system of sharing information and services among individuals and groups having a common interest and the verb as: to cultivate people who can be helpful to one professionally, especially in finding employment or moving to a higher position.
I take it a step further by merging the two definitions in the forming of FOCM Networking. This is a site (system) for sharing information and services among individuals who have a diverse range of interests for the purpose of helping each other more than just professionally, but also socially and financially.
It was a warm Indian Summer night on October 29, 2015 when the one and only Wayne Whittingham gave in to insurmountable pressure and decided to publicly declare his membership in FOCM Networking. I believe this took place at Restaurant 1900 on Eastwood Rd in Wilmington, NC.
The dates: October 26 -27, 2015 will long live in the annals of FOCM, destined to be recorded in the Library or Networking Congress. Multiple esteemed and worthy individuals received their FOCM membership cards in the traditional (and emotional) ceremony befitting such an honor. Fortunately, there was a cadre of photographers capturing the events as you will see below.
Catherine Ginzer, Oracle received her card at a DIA in a group ceremony orchestrated by Chris Dapolite probably two years earlier. Catherine is one of FOCM’s most enthusiastic members. Another member in good standing: Nadine Maag was in attendance and served as sponsor for her co-worker Lucas Miller.
Those who went through the ceremony at this conference were: Craig Mooney, BMS; Debra Riley, Pfizer; Alyssa Gilliam, ICON; Lucas Miller, ICON; Chris Driver, Cenduit; Martha Devine, Astellas and Maria Napoliello Humagain, Shire.
I believe networking and working with people we know makes business interactions more enjoyable and less uncertain. So I like sharing the history I have with my connections. Maria Napoliello Humagain and I worked together at ICON Clinical Research’s Interactive Technology Group in the 2000’s; Martha Devine, Chris Driver, XY, Debra Riley and I met for the first time at this conference. Craig Mooney and I have known each other for 7+ years; Nadine Maag and I have known each other for ~10 years
While I am not attending SCOPE for the first time in a couple years, FOCM representatives can always be found.
I received pics from a couple of FOCM members as seen in these two pictures. Bryan Clayton, showing the FOCM card is with Temitope Keyes. Brian Langin, who carries both the 1st and 2nd generation FOCM cards is with Nithiya Ananthakrishnan, Rob Nichols and my most favorite FOCM member, Deb Jendrasek.
Jeff Weiner is CEO at LinkedIn and he recently posted about the people he most likes to work with. His article got 20,000+ likes. His Venn Diagram sums it up quite well.
Weiner writes on the topic of how to have fun:
It then occurred to me that I’ve known a number of people who embodied the ability to dream big and get sh*t done, but who also proved very difficult to work with. Perhaps shielded by the immense value they brought to their respective organizations, they never cultivated the ability to manage compassionately, or even cared to. Rather, they did things their way and expected everyone around them to adapt accordingly. More often than not, that’s exactly what people did.
This is one of the most important things for me – working with people that know how to have fun. I admit to having a sarcastic, smart-ass sense of humor or I notice things that are sound funny in the middle of a serious meeting. I remember early in my career being in a meeting and hearing someone say something like that will be a new paradigm. To which I replied, that’s worth 20 cents. He said, what? I replied, “a pair of dimes is 20 cents”. He laughed hard and then you could see the look come over his face, that he was thinking, hey wait we’re in a business meeting talking about serious stuff, i mean, i like laughing and all that but we need to act serious.
I think you can and should have both: be serious about the business problem or strategy you’re working on AND have fun. It’s not like we’re doing brain surgery.
I do not know how or why I overlooked posting this. I know I posted the pic or pics on Facebook of the beach scene.
So here it is: on a warm August day in sunny North Carolina, Stuart Munson received his FOCM card. Stuart and I have known each other for close to 30 years. We worked together in the late 80’s in RTP, NC and in the 90’s when he moved to Seattle to work for Microsoft we stayed in touch. Through my business travels, we were able to meet up a few times in Seattle and now he’s back on the east coast about a 6 hour drive from here.
Swarming Stuart at the beach are Gayle Grandinetti, Sheryl Browne and Wendy Revenaugh. I am pretty certain Stuart enjoyed the day at the beach.
As some of you noticed, I got rather behind on posting FOCM related events; I am over 12 months behind!!!
This is being corrected; seen below are from August 31, 2015 – when FOCM member Debbie McCoy was in Wilmington and we met for dinner at the Fork and Cork (great hamburgers). Debbie and I have known each other for 11 years having first met and worked together at ICON Clinical Research.
Followed by that is September 15, 2015; I’m not sure where we were but FOCM member Warren Fischer and I met up, probably at a conference. Warren and I probably first met when he worked for ClinPhone at a conference, but didn’t get to know each other until we worked together at ICON back in late 2010.
Then on October 14, 2015, at I’m betting was a conference in or around the King of Prussia, PA area; FOCM member Erica Hill and I met for dinner. I’ve known Erica 14 years; we both started at ICON within a couple months of each other.
Okay, I vow to do better from here on.
I am attending the American Academy of Ophthalmology annual convention on behalf of my new employer Lexitas Pharma Services. After about 15 years of attending conferences and actively networking at conferences on clinical data and clinical supply management, it felt a little strange to not see anyone that I know.
What did happen was that I realized saying that everyone has a doppelganger (double) somewhere in the world has merit. I saw so many people that either strongly resembled or just reminded me of people that I know.
As I sat in the lobby of the convention center waiting for a meeting, i watched people and started writing down who these people reminded me of. To those listed below, I think you should know you have a double out there.
Kevin Clover, Greg Cohee, Michael Smyth, Inci Porter, Mark Allen, Steve Raymond, Scott Freedman, Ali Hussein, Neil Hebenton, Sue Craft, Kim Boericke, Paul Mason and Daneil Dixon.
It’s been remarkable to have this experience.
Saw this on TheMuse.com written by Lisa B. Marshall and it reminded me of how important first impressions are. She sets up the situation that we’ve all been in – introducing yourself at a meeting:
Like you, I attend my fair share of meetings. As a consultant, I’m often meeting with people I’ve only laid eyes on for the first time just moments before and, almost always, I’m asked to introduce myself to them.
“Lisa, tell us a little bit about yourself.”
Ugh. Why is this little question so hard to answer? Perhaps because we are complicated and we’re being asked—usually on the spot—to make ourselves sound simple. Or maybe because there’s an element about it that always makes me feel like I’m supposed to be selling myself.
She gives 3 tips for making a good impression:
You can read the entire article at the link below:
Saw this on LinkedIn and thought it interesting.
Written by Steve W. Martin in Harvard Business Review
If you ask an extremely successful salesperson, “What makes you different from the average sales rep?” you will most likely get a less-than-accurate answer, if any answer at all. Frankly, the person may not even know the real answer because most successful salespeople are simply doing what comes naturally.
Over the past decade, I have had the privilege of interviewing thousands of top business-to-business salespeople who sell for some of the world’s leading companies. I’ve also administered personality tests to 1,000 of them. My goal was to measure their five main personality traits (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and negative emotionality) to better understand the characteristics that separate them their peers.
The main key personality attributes of top salespeople are:
Read the full article here:
Well, this sure has rung true for me in my career. I have seen others get promoted when I was doing as well or better than they were. What I noticed was those who got promoted engaged in self-promotion. Not a bad thing at all, just that to get what you want you need to tell those above you what you want to do. If you want to get promoted, you need to talk to your boss about it and ask what things you need to do in order for your boss to recommend you for promotion. Being humble is admirable, but it can hold you back.
An excerpt from the article on this is below the link to the article.
Positive trait that can hold you back
In a perfect world, your completed assignments would speak for themselves. You’d work on friendly, collaborative teams with fair-minded co-workers, and each person would be free with praise and full of self-effacing humility. You’d never have to worry about self-promotion or navigating office politics to get your due.
But the reality is that you need to speak up. Generosity and a humble nature are great attributes to have, of course. They help you keep a team-first attitude, improve your leadership abilities, and generally endear people to you as a professional.