Friendworking

Last week, Seth Godin spoke about not being satisfied with just being good (exceeding-expectations-or-don’t-bother). So I am going to say that I had the foresight of Seth’s blog, and that all of my thoughts over the past two weeks were just good…so I didn’t write anything. Hopefully, my thoughts today will appear to be better than good and I will have a justifiable reason for not having communicated anything for the last two+ weeks.

Friends are really important. This may seem like an obvious statement and to some extent it probably is. But in today’s economy it is vital to keep up relationships with your friends and essentially add them to your networking mix. I have had a number of friends recently that were either let go or left positions due to the changing of their corporate environment. It is a scary time for all of us, but particularly in the Midwest where unemployment numbers are as high as 11-12%, and in individual cities can reach as high as 20% (Detroit for example). With all of the technology that is available, reaching out and communicating with friends is incredibly convenient. Making the effort to catch up with friends should be a part of your daily routine. Sharing knowledge about job status, industry trends and companies that are hiring can be an easy staring point for conversation.

I was fortunate enough to be able to help refer a former colleague and friend for a position with my current company. My colleague simply reached out to me after he was let go from his last position due to significant downsizing, and asked me if I knew of any open positions that he might be a fit for. We started having regular conversations via email, and when I learned of some openings within my company, I let him know and informed the hiring manager of his interest. He will now be starting with our company in a week. And all that I really did was connect him with a decision maker that I already know and respect via email. The end result is that a friend of mine is now employed and the company where I work is better off because they added an excellent individual.

Friendship is not just about networking. But it certainly is a viable benefit in today’s economy. For those of us that are fortunate enough to work for companies or industries that are growing, make sure that you take time to reach out to your friends. After all, who wouldn’t want to work with someone that is already a friend?