How do I build a support network?

Companies are busy, and it can often feel tough to navigate your way in the workplace — maybe your work feels siloed, and you’re not sure where to turn for help. Whether you feel lost now or foresee wanting help with challenges down the road, it’s important to build a support network.

But how do you do it? It’s a valid question, and a frequent one.

If you break it down to fundamentals, finding a beneficial support network is not much different from the process you deploy on a day-to-day basis as a leader. It’s a combination of head, heart, and gut that helps guide your decisions.  

• Head: The thought process that allows you to apply logic to what you’re sensing. Based on past experience and often evidenced-based data.

• Heart: What you feel from an experience. How does this particular situation or experience align with your beliefs and values? What kind of connection do you feel? How are your five senses at work?

• Gut: A combination of intuition, experience, and often unconscious thoughts that result in an “inkling;” – the voice inside of you that speaks up when necessary.

In this way, choosing a mentor or a member of your support network is similar (if not the same) as choosing someone who you include in your personal life — the people you choose daily, such as friends, intimate partners, and family.

Members of your support network should work with you to create a partnership that benefits both parties. Whether it’s a mentor you’re seeking advice from or a colleague helping your team complete daily tasks, NextGen Center will help you get clear on what’s most important to you, so you can better understand the type of support network you want to build for your success and future.