Episode 6 – How To Create A Career Inner Circle

Hi, and welcome to the Daring to Leap podcast. I'm your host, Loree Philip. I'm so excited to dive into this week's episode with you. So in this week's episode, we're going to talk about the importance of relationships in the workplace. 

You don't have to do it all on your own, and how to create an inner circle to support you in your career. Let's get started. Having solid and real relationships is so important in life, but can be very beneficial in work and in business. 

It can. And especially as women feel difficult to ask for help, to ask for support, we are more likely to want to do everything ourselves. But we need people who we can bounce ideas off of. We need mentors, we need allies in meetings, we need advocacy.

And actually not just we need it, but everybody needs it. And let's not forget, other people need you to do all of those things for them, too. So it's really not about, I need to create an inner circle for the benefit of my career.

No, it's about that inner circle is a win win for everyone who is in it. You bring just as much to that relationship as they will bring to you. Imagine being in that big meeting and we've all been there.

And this is where this example is going to help illustrate what supporting each other is all about in the workplace. You're in that meeting, you bring up an idea, your idea is dismissed, or just kind of moved on to the next thing.

Then some other person says the same thing in a different way, then it's a great idea. Now, that situation is common actually occurrence. People talk about this a lot and it's just a small idea of how having an inner circle, having allies in meetings, having support can help you.

Because if if you can imagine again being in that big meeting and you have at least one person, if not two, that are supporters of yours that your allies with, that you support each other. Now in this situation you bring up an idea, she your ally, jumps on it and supports it, then your idea is deemed the great idea.

And it's important here to note you would have done the same thing for her. We need to be elevating each other up in the workplace. And this is about going from this competition mindset in the workplace that I have to be the star or I have to do everything on my own and be others, to these promotions and things like that.

Having the supportive nature in your work where we're supporting other people and in turn they will support you. This is a simple example, but you get the point. So, to help you get started in creating your inner circle, here are some of the suggestions I have for you.

The first one is to create a list of at least ten people who you want in your inner circle. And I like for you to include both peers and mentors. So these are the people that you want to be closer to, to build relationships with, to be supportive of your career, and also that you can support them in their career.

The second thing is to work on building real relationships with them. Don't wait until you need something. Be generous with your time. Support your advocacy. Be there for them when they need it. We have the tendency sometimes to worry that we're giving, giving, and people are just going to take.

And I understand that concern. And so when we're building these real relationships and we're being generous, it's important to do it without having that expectation and putting it on there. Like, I'm doing this because someday I want to be able to call on them.

I mean, you are in the sense, but you have to kind of let that go and just be generous. And when you do that, people will notice the difference. The next thing I'd like for you to consider is to keep this relationship up and to be top of mind with your inner circle.

You're going to have to connect with them. And I'd recommend finding some kind of connection every month, whether it's a phone call, an email, a thank you note, just, hey, here's what I'm up to. Hope you're doing well.

Stay fresh in their minds and don't ask for things when you connect. When you do this, this is just about keeping up with them. And I will admit, I'm actually not super great at keeping in touch with people.

And this is something I work on continuously. Because sometimes it's hard to remember to reach out to folks and stay connected with them. But that's how you take this inner circle and make it real, make it more powerful, because these relationships, having a connection and a relationship with somebody is powerful.

When you have that strong inner circle in place, you will start to see the the power of having a supportive community in the office. It feels great to support others. Know that you have people you can count on and you don't have to go through your career alone, and you shouldn't.

People get support all the time, and you just may not be seeing it because it's behind the scenes. You also deserve to have that support. But sometimes we have to be a bit intentional about doing it.

And that's what you can do with this inner circle idea. And obviously you can craft it in a way that works best for you. But the idea is that in the workplace, your connections, your relationships will help you with your career.

And I want you to take some time and think about who do you want in that inner circle? Who could you be helpful to more often in those situations, in those meetings, in those brainstorming sessions? Because when we support each other, everybody wins.

Thanks. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. If you've enjoyed it, I would love for you to subscribe, leave a review and share it with a friend. Thanks so much.