MGT 257 Management Information Systems Assignment 6 In Chapter 6, we covered a l
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MGT 257 Management Information Systems Assignment 6 In Chapter 6, we covered a lot of technical information related to computer networks. Explain why these networks are important to a manager. Why is an efficient data communication system critical to an organization? How does this efficiency differ for a smaller, local organization compared to a large, global organization? Your paper should be approximately 1 to 1 1/2 pages in length, single-spaced, 12pt-font with 1-inch margins Provide APA citations for any research you performed during this assignment. Note that assignments in this course may be run through plagiarism detection softwareExplanation / Answer
1. Networking is Spotting Opportunities
Networking is not sales. Put that thought out of your head. In fact, it’s the opposite. Networking is about spotting opportunities, so you want to spend time asking questions about the person you are talking to and their business, to try to see whether they have any problems that you can help with.
In fact, in a prime example of networking gone wrong I was on the receiving end of a ‘sell’. It was at a PMI conference and I was chatting to Clark A. Campbell, author of The One Page Project Manager. Another man came over. He talked about himself and his work for what felt like a long time.
When he excused himself Clark said to me, “That was a missed opportunity for him.” He had missed the opportunity to talk to Clark – an expert on project communication and reporting, and me – an expert on collaboration tools for project managers and although he knew who we were and what we had done he asked us nothing beyond that. He didn’t get anything out of the conversation (and neither did we).
That’s not networking, that’s just filling up time with meaningless chatter. I remember the incident for how bad it was, but I have no clue today who that man was. So much for making an impression.
2. Networking Builds Relationships
And there is nothing project managers need more than good relationships with others at work. “Spending time on building a relationship could deliver results in the future,” Kintish writes.
If you have been project managing for a while you’ll know how important it is to cultivate relationships with stakeholders past and present, and my own research for my book, Customer-Centric Project Management, shows that good working relationships improves the perception of project success as well.
3. Networking is Expected
This is my favourite reason. “Even if your role isn’t explicitly to bring in new business or to market the company,” Kintish writes, “you are probably expected, as most people are, to meet new people and understand the market place as part of your role.”
This is definitely the case for project managers. You need to quickly pick up information about the new project and how do you do this? Through talking to people. That’s networking! Building your internal network is just as important as focusing on creating new contacts outside of your workplace.
4. Networking is Good For Your Projects
Kintish says that it’s a way to learn more about the business, understand the industry better and hear about the challenges faced by your contacts.
If you’re managing project stakeholders, this is important as you have to deal with the ‘what’s in it for me’ approach that many of them will take. The more you understand about their areas of the business, the easier it will be for you to demonstrate your business acumen and talk to them in language they can understand.
5. Networking Can Further Your Career
Many, many jobs aren’t advertised, so if you want to be in with a chance of getting that internal promotion or taking a role outside your company as a step up, you have to network to find out about them.
People recommend people they like, so while you might not have met the person you will be working for in the future you might have met one of their contacts who could put you forward for that dream job.
6. Networking is a Virtuous Circle
“If done right, meeting more people leads to more business and career opportunities, which leads to meeting more people and more business, and so on,” Kintish writes.
It might not feel like it now, but you never know what doors are going to open in the future, so it’s worth operating as if that next useful contact is round the corner. They probably are.
There are a lot of reasons why networking is important, but you have to balance attending events with fitting in everything else in your life. Networking doesn’t have to take up a lot of time if you look at it like this, and you consider what you are doing strategically. My short ebook on professional networking will help you focus most of your networking efforts where you think you’ll get the most payback.
Generally for project managers not looking to change jobs, that’s going to be on building your internal network within your company. Building little networking moments into your day and prioritising your internal network can be really beneficial for stakeholder engagement and your career longer term.
Three types of networks
There are three types of networks important in business: operational, personal and strategic. While a lot of managers excel at building and using their operational network, they often overlook their personal and strategic networks.
Operational networking involves cultivating the relationships with people you need to accomplish your job. This may mean working closely with your Human Resources manager to make sure you hire the right people or developing relationships within other departments to win support for your initiatives.
“This is the network you need to have to basically get things done. It’s good relationships with the people in your critical path, your customers, your suppliers, your team members,” says Ibarra.
Most people master this skill or they wouldn’t be in management. But some managers don’t reach out widely enough to build all the relationships they need longer term or they miss key changes in overall company priorities because they get bogged down in the day-to-day functions of their jobs.
Personal networking is an afterthought for many busy managers. When you work 60-80 hour weeks, the easiest thing to eliminate from your schedule is your alumni meeting, the annual golf fundraiser and your scuba diving course. But these networks allow you to meet a diverse group of like-minded professionals. They also are a way to develop important social skills for many professionals and may be the first place you turn when you start thinking about changing careers.
“These are professional contacts that are discretionary, that are not as closely tied to the immediate job (so) that you can neglect or even abandon and still get your work done today. But these are the contacts that allow you to continue to develop professionally, to benchmark yourself with peers outside, to remain a bit on the cutting edge of your profession. These are the networks that people often use when they want to make a career move,” she says.
Strategic networking is the toughest but most essential if managers want to become business leaders. Ibarra explains that contact with peers and with senior executives in your field is vital and she encourages managers to look beyond their industry as well. This allows managers to share ideas about best practices in management, learn new approaches and keep close tabs on developments in business and technology. It helps managers to see the bigger picture and create their own visionary approach.
“How do you link your contacts outside the firm (and) your contacts inside in order to add value, to leverage the knowledge and the ideas that you get outside to make things happen inside?” Ibarra says “these are the networks that make a huge different in leadership. This is where strategic ideas come into play. This is what allows people to line up stakeholders and, frankly, this is the area where most people have serious gaps.”
Why managers fail at networking
Ibarra says many managers tell her they just don’t have the time to network or that they consider it unsavory. If you want to succeed you need to make the time. She says managers should delegate more in their day jobs and schedule networking into each week to make it a habit. “A lot of people who are not very good at this may feel, initially, that they are wasting time. They’ve gone to that conference, to those meetings, to this networking event, and what do they have to show for it? They have less time to do the bread-and-butter day job. However over the longer term or even over the mid-term, those are the contacts that really pay off.”
The second objection to networking is that ”it’s sleazy, it’s using people, it’s political,” says Ibarra. “As you move up within an organization or a career path, doing the actual work itself becomes less and less your role and getting work done through people becomes more and more your responsibility,” she says. “That’s where networks come in. Informal connections that give you information, ideas, resources support, political intelligence and frankly most people are not very good at building these networks and using them.”
This isn’t easy for a lot of managers who have survived and succeeded using their raw talent. “In a leadership role you truly have to operate outside the box and if you haven’t been doing that previously in your career it is a fundamental paradigm shift.”
In addition, it’s the quality not the quantity of contacts and how you use them that really counts. Managers need to remember that networking is two-way and they need to offer help and make connections for others in their network as well as expecting help. You can have the biggest contact list in your field, but if you only pick up the phone when you are in a crisis, you won’t get far. “That’s why you don’t want to leave yourself vulnerable to having no where to turn when you do have a crisis,” she says. “Relationships take time, they take effort, they have their own rhythm … Depending on what you put into it and what you give back to it, to the extent that you are investing for the future, your network will be there for you.”
Cultural or gender networking challenges
Ibarra says the benefits of networking apply across cultures, but there may be differences in style. “I haven’t seen any national culture (in which) things don’t get done through networks.” In some cultures, you may be able to directly approach contacts, in others you may need an intermediary. Different kinds of groups or organisations may be better suited to networking depending on the country. Karaoke might be a great networking plan in parts of Asia, but might not work in the US and Western Europe.
Women aren’t either more or less capable of networking, but since it’s easier for people to make connections with people who are similar, the fact that there are fewer women in senior positions in business can be a barrier.
Networking and your career
But can networking really make or break a career? Ibarra says yes. “It’s that black and white: when you get to a level in the organisation where your peers are as good as you are in terms of intelligence, in terms of track record, in terms of credentials and in terms of raw smarts,” she says. “When you look at what top companies do as they try to grow their future leaders and as they try to assess the leaders they currently have, they will tell you very explicitly that the ability to manage relationships across boundaries and to sell ideas is a critical competency.”
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