Calling all professionals...

I went to a networking event today that was very good and, dare I say, inspiring. It probably helps that several of the conference themes reinforced things our VP of HR had just told me yesterday.  One of the key points, was around networking.

And three messages I heard in the past 2 days...

1. Never stop asking questions. Even to superiors. Now there might be the right/wrong times to ask, but ask.
2. Stay in touch with your contacts. Be it by Roledex, Outlook contacts, an excel file, whatever.
3. Get a closer network of friends and peers to be a personal "board of directors" - a group you can bounce ideas off , get feedback from and network with.

Over and around these messages, I've heard examples of both informal partnerships (where you might bounce ideas off  each other, as they come up) to formal (but still fun...one women and her friends go off every 2 years for vacation but one night, they each bring an issue to the table for discussion and resolution) to in-between (one women meets quarterly with a peer and they set goals and hold each other accountable).

One other thing I heard, not realated to networking, but powerful, was related to women helping women in the workforce.  (Did you know only 4% of C-levels in Fortune 500 companies are women?  And women make up 51% of the population.  And women are a $1trillion spending market...which is, by far, the biggest segment.)  Anyhoo, the message was that as women, we should ALWAYS help and NEVER critize other women; for the greater good, we have to help each other out.

P.S.  the boys are good. : )