Networking is an important part of building a successful career. And the secret to standing out as you network is building your emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is one of the biggest predictors of performance in the work place and is the key to helping you distinguish yourself and build a successful career. Below, we’ll briefly discuss:

• The importance of networking
• How to differentiate yourself with emotional intelligence
• Tips for advancing your career

For a more in-depth review of this information, view our on-demand webinar hosted by James A. Runde, a Wall Street investment banker, author, and corporate director specializing in strategic and financial advice.

Importance of Networking

The magic formula for advancing your career is a combination of:

• Ability
• Opportunities
• Courage

Your ability to network will affect all three of these areas. Your immediate boss is going to help you develop abilities that prepare you for new opportunities, your network is going to help connect you with these new opportunities, and a mentor can help give you the courage to pursue the right opportunities.

How to Differentiate Yourself with Emotional Intelligence

In order to succeed in your career, you may think that you just need to be intelligent and work hard, but there are a lot smart, hard-working people out there. The secret to differentiating yourself is developing emotional intelligence.

Emotional Intelligence can be broken down into three components:

• Adaptability
• Collegiality
• Empathy

Adaptability deals with your relationship with yourself and your ability to change. Collegiality is your ability to work well with others. And empathy is your ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes and create trust with others.

Tips for Advancing Your Career

The path from where you are now to where you want to go involves networking, marketing yourself, and setting goals.

Networking

Often times people don’t do enough networking because they are afraid of rejection. But as mentioned earlier, courage is one of the three main areas that will advance your career. When you choose to avoid rejection, and don’t put yourself out there, and don’t speak up, it’s likely that you are setting yourself up for regret. When you get to the end of your life, you’ll regret the risks you didn’t take, not the times you failed.

Networking is particularly important for advancing your career because your mentors and sponsors will reside within your network. Mentors are a great asset because they can talk to you and give you advice, but sponsors are also very important because they are who will talk about you. You need to make a point of networking with people who will be making decisions about your career, so you can get to know them and give them positive things to say about you. When you have made that type of connection with someone, they become a sponsor and say good things about you when you are not in the room.

Role models are also important to identify within your company because those people will serve to:

1. Reveal what is possible
2. Provide inspiration and motivation
3. Teach you behavior and attitude

Marketing Yourself

Marketing yourself is making a positive impression, and one of the main ways you can make an impression is to speak up. When you are in meetings or on calls, you need to contribute to the conversation. As discussed before, this can take courage, but if you do not speak up, you run the risk of people thinking you have nothing to add.

So, have confidence and speak up when you have something to say. Some starter phrases for interjecting in meetings can include:

• “Have we thought about…”
• “Did anyone mention…”
• “Another option we may want to consider…”
• “Is it worth revisiting…”

Speaking up will get you noticed and is an important part of marketing yourself, but your brand will be built through details, deadlines, and data. Build your personal brand and reputation by always being on time, getting clarity on deadlines so you deliver timely work, and double checking your data to make sure you deliver accurate work.

Setting Goals

When setting goals, you want to take into consideration your boss’s goals, your priorities, and what your peers are doing. By asking your boss what their goals are for you, you gain clarity on where they want you focusing your efforts, and by knowing your priorities, you can propose them to your boss as well. And you do not need to be overly aware of what your peers are doing, but always make sure to know how you are performing in relation to others at your level.

Learn More About Tips for Building a Successful Career through Emotional Intelligence

If you’re interested in learning more about tips to advance your career, view our on-demand webinar hosted by Wall Street investment banker, author, and corporate director James A. Runde. This webinar is a breakout session for Wiley’s accounting and finance student career readiness webinar.