Squiggly Shortcut: Give to Gain - The Career Strategy Nobody Talks About

0:00Adam Grant:Hi, it's Helen from the Squiggly Careers podcast and you're listening or perhaps watching another one of our Squiggly Shortcuts. These are weekly episodes designed to be deliberately short to make it easier for you to fit them into your week. We always focus on a very specific topic and give you some easy actions to get started with. And today I want to borrow a bit of brilliance actually from International Women's Day where this year the theme is Give to Gain. and this really aligns with what Sarah and I talk about in building your squiggly career community

0:30Helen Tupper:which is that really we want to use this idea of people helping people as a way to make sure that

0:36Adam Grant:we're building strong relationships so it aligns with this idea of give to gain I want to talk about why it aligns and why it matters and then how how you can do it so let's talk about the why for a moment why does give to gain matter for your squiggly career two two reasons relationships and reciprocity. So the first is building relationships. It is easier for our brains to

0:59Helen Tupper:engage with helping people than it is for our brains to think, what can I get from them? So when you are building a new relationship with somebody, or you're trying to build a better relationship with somebody, if your starting point is, what have I got to give?

1:15Adam Grant:How can I be helpful? that is just mentally easier for our brains we get this side this thing called the help is high and it's just a better starting place for us so easier to build the relationships that you need new ones and invest in existing ones when we start with what have we got to give now the second reason

1:32Helen Tupper:that this works is that that then results in reciprocity so you build a better relationship that results in reciprocity i.e those people want to help you back and i really think the best person who's shown research and done work on this is Adam Grant. Very good TED talk on the topic of kind of give and take. Really, really, really useful.

1:53Adam Grant:So I dive into that if you want to learn more. But what I really wanted to share with you is three ways in which you can give because the

2:00Helen Tupper:hurdle I find when I'm talking to people about this is that they get the idea that giving builds better relationships and that it's proven to result in reciprocity, but they talk themselves out of doing it because they say well I don't know what I've got to give and that question gets in the way of them giving. So three easy ways for you to give and you don't have to do all of these but I would think about which one feels like the best the best one for you. So the first thing I think when you're giving is reflect on what are you recommended for. So when people are talking about you and they're saying you know Sarah's amazing at um Helen's brilliant because you know whatever the feedback that you have had on the past that is that is a really easy give for you because it's probably something that comes quite naturally to you so for example if I reflect on when I've had feedback about what I do well what are people most likely to say they either say energy um so Helen creates lots of energy in meetings and conversations and presentations or I get clarity a lot.

3:08Helen Tupper:Helen creates lots of clarity. So use that feedback as almost fuel for what you can give more on. So now I will think to people or I'll say to people, oh, one of the things I can do well is I can create clarity. If that'll be useful for you in this situation, I'm really happy to help. So I'll spot those situations where that skill that I've been recommended for is something that they might need to have.

3:32Adam Grant:So that's the first thing reflect what you're recommended for and then spot the situation where that might be useful second thing is about your experiences we've all collected lots of different experiences in our

3:43Helen Tupper:squiggly careers and there will be somebody who wants to or is experiencing something that you have already done or been through and therefore your experience your knowledge of that could be

3:57Adam Grant:useful to them again if i just you know quickly think about some experiences i've had i've had had experiences of changing industry. I've had experience of starting a podcast. I have had experiences of starting my own business.

4:12Helen Tupper:These are all things that I have experienced in my career that other people might benefit from. And again, it's about making sure that when you're talking to people and you're listening and you're curious about what they might need, you connect the dots with the experiences you've had and then you're proactive in offering to help them. People often don't know what you've got to give so you have to do a bit of the work for them and then the third

4:33Adam Grant:thing is expertise you will have some specific skills some specific knowledge it might not be the things that you're immediately recommended for like we talked about at the start but it's definitely knowledge that's valuable for other people so again think in your career what have you developed expertise in that could be useful to share now you could share that in a five minute

4:55Helen Tupper:team meeting. You could share that by mentoring somebody. You could share that by writing a post on LinkedIn. There are lots of ways that you can give, but you really want to connect it to what is something that you have relatively deep expertise in. So for example, mine might be leading teams. Like I've been a manager for a long time now, and there's a lot I've learned about managing. There's a lot I've still got to learn, but I could share that expertise with somebody who's managing for the first time.

5:22Adam Grant:And I could share that expertise in lots of different formats. so just three ways that you can get giving so that you get gaining i hope that that has been helpful for you if you do want to dive deeper we've done a longer podcast on how to create career karma which will talk through the ideas you'll hear a bit of sarah's perspective as well so that is a recommended listen if you'd like to learn more but i will leave it there for now thank you so much feedback is always welcome it's just helen and sarah at squigglycareers.com