The Networking Essentials workshop on 13th November by Luis Miranda, renowned banker, social activist and co-founder of Take Charge Mentorship was conducted at St. Stanislaus, Bandra. Take Charge provides several learning opportunities for its young mentees in different areas of interest and importance to engage and build their expertise. The session started off with the question ‘Why are you here and not somewhere else?’ to our 60 participants. Interesting reasons for attending were shared – from cultivating meaningful relationships, creating the right connections for career and life, building and strengthening networks etc. The larger group formed smaller networking units to aid better sharing.
Describing himself as ‘Forest Gump’, Luis shared his interesting story with all, through a powerful presentation in which he demonstrated how Networking created tremendous opportunities for him in every sphere of his life. Truly, your Network is your net worth. The participants were given a small networking exercise prior to the workshop, the sharing that resulted helped all to see the value of building, reviving and engaging in networking – the effective process that helps you stay connected with your world.
Luis let us in on his secret of PHORCE networking:
● Positivity – Surround yourself with positive people and never negotiate with yourself.
● Hardwork – there is no substitute, to receive you must give first.
● Openness – Be open to a different point of view. Hang out with people who may not be like you. Five people to hang out with – the inspired, the motivated, the open-minded, the passionate and the grateful.
● Reliance (Trust) – Vital to any relationship.
● Curosity – Assimilate information and be eager to know more.
● Empathy – Genuine care for people and their welfare.
Who does not want to be lucky? Luck by choice will ensure we all are. Richard Wiseman suggested that life is full of possibilities by
● Maximizing chance opportunities
● Listening to your gut instincts
● Expecting to be lucky – optimistic
● Finding the good in everything
Luis also let the participants in on some of his secret mantras - Keep your focus on the important things in life, as it’s easier to make decisions, stop blaming others and look at yourself first, the most important tip to a better conversation is ‘Listening’, every week learn something new and record it.
Luis is a dot connector – For him everything starts with a dot and it’s important to connect the dots
● Note the dots
● Work the dots
● Humour the dots
● Work the dots beyond work
● Make the dots long-dated
● Be grateful to the dots
● Reply to the dots
It’s all about the DOTS
During the interactive break everyone was fully engaged in making new connections while they enjoyed the delicious snacks. The session ended with a fun networking quiz – an activity to keep the networking ongoing. Prizes were distributed for all the competitions held so far and the deserving winners were happy to take home self-help books that would aid better networking.
With many take aways and a lot of engagement to keep networking alive, everyone left with grateful thanks to Luis Miranda and the Take Charge Mentorship team for a time of fun, learning and meaningful interactions. A big thanks to Fr. Frazer for the Loyola hall.
May the PHORCE be with us!
Sharon Pires