RETURN TO NETWORKING STRATEGIES

Power Positioning for Success
By Terri Mrosko

Power positioning is the art of putting yourself in a place you want to be that maximizes your talents, skills and contacts through marketing, communication and networking techniques.

“What’s nice about the concept of power positioning is it applies to everything in your life,” said Christine Zust. President of Zust & Company, Zust specializes in communication, training, consulting and coaching individuals for success.

Everything you do, positions you, says Zust. How you communicate and network with people, the level of knowledge you possess about your field, your attitude, how you package yourself as a professional and your own personal style comes into play. It touches on not just your career within your company, it also touches upon your involvement in community, professional organizations, and volunteer boards.

Every action you take positions you for professional success. Some people do it better than others, explains Zust, because they use power in a positive rather than a negative way.

“A lot of people in the workplace have tremendous power and use it in an abusive way. They think just because they are in a certain position, they can treat you this way,” said Zust.

Zust prefers a holistic power, a power from within, which is a more beneficial power. She advises people to shift from a “what’s in it for me” perspective to “what’s in it for the other person.” If you can help someone else achieve his or her success, you achieve your own success.

An important aspect in positioning yourself is networking correctly. People think passing out business cards automatically puts them into someone else’s network, but it doesn’t, says Zust.

“Networking is really all about relationship building, developing relations over a long period of time. I teach people to look at their professional life in a broader fashion and remember everything they do positions them,” she said.

The reality of positioning is you work at it for life as part of your professional strategy, said Zust. Because your network is comprised of people--living organisms--you need to feed, nurture and grow those relationships.

One of the networking rules people frequently break is to lose touch with people, and then suddenly reappear when they need something. If you truly are in someone’s network or they in yours, stay in touch. If you do lose touch over the years, it is fine to reconnect, just be sure you have no ulterior need when you do so.

Networking is give and take. You can’t just turn it on and off. Keep in touch with people who are part of your network. If you see someone you are not yet connected to, says Zust, you can deliberately and purposefully add him or her to your network.

“There’s nothing stopping you from picking up the telephone and calling someone and saying ‘I’d really like to get to know you,’” Zust said. “That’s a secret that people lose sight of.”