There’s a lesson in every situation.

Take time to reflect, refresh, reset.

I recently shared my intention to join the Convocation Executive Committee at Wits University (my alma mater for my undergraduate degree). Many of you showed your support by voting, or encouraging eligible voters in your network to vote.

I’d like to say a huge Thank You for the support! Unfortunately, I didn’t secure enough votes but I thoroughly enjoyed meeting new people and re-connecting with old friends as I canvassed for votes! Those of you who follow my LinkedIn or Instagram accounts might have seen a few campaign videos. I often laugh at how social media has become my life after avoiding it for so long: following your passion will take you to unexpected places!

The process reminded me about the beautiful basics of what certain opportunities require from us if we are to be successful. 4 points come to mind:

Build your network before you need it. I know many people but I hadn’t particularly cultivated a large Wits alumni network. I found new acquaintances were willing to engage once we interacted but I should have spent more time building that rapport broadly.
Even when you have a network, you have to nurture it to get results from it. Put differently, the people you know have to be interested and invested in your success. Some level of effort will be required for your network to support you - the question is, will they step up? The bigger the stakes, the more effort you should put into gaining confidence that your squad will support you when it matters most.
Make it easy for people to support you: explain the process and remove barriers to participation. Many alumni aren’t aware of the voting process, how to register or how to vote. I made it easy for people to understand what to do and followed up to ensure votes were submitted. This may sound obvious but when you are dealing with busy people, this is a crucial step! In business, we talk about sales conversion and mitigating issues in the user journey where a customer may drop off. Voting processes have a high drop-off risk! Invest effort into making sure that doesn’t happen.
Communicate, communicate, communicate! Again, people are busy and aren’t watching deadlines and other details to the same level of intensity as you. You may feel like a spam bot 🤖 but share updates and keep the energy levels high ✨.

Many of us are in or are approaching that phase of our careers where we need to lean on our communities to get the positions we seek or to drive sales for our businesses. Advocacy and mobilising people is a hugely important skill to master. Our CVs and track record do not speak for themselves - WE have to speak up! The beautiful basics are where we begin, and they prompt an intentionality about what we spend our time on and who we should engage with.

Amazing things happen when we show up for each other! I likewise look forward to supporting you with your goals.

Let’s build!

Remember: