Welcome back to the Look and Sound of Leadership, an ongoing series of executive

coaching tips designed to help you be perceived in the workplace the way you want to be perceived.

I'm Tom Henschel, your executive coach, and today we're talking about networking conversations,

part one. Part 1

Povny was thinking ahead. She was in year 2 of a three-year project.

When the project ended, she wanted to leave her giant multinational corporation and leverage

her momentum to get hired as a chief officer with a mid-sized company.

She'd mentioned this during our coaching conversations, but today she'd lingered on the idea, saying,

if I'm serious about it, I have to get started. I'm probably already behind.

What's stopping, you asked.

She rolled her eyes.

I hate networking, Tom.

And it's probably how this is going to happen.

It might happen through a recruiter, but I doubt it.

I think it'll be somebody I know introducing me to somebody they know which

means I need to network and I just hate it because because it's so obvious she said

it's obvious the only reason I'm talking to them is because I want

something from them but we're both pretending that's not what's happening

oh it makes me want to take a shower. I nodded but didn't speak.

She looked at me expectantly.

Aren't you going to help me out here?

You usually have some helpful idea.

...