Chicago AMA | For Marketing Professionals

Managing Your Career

"KEY TO INCREASING your marketability is building relationships," says Mark Harris of Harris Development Group. "Everything you do is a stepping stone to where you want to go. Everyone you meet is someone you can learn from."

Why build relationships? They can provide you with knowledge or information, political connections, reward opportunities (such as career advancement, money, assignments) and social connections.

To build effective relationships, Harris suggests

Use information -- who you know and what you know -- as currency.
Build trust. Acknowledge people and their comments. Be open-minded, non-judgmental. Be approachable. Have a positive attitude. Be sincere and accessible.
Develop reciprocity
Differentiate marketing from selling

"When it comes to your career, selling yourself is offensive and a short-term approach," he says, advocating instead a marketing approach -- uncovering a need and creating an impression for a future action.

Harris' four suggestions for building relationships: offer to help, solve a problem, educate/mentor the individual, market ideas to people.

And he calls these elements critical to improving your marketability to an organization:

Understanding the organization's core business and goals...not just what your job is
Identifying the needs and communication styles of key decision-makers and influencers
Developing professional relationships
Examining critical skills -- present and future
Harris shared these career management tips during a special Chicago AMA After Hours program.

Back to the Chicago AMA Homepage