- Expert reveals that 9 minutes a day is all it takes to maintain a healthy, successful career.
- Men perceived as better networkers than women.
- Nearly 36% of population believe that Marketing and PR professionals are the best networkers.
LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network with more than 161 million members, today revealed that over two-thirds (67%) of UK professionals believe that the ideal amount of time spent daily on progressing your career should be in excess of 30 minutes according to research by IPSOS Mori, involving 3,200 working professionals globally.
World leading personal branding expert William Arruda instead presents a far more appealing and realistic time commitment– he advocates that by spending just 9 minutes a day you’ll be able to maintain a healthy and successful career. The public perception of 3.5+hrs per week is a stark contrast to Arruda’s recommendation of 45 minutes per week.
Arruda, who partnered with LinkedIn to identify the optimum amount of time to spend daily on what he has termed ‘continuous career management’, said, “fitting 9 minutes of career management into your daily schedule is all it takes without adding stress or pressure. 9 minutes is the optimum amount of time recommended, because it also gives you complete focus, and educators to psychologists agree that the ability to focus one’s attention on a task is crucial for the achievement of one’s goals.
“Relationships require care and so building and maintaining them is a major component of successful career management. These days, we live in a highly connected and technology driven world, so building your online network on LinkedIn, is a critical career management skill,” says Arruda.
Other results reveal that – given an hour – 98% would place equal importance in making the boss tea as spending time building their network or finessing their CV.
Arruda continued, “If you have a good LinkedIn profile, you can be approached at any time by a prospective employer about a job that they already think you are perfectly suited for and so it’s worth spending the time to keep your profile current and put your best foot forward even if you are not actively looking for a job. Your dream job may find you.”
Other than the marketing profession, politicians were deemed to be the most effective networkers (18%), followed by stockbrokers (11%) and journalists (10%).
Also revealed was a gender divide – more men think the sexes are equally developing their careers, yet women are more likely to think than men spend more time developing their careers (50% women vs. 29% men) with 37% of the population think that men are better than women at networking, versus 24% believing women were better.
Despite this workplace confusion, Arruda says the 9 Minutes is easy to adopt. The below are suggestions of activities professionals can do during their 9 minute:
1. Build your network- building and maintaining relationships is a major component of a successful career
2. Maintain relationships by recommending and congratulating others in their careers – everyone enjoys being recognized and LinkedIn provides an easy way to do this
3. Request recommendations from your network as credibility is critical
4. Document achievements and wins on your LinkedIn profile to stay current and relevant.
5. Update your status every day and make sure your profile and photo is current
6. Expand on your thought leadership; lead a forum or LinkedIn group; publish an article; start a blog; speak publicly or recommend books on the Amazon LinkedIn app.
7. Use the power of video and create a video bio of yourself for your LinkedIn profile.
8. Source staff – one of a manager’s hardest jobs. If you build your brand community, you’ll create fans who want to work for you.
9. Research. Make an effort to get to know more about your clients or partners and competitors. LinkedIn is a great place to start
LinkedIn spokesperson Darain Faraz said, “The work place is evolving in ways previously unimagined. Technology and the speed at which its evolving is having a major impact on the way business is conducted. Concurrently, the economic situation also means we work in an increasingly competitive environment. Clearly it’s more important than ever to take control and manage your own career. Think of yourself as your own personal brand and invest time in building this, whether you are looking for a job or not. The work we have done with William, we hope, will helps professionals manage this new and exciting terrain – the recommendation is simple – allocate a small amount of time each day to nurturing your career.”
Tracey Hollins, a ‘mumpreneur’ from Carmarthenshire has been a member of LinkedIn since the beginning of 2011. She founded her own business Coverdry Ltd so understands the importance of investing time into personal branding and making connections with like-minded people in the industry. “Since starting Coverdry I’ve had to invest time into building up a good network of contacts to ensure that the business is a success. Whilst I was nervous to begin with I now have an extremely solid list of LinkedIn connections – which is constantly growing. These people have given me opportunities and advice that I would have never had if I hadn’t put myself out there. Networking without a doubt has been key factor in the success of my business so far.”
