As Yesh and I was devouring on the snack waiting impatiently for the module to begin, little did I know that the sophomores facilitate sessions for the freshmen so enthusiastically. As the door opened before me I was impatient to find out how they start their session. Kelly and Ali – two of the mentors of the Compass Partners chapter at George Washington University (GWU) stood and waited for Yesh to turn on his Macbook, while the freshmen, who are the learners in this session, waited with eagerness. Then it started. I could see how the content of both Kelly and Ali were designed to meet the needs of the freshmen!

I could see very well how Kelly and Ali both painstakingly designed the content keeping in mind the freshmen’s need.

The topic for the day was “Networking”, which always fascinated me. As Ali mentioned about the importance of good emails and Kelly talked about the importance of LinkedIn,

I could relate so well with my workshop at BRAC University in Bangladesh and the one that I facilitated for the Educators at Institute of Education Research of University of Dhaka. Keeping in touch with the dynamic, fast-paced world we live in nowadays, I can’t stress enough how important it is to know the tools of connecting with people.

Beside the topic, the way they were facilitating the session was immensely energizing! The facilitators did their homework to address what the learners really needed, invited participation from them and helped them analyse and learn, and even giving the chance of hands-on experience.  GWU students have great communication skills – I could tell.

The content in the session was so helpful! I would love to create better network in LinkedIn and would get back to them to know more about these as I could see that they knew how to do it! What about you? There are so many ways of learning it, which you can do online. I am sharing some of the ones that  I have found very simple and interesting:

  1. Post in LinkedIn groups: Do give your input and provide appropriate responses to the ones that other group members share in the LinkedIn groups that you have joined. Stay active and be part of the conversation.
  2. Write posts: Rather than posting only on your dedicated blogging site (if you have one) you should also write in LinkedIn. You can do so by clicking on “Publish a Post”. Once you do it a notification is sent to all your contacts. However, make sure that the content is rich!
  3. Recommend people: if you recommend someone you have a better professional relationship with him as well as you are more visible in the platform. When anyone is visiting your recommended person’s profile will also be able to see you.
  4. Share appropriate content: Many of us step into the frenzy of using LinkedIn as we use facebook. The way we send messages and post updates should be different from that we do so in facebook.
  5. Stay in touch with your contacts: There are many ways of staying in touch after you connect with them. You can send them important updates related to their industries, take part in group discussions, comment on their updates and pictures (again these should not be in the same way you do in facebook), and so on.
Extreme dedication to make the session a success!

Extreme dedication to make the session a success!