Blogs

Social Networking Websites: Generating some social income in a time of economic uncertainty

Just how important is social capital, anyways?

It can be a simple, unconscious experience: you slow down your vehicle to provide space for a car entering the freeway. It could have an enormous impact on your world: you’ve always wanted to write a novel and you just found out your best friend’s sister-in-law is an editor with a large publisher. The world would be a vastly different place without the foundation of relationships in our lives.

Turning your social capital into… Continue

Added by John-Paul Hatala on April 2, 2009 at 11:19pm — 1 Comment

Join me on Twitter

Hello all, I've entered the world of Twitter. If you have a twitter account, my username is jphatala. I would be glad to follow you. What I like best about the concept is that you only have 140 characters to get your point across. My research indicates that the more precise you are in sharing your goals the greater the likelihood that someone will help.Twitter represents the opportunity to practice this important skill at the same time receiving feedback on how well you're doing it. Give it a… Continue

Added by John-Paul Hatala on March 29, 2009 at 7:16pm — No Comments

What's up with online social networking?

Hello all, I've ventured into the world of twitter (jphatala) and actually like the concept of micro blogging...or better yet, the opportunity to get your point across in 140 characters. It's actually a good exercise for setting goals and an activity that I will be using with individuals who are trying to become better networkers. Twitter forces them to be specific. If you're interested in joining me on a research project using Twitter, drop me a note and I will fill you in and let you know how… Continue

Added by John-Paul Hatala on March 26, 2009 at 10:19pm — No Comments

It's all about giving when it comes to building social capital!

When's the last time you went to your network and offered something up to your contacts? If you don't know the answer, it's time to start thinking about giving something back, especially if you find yourself asking for help during these tough economic times. We sometimes get caught up looking for help so that we can accomplish our own goals and we forget to give back. Remember, social capital is like a savings account, if we keep withdrawing money and don't add more to it, it will eventually go… Continue

Added by John-Paul Hatala on March 24, 2009 at 11:06pm — No Comments

Is there such a thing as negative social capital?

Researchers are turning their attention towards the negative side of social capital. If you were to peruse the literature you undoubtedly come up with more studies of how social capital helps us in our lives than you would find how it hurts us.

However, it's important to remember that not all social capital is good. I can think of gangs, poor attitude of students and many others than impact people's lives negatively. It's important to promote positive relationship development in our… Continue

Added by John-Paul Hatala on March 21, 2009 at 8:18am — No Comments

To connect or not to connect....

In these tough economic times many people are battling the forces that are at play and impacting their economic reality. Pulling together and leveraging the social resources that exist within our networks is a viable option for making it through these tough times. If this is so, why do so many of us fail to connect strategically with the people in our lives?

I'm probably guilty of this as well and work hard to go against my natural tendencies to retreat and deal with things on my… Continue

Added by John-Paul Hatala on March 13, 2009 at 4:48pm — No Comments

Making the connection between technology and social capital

I'm now in North Carolina at a conference for technology in education. I'm here to present the concept of social capital development as a mediator for technology use. I find this to be quite interesting. Many educators have found technology adoption to be minimal when it comes to implementing it within a set curriculum. The need to foster a community of technological support is at the forefront of many educators minds and their goal is to get students to adopt technology for learning… Continue

Added by John-Paul Hatala on March 4, 2009 at 11:02pm — No Comments

Building social capital on a train

I'm sitting on a train heading out to another conference writing this blog entry. Thanks to technology, you can now get the internet while moving in a forward direction at over 100 miles an hour. Who would of thought! As I sit here looking around I can only imagine the number of social resources sitting in the seats. I've spoken to a few individuals, had some small talk and even met a gentleman that can help me out with an issue I'm having with my lighting at home. It truly is amazing where… Continue

Added by John-Paul Hatala on February 22, 2009 at 7:29pm — No Comments

Another example of tapping into so social resources

My wife and I were wanting to get our trees trimmed on our property. We got a couple of quotes and due to the size of them, were looking at 2-3 thousand dollars. This was something that I did not want to do and even worse, pay that much money. My wife was talking to one of our neighbors who she rarely saw and asked them if they knew anyone who trimmed trees. She thought that these particular neighbors would be a good resource because a year or so ago, they had talked about the importance of… Continue

Added by John-Paul Hatala on February 15, 2009 at 4:40pm — No Comments

Turning social capital into social income...not that easy.

If we take a purely transactional view of networking and think about how many times we've converted an opportunity for a contact to help us out, it's probably a small number for most of us. There are some individuals that are naturally good at this, while the majority of us have a hard time. But isn't it the point of networking to tap into a social resource so that you can accomplish a goal. What good is social capital if we can't turn it into something that helps us. Of course, the key is to… Continue

Added by John-Paul Hatala on February 11, 2009 at 5:54pm — No Comments

Are we networking more than we think?

Networking is a funny concept. It's not really tangible. We can't feel it, although we can see it in action if we're aware. This becomes even more apparent when we try and do it. Asking a friend for advice or getting directions from a neighbor could be viewed as networking. Defining networking becomes even more of a problem when trying to understand this phenomenon. Is it something that happens naturally or is it a conscious activity. We're all part of a network, whether big or small. The… Continue

Added by John-Paul Hatala on February 8, 2009 at 8:30am — No Comments

The Thrill of Victory....How we define success

The Thrill of Victory...and let's not complete the thought. The reason I say stop there is that it's important to focus on the victories in our lives. Some would say that it's as important to focus on our defeats so that we don't repeat them, but I think in these unpredictable times it might do us good to focus on what works out for us.

If we hold true to this thought process, then we need to start defining what we mean by success or victories. I asked this of a class of grade 9… Continue

Added by John-Paul Hatala on February 5, 2009 at 7:58pm — No Comments

Practicing what you preach

Practice what you preach! That old adage is true yet we fail to comply by its simple logic. I work with practitioners of all sorts across the world and preach the importance of tapping into their networks. Well, I would like to share an experience of mine where I actually followed my own advice. It's simple, but I think it nicely illustrates the point.

I'm in the process of developing a new tool that walks individuals through the networking process. I had been using a printer for a… Continue

Added by John-Paul Hatala on February 1, 2009 at 1:30pm — No Comments

The trouble with networking

The trouble with networking is that it's a complex task. We have to think about why we want to connect, then think about who we want to connect to, then think about how we are going to connect and then connect. It seems like a lot of trouble? Doesn't it? I think the best response to this question doesn't have to be as difficult. The first thing we have to do is start to think about networking as a very important part of our lives. Just like we need to eat to survive, we need to network to move… Continue

Added by John-Paul Hatala on January 30, 2009 at 7:19pm — No Comments

How do we define Networking?

I was thinking about this very question on my way home from a conference presentation the other day. How I view social networking is something that is mutually beneficial that leads to some sort of opportunity that is helpful. This is a utilitarian viewpoint of networking but perhaps it's much more fluid than that. Maybe it's about allowing opportunities to arise through the activity of meeting others. If I believed the latter, I would have to think that those who are natural networkers would… Continue

Added by John-Paul Hatala on January 27, 2009 at 8:57am — No Comments

Building individual social capital for youth at risk

I just came back from a 4 day workshop with some participants who are deemed 'youth at risk'. Out of school, mental issues, addiction and other issues that impact their ability to be self-sufficient. The program director asked me to work with them on increasing their social capital or at the very least getting them to think about how their network has positive or negative effects on their lives. To my surprise, the concepts I covered with them resonated quite well with the group. It especially… Continue

Added by John-Paul Hatala on January 19, 2009 at 5:47pm — No Comments

Using a snow blower to build social capital?

For those of you who live in colder climates and know what snow is, the last thing you look forward to is shoveling your driveway. It's just not fun. They say that more and more people are dieing of snow shoveling related heart attacks than ever before. I guess the grind and physical endurance this activity takes is taxing on people.

I was shoveling some snow, well, actually to be honest, snow blowing. Yes, I have a snow blower. Is it lazy, probably, but it does save a lot of time… Continue

Added by John-Paul Hatala on January 11, 2009 at 12:24pm — No Comments

An interesting conversation with my 5 year old daugther - Perhaps a lesson for effective networking

I picked up my 5 year old daughter from school yesterday and I asked her how was her day. She replied that it had been a productive day although she encountered a bit of problem. I was curious what had happened. She basically said that she wanted to play with a toy that a classmate was already playing with. I asked her what she did? She told the classmate that if he let her play with it that she would play with him the next day! I then asked if she got the toy and she said of course daddy. Of… Continue

Added by John-Paul Hatala on January 8, 2009 at 2:31pm — No Comments

People are Lazy! Setting the criteria for asking someone to help you accomplish a goal

I'm probably preaching to the choir here, but I thought I would discuss with you some of the criteria I've established for communicating goals. By no means is this an exhaustive list and you're more than welcome to add to it.

First off, I think we need to address an assumption; people are lazy. What I mean by that is that they don't have the time to figure out what someone is actually trying to do. For example, I need a job, can you help me? I get this a lot from my students. What I… Continue

Added by John-Paul Hatala on January 7, 2009 at 10:30am — No Comments

Get My Blog Posts Here

My blog address is http://www.executiveskillworks.com/blog

Feel free to join the conversation focusing on the transformation of leadership!

Regards - David

Added by David Utts on January 7, 2009 at 10:11am — 1 Comment

All Blog Posts (24)