Introduction: Exploring My Community

The intention of this module is to explore ways of preparing prior to reaching out to community/network, whether you’re in the beginning stages of developing your professional community or expanding your existing community. There are key fundamental steps to take before connecting with others to increase your effectiveness and positive outcomes:

• Play to your strengths, (highlighted in the video Want to Network Better? Follow These 5 Tips From Master Connectors (Downes, 2019) in the unit introduction) and know your strengths, values, interests, and career goals.
• Become well-versed with LinkedIn, Alumni (via LinkedIn Royal Roads page, alumni tab), information meetings/interviews, seeking out professional conferences, events, and Meetups.
• Ask good questions, (highlighted in the video Want to Network Better? Follow These 5 Tips From Master Connectors (Downes, 2019) in the unit introduction) it is important to develop thoughtful questions to initiate and conduct meaningful conversations.

We want to emphasize this: to whom and how you connect is personal. Some people might have a distaste for attending large events—developing community isn’t always in the public setting. Not everyone is comfortable with social media. We offer ideas and suggestions for you to take what you like and leave the rest. It is crucial to be authentic and true to yourself, and establish your style for building your community with what works for you.

Consider starting this journey with a mindset of curiosity and reframe this endeavour as “how might you add value to someone’s life” rather than “how can this person meet my needs.” Adding value can mean many different things, from sharing a thought, a current article, an idea, a meaningful connection, and/or informing someone of a job lead.

To complete this module, you can download the Exploring My Community Worksheet to use as a guide and journal to record your answers as you work through the Exploring My Community Resource Map.