Community can mean something different for each of us. For some, it's a place where you belong. For others, it's a feeling of companionship with likeminded people. Community is, indeed, those things, as well as those with a common interest living together within a larger society or even society at large.
My Community
When I started in coaching, an acquaintance advised me to build my "coaching community." Interestingly, many people I know seemed to have a similar idea of a professional community - that it needed to be people who all did the same thing I did. When I spread the word in my network that I had started a coaching practice, many of my connections wanted to introduce me to the people they knew in coaching.
I diligently went about meeting as many coaches as possible, talking with them about the type of coaching they specialized in, how they ran their practices, and how they became coaches. It was a heady experience at first as I immersed myself in this group that was so new to me.
I don't recall a specific turning point in my community mindset, but I began to reach out to others who had tangential interests to coaching. While I had learned from more experienced coaches at the beginning, I was also forming my own methods and ways of working and wanted to explore additional avenues for my practice. This exploration tapped into my creative side, and I flourish creatively when I have mental space. I stopped seeking the company of other coaches as frequently as I had been and branched out.
Today, community has, along with the meanings mentioned earlier, an expanded connotation of the people who believe in and support me and with whom I truly enjoy spending time. My community has become a combination of extended family, meaningful friendship, professional support, and fun.
Here are ideas for how you can build your own community to help you be your best self.
Getting Started
One place to start is where I went first, to those with similar professional backgrounds. Others who work in your profession will have a great deal in common with you regarding how they spend most of their day, so you will have something to talk about right away. Those who share a vocation with you will also implicitly understand something about your professional life. From this community, you can receive support in the form of suggestions for how to refine your work, validation for your career choices, ideas on career paths, and people to whom you can vent about your job without having to explain it.
It was very helpful for me to meet, for example, other project managers when I first moved into that role. Having a project management community with whom to discuss methodologies and tools, keeping the management team engaged and productive, and how different companies organized their project staff expanded my knowledge and built my confidence to ask for changes and make improvements where I worked.
Having common interests helps people connect, as well. Those with the same hobbies or lifestyle can easily find topics of conversation to speed up the getting acquainted process. This has been key for me since I spend most of my work time in a home office. Some of you readers likely have seen my Lessons in Leadership from a Rottie articles on Medium. My puppy has been a tremendous help in meeting new people. I now have a sub-community of those I've met while dog walking who will cheerfully walk with us, arrange puppy play dates, and provide training tips.
Refining Your Community
As you move through your career and life, your community needs will likely change. This doesn't mean that you will leave all of your earlier connections behind, but you will expand your community. You may form sub-communities, as I noted above with my dog parent buddies, or you may form completely separate communities with members who have no overlap.
A good starting point for expanding your community is to connect with more people from your alma mater. Over the last few years, I've become more active with the local alumni chapter of my alma mater and with the university community overall. It's been enlightening to learn what others have accomplished with their education and rewarding to help students and new grads plan their career paths and improve their resumes and interview skills. I've met alums with whom I have chosen to spend extra time outside of sponsored activities. They have supplied great insights into my chosen profession, helped me grow my connections, and provided enjoyable companionship.
Another way to expand your community is to reach out to those who worked at the same or similar companies but in different departments from you. These commonalities will give you something to talk about from the start but will also provide different perspectives from those who work in roles that are comparable to yours. I've been connecting with more people who worked at my past companies. The connections have led to pleasant chats as well as serving to improve the visibility of my company and career change, providing welcome support.
Adapting to Changes
My life and career have been a series of transitions with change becoming a familiar companion. That has meant that my community has morphed with those changes. It has contracted, expanded, and taken new form.
As you move through your career, you will most likely change roles, domains, companies, industries, or some combination. All of those changes are opportunities for you to modify your community. When I was in customer-facing roles, my community was primarily others in similar roles. When I become a project manager, I surrounded myself with other PMs. The sense of belonging stayed the same, but the primary community members changed as I changed jobs.
I have also had a number of changes in my personal life that shaped how I refined my community at different stages. As a parent of young children, I found friendship and support from other parents. My expanded community was key for me when I returned to an office job. My community members with more flexibility provided both practical and emotional support. Now that I'm a caregiver for an elderly parent, my community has again grown to include others in sandwich mode. These important community members offer helpful ideas, contact information for agencies and service providers, and, most importantly, understanding.
One way that my community has expanded was unexpected. As I settled into coaching and my lifestyle changed, I found myself rearranging my values. The list is the same, but some have moved to a more prominent place. This has led me to expand my community to people who help me cultivate the values that I want to enhance. For example, I've written about cultivating serenity. That practice has moved me closer to people who model that value and help me to better model it myself.
Your Community
I wish you well on your journey to building and refining your own community. Whether you are just getting started, recognize a need to expand due to professional or personal changes, or would like to grow the support and companionship available to you, your community will be shaped by who you are.
Comments