Wondering how to make the most of your connections?

An image of Suzy Stollery, with her mentor scheme partners.

We had the brilliant Suzy Stollery, ex People Director at Pukka Herbs & Founder of Beside Ltd, speak to the JEDI MATTERS Collective about mentoring & the power of connections.

Here were our 5 key takeouts:

👂 “Listening to understand, rather than to speak”
There’s a lot you can learn from being curious and actively listening to others in order to learn from them.

☕ Try to reframe the word “networking” as simply having a coffee
Networking is about connecting with someone else and more often than not is an informal conversation over a coffee - it doesn’t need to be cooperate or feel forced.

🤝 Mentors don’t always have to be with someone more senior
Mentors can be a peer, leader, or a line manager - in fact any interaction offers an opportunity to learn from someone.

😄 Most people want to help
Be honest, proactive and clear about your ask and how someone can help you and you'll be surprised about how open people are to help you.

💡 Set yourself an achievable goal and make that move Challenge yourself if you don’t like networking to reach out to someone every month/quarter - you’d be amazed how easy it is and having a goal can help get the ball rolling!

JEDI MATTERS Collective will be launching our Connections Programme in May - a unique cross business networking / mentoring programme.