Surround yourself with people.

It doesn’t seem like the right headline to use during the time of COVID-19, but it’s true that good people are important. And, I use the word SURROUND loosely. You can be connected to people through online channels, the phone or six feet apart even if we can’t do as much face to face connecting as we used to.

The importance of people in your life to your career and your personal well being is huge. Having a few people around you that know what your current challenges are and others to share the victories is one part of the importance of relationships. It’s calming. It’s reassuring. It’s powerful to have good relationships in your life. Personal development expert Brian Tracy states, “You are the combination of the five people you spend the most time with.” In my mind that could be that those five people influence your income, your happiness, your confidence, your motivation, your community activation etc.

So what if you’re not sure who you want to surround yourself with? Maybe your co-workers aren’t giving you the type of feedback and support you desire. Or, as we’ve seen with the Directors Dozen groups, many people don’t have a confidant that they can ask for feedback and advice during critical career transitions. Without someone to talk to your thinking can get clouded. And it’s very easy to shift from rational thinking to emotional thinking that doesn’t serve forward progress. Finding the right people requires you take a risk and show up.

I’ve never found it easy to be “vulnerable” with other people right away. Eventually I warmed up to the idea through team sports, good friends and mastermind groups. As I became an executive coach at Best Buy I noticed that every person has a different level of what they think is confiding. Some spill every thought and issue they are going through to confide. While, others think it’s a huge secret to share one small detail of their lives. The researcher and author Brene Brown writes about being vulnerable that lately I’ve found myself noticing how easy it is for people online to share their most intimate thoughts and challenges. I prefer having a group of people where we can all share our thoughts, goals and challenges. Even if it’s on zoom.

If you’re wondering how to think through what comes next or want to surround yourself with more people, consider joining a peer group. There are many to choose from, but I’m prone to the ones I run called Directors Dozen and Frontrunner Networking.