A speaker encouraged Christians to attach importance to establishing and managing networking in the workplace.
In late September, Elder Elaine Kung, who has decades of rich experience in the marketplace, urged Christians to learn and attach importance to establishing and managing networking in her lecture on the mission of the workplace.
In her lecture titled "Knowing Others-Connects and Mentors", Kung who holds a master's degree from Princeton University pointed out that these were very important for personal growth and helping others.
"You must be popular, and must have networks." She added that it was very necessary for us to establish a valuable, meaningful and mutual beneficial relationship with others as everyone needs a mentor.
"Networking is very powerful. According to a survey, 80% of jobs are not publicized through formal recruitment, but through networking. If we don't network with others, then we don't even have the opportunity to know the job information, let alone apply for the job. So, we must build our network," Elder Kung stressed.
With technical and business leadership positions at Bell Laboratories and AT&T, Kung also shared tips on how to establish personal connections and manage them. For example, quality was more important than quantity in networking, as quantity was of little significance. The key point was to find people who could impact your life or career, and then establish meaningful connections and carefully operate them, instead of just exchanging the contact information.
When operating networking, she stated, "You should ask good questions, which are positive, relaxed, friendly and not involving privacy. Do avoid negative, private, and political topics as much as possible."
The elder shared some concrete examples from her students. One student said that she had long been unaware of the importance of networking, so she neglected it. Another student once mistakenly thought that networking meant knowing many people. Later he realized that the focus lay in establishing sincere friendships with the people we and producing meaningful interaction, instead of knowing as many people as possible. There was also a student claiming that after being in the church for a long time, he seldom interacted with those who were not Christians, and his network became very narrow.
Kong emphasized that if we desired to build a stronger network and expand our influence, then we must jump out of our comfort zone and pray for God to give us a new vision and a heart of sincere love so that we could have a more open mind and be willing to help others. The relationship with others often begun with giving first, instead of taking.
Having retired from work at the end of 2017, Elder Kung and her husband have served churches, universities and non-profit organizations at home and abroad for more than 30 years, helping children, youth, women, families and people in the workplace. In 1996, she founded the institution "Called To Work - Workplace Mission" in the northeast of the United States.
- Translated by Oliver Zuo
