There are three areas to consider when developing your support system.

 

Meaningful relationships 

Who do you need in your support system. Who will you call upon when times are tough, who will you help when they need you most. These relationships aren't formed from one social media interaction or over one coffee, they are built over a number of interactions to build common ground and a rapport. People will also warm to students or their trade. 

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Diverse perspectives. 

You want and need people in your support system who will support, challenge and inspire you. These can be a number of people and from outside your area of expertise who can take a different perspective. 

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I can remember a story from one of my support system members, who talked about a time he worked within an olympic rowing team. They were having issues with the design of their boats. One day my friend asked his old mentor to come in an observe an area of his role he had been developing and take him for lunch and a general catch up after. During the observation his mentor respectfully interrupted the team meeting and offered a solution to the issue, as he had faced the issue in a different sport a number of years ago and innovation had in fact brought back the issue he originally solved. He got whatever he wanted to for lunch too. 

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Building your brand

As you progress in your career, you will find that jobs you get don't come up on advertisement boards or jobs sites. They are recommendations and approaches from within your network, who already know who you are. So we need to be aware of this when we are developing our personal brand and our online brand.   

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Try to use your brand to help put you in positions where you want to be. If you want a certain job for example, have your brand and actions operate in the areas where the jobs will find you.

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Ask yourself these questions.

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What do you want people to say about you to others when you are not in the room? 

 

What do I need to do consistently that will lead to my brand being spoken about like this?

(These can be included in your process goals and performance goals)

 

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Seed, feed and weed your support system.

The weeding may be the most impactful action you could take where as the energy it takes to seed and feed could have the longest lasting impact. 

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As your develop your support system consider having people who fit into one or more of these categories. 

Current role 

Future role

Personal development

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When you have identified these people, it may be use to ask them to be a part of your support system as well so they can understand how they can help you best. 

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