Member-only story
Create a System to Maintain Your Relationships
A contact management tool can help.
If you’re like me, you have hundreds if not thousands of connections. If you look across the vast expanse of people, you’ll have friends, your kids’ teachers and coaches, your colleagues, and more. That doesn’t even touch any people you may have met only online through a social platform like LinkedIn.
Reactive communication is fine (they reach out, you reply). Proactive communication can strengthen those relationships — especially if you rely on your network for your career.
But planning thoughtful and timely communication is hard when your connections are spread between multiple email accounts, social networks, and your phone’s saved contacts. A contact management tool can pull all of your contacts into a unified view. You can easily track everyone in your network, add notes, and create a system of consistently reaching out.
What is a personal CRM?
For a long time, I relied on my brain to remember how I met someone, the last time I saw them in person, the type of work they do, etc. It was admittedly an imperfect system, especially as my professional network grew and my kids got older and were involved in more activities.
