Latest / Networking Unleashed: Building Profitable Connections / Networking Unleashed: An Interview with Daria Rudnik and Michael A Forman, Professional Speaker

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Networking Unleashed: An Interview with Daria Rudnik and Michael A Forman, Professional Speaker · Networking Unleashed: Building Profitable Connections

0:15
Welcome back to Networking Unleashed, Building
0:18
Profitable Connections. I'm your host, Michael
0:21
Foreman, and today we're diving into something
0:23
that separates good teams from game -changing
0:27
ones. The best -performing teams don't operate
0:30
in a bubble. They're connected. They're connected
0:33
to their clients, to the other teams, to strategic
0:37
partners, and that connection is where the real
0:41
magic and the real profit happens. My guest today
0:45
knows this better than anyone. She believes external
0:50
collaboration isn't just a nice to have, it's
0:54
a business advantage. We're talking about how
0:59
building bridges outside your organization can
1:02
accelerate innovation, amplify influence, and
1:07
open doors you didn't even know existed. So whether
1:11
you're leading a team, building a business, or
1:14
just trying to expand your impact, buckle up,
1:18
Buttercup, because this conversation is to reshape
1:21
how you think about connection, collaboration,
1:25
and the power of what happens beyond your bubble.
1:29
So let's get into it. I would like to welcome
1:32
to the podcast today, Daria Rudnick. She is a
1:36
professional in everything that I just read.
1:39
Daria, welcome to the podcast and give us a little
1:42
bit of your background and how you got here today.
1:45
Thanks, Michael. First of all, it's great to
1:48
be here. I'm happy to share my knowledge with
1:50
your audience. So it's amazing. Thanks for having
1:52
me here. A few words about myself and my background.
1:55
My name is Daria Rudnik. I started my career
1:57
in Deloitte and then I moved up, worked up to
2:00
chief people officer for mostly tech and telecom
2:02
companies. And during these times, I've done
2:04
lots of corporate stuff like mergers and acquisitions,
2:07
setting up offices in other countries, cultural
2:09
transformations. And what I've seen through those
2:13
experiences is how... how crucial it is for businesses
2:17
to have strong, empowered, well -connected teams.
2:21
Because these teams can lead transformations
2:25
while organizations that don't have that team,
2:28
they fail those transformations. So that's why
2:31
I focus my work on helping leaders build amazing,
2:33
self -sufficient, high -performing teams that
2:36
are well -connected within organizations, that
2:38
are connected within themselves, and that can
2:41
drive real organizational value. That's beautiful.
2:46
That's beautiful. Okay. So I developed about
2:49
10 questions and I'm going to ask you and you
2:52
answer them. And if we happen to stray a little
2:55
bit, we stray a little bit. I have 10 questions
2:57
for you. You say the best performing teams don't
3:01
operate in a bubble. What are the biggest warning
3:05
signs that a team is one? and how leaders can
3:12
burst before it limits growth. I'll share a story
3:18
with you. And it's a story about the cybersecurity
3:22
team in a cloud computing company. It was a very
3:25
strong team. The employees, the team members
3:28
were experts. And the leader... was very well
3:32
intentional she wanted to be a good leader she
3:34
wanted to support her team members she wanted
3:36
them to grow she had regular one -to -ones she
3:40
had regular conversations with her team members
3:42
but she also wanted to protect them from troubles
3:46
that the corporate world has so what she did
3:50
is she was the kind of the spokesperson and she
3:52
was the main contact for all like for all organization.
3:56
And she was handling all the questions, all the
3:59
requests, all the mistakes that her team might
4:02
be making, everything. She was handling everything.
4:05
And she was kind of, she thought she's protecting
4:07
her team members from troubles. But what happened
4:11
is during the engagement survey, we saw that
4:16
the team was disengaged. They were getting bored,
4:19
they were becoming unmotivated, and she didn't
4:21
understand why. But once we figured out that
4:24
she was connected with everyone in the organizations,
4:28
while they were connected only to themselves
4:31
and her and didn't have this kind of clear vision
4:34
of what are they doing, how their work impacts
4:37
the organization, they were not connected to
4:39
other team members, that actually caused a disengagement
4:42
and drop of motivation. And once she connected
4:45
them, like proactively led them and introduced
4:48
them to other stakeholders, people, that actually
4:52
used the results of their work, that brought
4:56
the motivation and engagement back. That made
4:58
teams stronger. That made them an accent of expertise
5:02
for the whole organizations in cybersecurity.
5:05
So that's the power of connections. Leaders always
5:09
need to be connectors and connect their team
5:11
members to organizations rather than them being
5:14
the spokesperson for the team. That's true. And
5:18
being a true leader, when you take all the questions,
5:22
take all the problems, all on yourself, on your
5:25
own shoulders, A, that will bog you down from
5:29
doing all of your work, but you don't give your
5:31
people any responsibility, anything to connect
5:35
with. And that's where I think her problem was.
5:37
So once she let a little of that go, saw that
5:42
there's a lot more interactivity between everybody
5:44
and everybody wasn't as bored. So that was pretty
5:47
good. Okay. So in your experience, what's the
5:52
difference between networking for opportunity
5:55
and collaborating for impact? Where do most professionals
5:59
go wrong in that balance? Oh, wow. That's a very
6:04
interesting question. When you collaborate for
6:07
value, that's the opportunity you have. It's
6:10
always networking for opportunity. And the question
6:12
is, Like, what is the opportunity? What do you
6:15
mean by opportunity? Is it something that you
6:16
want to gain or something that you want to co
6:18
-create? And when it's something you want to
6:20
gain, it is always visible to others. They're
6:24
not getting anything from you. But when it's
6:25
something about co -creation and like bringing
6:28
the real value that makes people want to join
6:31
you in your journey. And again, same thing happens
6:34
in the organizations. When you go, when there
6:36
was a lot of this silos in the organization where
6:39
different departments compete with each other
6:43
so what they do they reach out to senior leaders
6:45
for networking because it's like everybody says
6:48
you need to network with senior leaders so they
6:51
try to catch them for coffee they ask for some
6:55
Questions that might not have any value for anyone.
6:58
And that's visible. People see that. But when
7:01
you go out to, again, to senior leaders and you
7:03
network with your stakeholders and you bring
7:05
something that they need, you ask questions first
7:08
and then you bring something that they need.
7:11
That's what helps you in your career. That will
7:14
make you connect in the organization. And that
7:16
was recognized as, OK, this person wants to create
7:19
impact. They ask questions because they want
7:21
to know what I need rather than just. being showing
7:25
up their faces to to be remembered and that's
7:30
really what i'm all about all the networking
7:32
but i always say you have to network strategically
7:36
you can't just be like a shotgun shell and just
7:39
go everywhere you have to be strategic and when
7:42
you're meeting with somebody you have to bring
7:44
a certain amount of value with that meeting otherwise
7:47
it's just a meeting and coffee and you have a
7:51
good time and you say goodbye So that strategic
7:53
networking, I think, is where collaborating for
7:58
impact really comes in. If I can just jump in,
8:03
because what I write about, I like the strategic
8:05
approach. And here is in my book, I have actually
8:08
a chart that helps leaders create well -connected
8:11
teams. based on the goal that they want to reach.
8:14
So it's the first thing you want to try to understand
8:16
the team purpose. So team purpose happens in
8:19
the first. And when you know the team purpose,
8:21
then you write down all the stakeholders. And
8:24
then you write down, okay, who on your team?
8:27
is connected or can easily be connected with
8:30
stakeholders. And those team members reach out
8:32
to the stakeholders. Not the senior person on
8:35
the team goes to the senior stakeholder, but
8:37
the ones who already have some sort of relationships
8:40
or the one who can bring real value to those
8:42
stakeholders. They are the ones that go and build
8:45
those connections. So when we talk about team
8:47
networking, again, it's a strategic. You actually
8:50
need to map it out, map your team purpose, all
8:54
the connections you already have. who on your
8:57
team can make what kind of connections with the
9:00
stakeholders and that's make it more effective.
9:03
Absolutely. Very good. Very good. And I'm glad
9:06
you brought the chart out from your book. External
9:09
collaboration sounds great in theory, but it
9:13
often collides with ego control or corporate
9:16
silos, what you just talked about. What's the
9:19
most effective way to break those walls without
9:21
breaking relationships? While breaking the walls,
9:25
you're actually building those relations. When
9:27
we say like external collaborations outside of
9:30
your team is actually going out there and trying
9:32
to understand how I can create value for the
9:35
other team. And it might sound strange at first
9:37
because, okay, why would I create value for the
9:40
team when I need to create value for my boss
9:42
so that the boss, my boss sees me and gives me
9:45
more budget, more benefits, promotion and things
9:48
like that. But when we look at the business perspective
9:52
and what executives really want, they want to
9:54
see collaboration. They want to see people connecting
9:58
with each other. And when they see someone who
10:00
is not only bringing the solution and promoting
10:03
themselves and promoting their teams, but when
10:05
they see someone who can connect other departments
10:08
and create value out of those connections. They
10:12
recognize that as a main asset for the organization
10:14
because this person is a connector and executives
10:18
want to see connectors, more connectors on the
10:20
organizations rather than those who can create
10:23
something individually and bring it on to the
10:26
top. Yes, absolutely. And the leaders look for
10:30
that collaboration. Listen, they still want their
10:34
individual employees to try to achieve. More
10:40
than what they've achieved last year, right?
10:42
So they really want them to go out and do the
10:44
best, but they also want them to collaborate
10:47
because together they might be even stronger.
10:51
So it's always there. So yes, very good. Can
10:56
you share an example where an unexpected partnership,
11:00
maybe even one outside your industry, completely
11:04
changed the trajectory of a project or business?
11:10
This wasn't exactly like outside of my industry,
11:14
but I once was coaching a leader and he wanted
11:17
to be a go -to person in AI implementation within
11:20
the company. But the company is very silent in
11:23
businesses they're running. So the thing is that
11:27
the problem is and the challenge that this person
11:29
had is... how he can reach out to all of those
11:33
silent other organizations and be this go -to
11:36
person for AI when he has no authority over that.
11:40
No one introduced him to that. He's not a leader,
11:44
like officially leader to do that. So what he
11:47
did is he did... He just reached out to those
11:50
people, asked them what they want, asked them
11:53
how they're solving their AI challenges right
11:56
now, and started to build those connections,
11:59
not only between himself and this person, but
12:02
he also started to connect those business units
12:05
between each other so that they could share the
12:08
benefits of how they use AI for their businesses.
12:11
And again, as I mentioned, that was the reason
12:14
and the... The thing that he brought to his leaders,
12:17
sharing that I am the one who can connect all
12:20
those team members. I can do, I'm the one who
12:22
can connect those people. And I really want to
12:25
be the AI leader for the whole organization because
12:27
I am the connector. So it might be very challenging
12:30
to reach out to someone like outside of your
12:33
zone, of your comfort zone, outside of your network.
12:37
But like making this step. is actually what can
12:41
bring the real value. So going out there, talking
12:44
to people you don't know who are outside of your
12:47
reach, even if you don't have official authority
12:50
to do that, just have a regular conversation.
12:52
That works. Yes. Networking is so important.
12:57
I feel that networking is the base of all. businesses
13:00
and we're fusing because ai is like the buzzword
13:04
right so ai and networking come together i have
13:09
actually a networking group that i fused the
13:12
ai and networking together and i tell you how
13:17
to reach out through ai but you can't forget
13:21
about your networking But the way that this person
13:24
had done it, he reached out networking -wise.
13:28
It's all about AI. But he reached out networking,
13:31
and he brought value to everybody he was reaching
13:34
out to because he was answering their questions.
13:37
So unofficially, he was the leader. And so when
13:42
he went to the bosses, he said, look, I'm not
13:44
the leader, but they all count on me to be. So
13:48
why not give me the title? That type of thing.
13:50
But yes, very good. Okay. What do you think is
13:54
the new currency of collaboration in business
13:58
today? Is it information, access, trust, or something
14:04
else? Oh, I love that question. I would say it's
14:09
emotions. We need emotions. We need emotional
14:13
connections. With, again... bringing this AI
14:17
topic that like, yeah, it's burning now. It's
14:20
a burning question. But again, receiving an email,
14:23
you read it and say, what? It was written by
14:26
AI. I recognize the patterns. I see those kind
14:30
of the structure of the sentences AI uses. We
14:34
don't want that. We want this rough. with some
14:37
mistakes, but human connection, human, we want
14:41
this emotion that there's someone there who cares
14:43
about me. So I would say it's emotions and emotional
14:47
connection. And I would absolutely 100 % agree
14:52
with you because the emotion, the AI will never
14:55
have the emotion that a human being will have.
14:58
Even, look, like you and I are talking via Zoom,
15:02
right? But you have to realize that on the other
15:04
side of the camera, there's a person who laughs,
15:08
giggles, smiles, cries, and everything else.
15:10
The emotion is there. So that, I feel, is a very
15:14
important part of it. Very good of you to bring
15:16
it up. When two teams or organizations collaborate,
15:20
culture clash is almost inevitable. What's one
15:24
strategy that helps align cultures without losing
15:28
each other's side's identity? It's a great question,
15:34
especially when we now work in this remote hybrid
15:37
world, when even within one team, we can have
15:40
people with different cultures. And again, I
15:43
write this in my book, it's how you... discuss
15:45
and agree on how you work together. And that's
15:48
the first step. Whenever any collaboration starts,
15:51
like our conversations, how it started, you mentioned,
15:55
here is how it goes. Here are the sort of the
15:58
rules on the norms of our conversation. We'll
16:00
start with this. We'll do that. You'll have 10
16:02
questions and then we'll move forward. So every
16:05
collaboration starts with rules of engagement.
16:09
Every team needs to have and agree on how do
16:11
we work together, what are the team norms. And
16:14
when two teams collaborate with each other, they
16:16
need to, at some point, sit down and agree. Here
16:19
is how we send emails. Here is how, like, quickly
16:22
we respond to them. Here is, like, the topics
16:25
that we want to have meetings for, and here is
16:27
what we can just have emails. Here is how we
16:30
can say hello. Here is how we can say goodbye,
16:32
how we give feedback. Here is, like, our feedback
16:35
can be more direct or less direct. depending
16:38
on the teams that are together. So having those
16:42
norms is a critical element of any successful
16:45
collaboration. Very good. Yes, I agree 100%.
16:49
How do you measure the ROI of relationships,
16:53
not just revenue of referrals, but the long -term
16:57
value of external connections? I can tell you.
17:01
I can tell you in money. I mean, the ROI is millions
17:06
and millions of dollars. And I'll tell you a
17:08
story. And the story is of a company with great
17:13
culture. It was a telecom company. And they had
17:17
amazing culture. And the CEO was always talking
17:19
about, he was very transparent about the purpose
17:22
of the organization. And he collected the team
17:26
that shares that purpose. And it was, the company
17:30
was going through hard times and they needed
17:31
to cut costs, like really needed to cut costs.
17:34
And what traditional organizations do, they lay
17:37
off people, they cut off some processes. They
17:39
say, here is the new way of working. What he
17:42
did was different. When they had those connections,
17:45
when they had those relationships, he came to
17:48
the contact center team and he said, I knew how.
17:53
how you care about our customers. I know how
17:56
you can build great relationships with our clients
17:59
and provide amazing service and they value you
18:02
for that and we value you for that. But every
18:06
minute of your conversation costs us lots of
18:08
money. And I'm not going to tell you you need
18:12
to cut the time of your conversations because
18:14
I know how important it is to serve clients.
18:17
But I want to ask you, I want you to be mindful
18:20
about the time of your conversations and make
18:22
them as short as possible to keep the great service
18:27
you provide. So he didn't tell them to cut the
18:30
conversations to one minute time. But in reality,
18:35
they listened, they heard, and they cut the time
18:38
of the conversations. Not all the conversations
18:40
were short, but overall. They will manage to
18:44
save millions of dollars because they shorten
18:47
the time of the conversation. That's the ROI
18:50
of great relationships. Wow, that was great.
18:53
That was a great story. Thank you for that. Okay,
18:56
staying on AI a little bit. In a world of AI
19:00
and automation, how do you see the human element
19:04
of collaborating evolving? And are we at risk
19:08
of outsourcing too much of our connection? AI
19:14
does have a tendency, we do have a tendency to
19:17
outsource our thinking to AI and using AI as
19:22
a second brain, which is not. And I was once
19:25
working with a team and it was, again, it was
19:28
a customer support team. And at some point they
19:30
were using AI a lot. And at some point the leader,
19:33
the managers saw that they were losing, they
19:36
were becoming more disengaged. And like, we didn't
19:39
understand why, but it happened that What they
19:43
did, the processes, they had a conversation with
19:46
the client, they had a transcript, they uploaded
19:48
to AI, they got some insights, the kind of main
19:51
bullet points from AI, they uploaded it to the
19:54
CRM without thinking, without processing information,
19:58
without this emotional connection that we talked
20:00
about before, without mentally processing the
20:03
information. And since they delegated too much
20:06
to AI, they became disengaged. Like they felt
20:09
like the operators of AI rather than people serving
20:13
their customers. So what we did instead is we
20:16
brought that communication connection back through
20:19
having kind of short team sessions of like discussing
20:23
the output of the conversations, discussing the
20:26
client customer's problems. Using AI as a second,
20:30
like as a second layer of conversation, not the
20:33
first layer. The first, they shared their insights
20:35
and thoughts and emotions. Then they took what
20:38
AI gave them and again, mentally processed and
20:41
critically evaluated the outcome of AI. So it
20:44
is very important to include that part of critical
20:47
evaluation and like... discussing AI outputs
20:51
into the work process because otherwise you'll
20:54
just delegate too much and stop thinking critically
20:57
evaluating what AI gives you. Yes, and it's all
21:00
right to use what comes out of the AI, but you
21:04
have to mix it with yourself. You have to put
21:07
your own take on it and you have to change it
21:10
a little bit. You can't just go straight. And
21:12
just print it out. Otherwise, you're going to
21:14
be like a robot and nobody wants to talk to you.
21:17
But you have to include yourself. Okay. What
21:21
advice would you give to leaders who are great
21:24
at managing internally but struggle to build
21:28
bridges externally? That is a great question.
21:33
I coach a lot of leaders who say I'm an introvert,
21:36
like I care of my team. I don't want to go out
21:39
there. I don't want to share anything. The main
21:41
thing that they all say is that I want to create
21:44
value. I don't want to be the loudest person
21:46
in the room. What I try and help them realize
21:50
is without going out there and sharing successes
21:55
of your team or like your strengths, they actually
21:59
limiting. other people. They prevent them from
22:03
getting value from you. They don't know they
22:05
can reach out to you and get something that they
22:07
need. So the reason you go out there and talk
22:11
about your team, about your successes, about
22:14
your strengths, is not to boast about them. It's
22:17
to share the information. It's to make sure your
22:21
stakeholders feel confident that they are in
22:24
the good hands and you can handle any situation
22:26
they're facing. And I also had another conversation
22:30
with a researcher on networking and negotiation.
22:33
And she said, most people don't go out there
22:35
because they feel like they're not interesting
22:38
enough and people don't want to talk to them,
22:40
which is not true. People want to be connected
22:44
to other people. So go out there, talk about
22:49
your strengths, make sure people know that, and
22:52
they will reach out to you when they need you.
22:55
I absolutely agree. And when I do a workshop
22:58
or I coach one -on -one with the employees, that's
23:03
one thing, but I have to coach the C -suite executives
23:05
on how to lead them because if they do the same
23:10
thing, then everything I just did was for naught,
23:12
right? So you have to point them in the right
23:15
direction. I'm sure you go a lot further than
23:18
that, but that's what I do. All right, let's
23:21
bring this podcast full circle. If you could
23:25
redesign the way companies think about networking
23:28
and collaboration from the ground up, what would
23:32
the new model look like? That's a tough question.
23:39
That's why it's last. I really wish people...
23:44
Well, like people were more open in what they
23:47
want and what they need. And by being more open
23:50
in what they want and what they need and like
23:52
what they can provide for others. Because there
23:56
are a lot of situations when we think something,
23:58
assume something which is not true. And if leaders
24:02
are more transparent in like the state of the
24:05
organization right now, even if it's the time
24:09
of uncertainty, they can go out and say, hey.
24:11
We don't know what the next step will be. We're
24:15
doing this and that to figure it out. That's
24:17
transparency. And that kind of transparency creates
24:20
the same, like creates trust so that employees
24:22
can reach out and say, hey, I made this mistake.
24:26
Here is how I'm going to fix it. So when we have
24:29
that kind of transparency from the top, from
24:32
the bottom, like sharing resources, sharing information.
24:36
That will bring the collaboration and networking
24:39
in organizations to the next level. Outstanding,
24:43
Daria. Listen, this is so good. And you have
24:48
so much knowledge to share with somebody. If
24:52
anybody would like to contact you, either to
24:54
be coached or ask you a question, how could they
24:58
contact you? Thanks for the question. I'm very
25:01
open to connecting on LinkedIn. Send me a DM,
25:05
send me a message. You can also find me on my
25:08
website, dariarudnik .com. And of course, if
25:10
you read my book, you probably will not need
25:13
to reach me because lots of things, practical
25:15
tools and exercises you can do with your team,
25:18
it's all there in this book, clicking. Very good.
25:22
All right. Powerful stuff right here. Remember.
25:26
Your next breakthrough might not come from inside
25:29
your team, but the connections you build outside
25:32
it. Collaboration isn't just communication, it's
25:36
currency. And when you spend it wisely, profits
25:40
follow. If today's episode sparked an idea or
25:43
challenge, how you think about teamwork and connection,
25:47
share it with someone who needs to hear it. I'm
25:50
Michael Foreman, and this is Networking Unleashed.
25:53
where we turn connections into profit. And I'll
25:56
see you next time. Daria, thank you very much
25:59
for your time. And I look forward to speaking
26:01
with you soon. Thank you, Michael. I loved your
26:04
questions. They're tough and very challenging.
26:06
Thank you. Good. Thank you. Well, hold on, folks.
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Don't go anywhere. Let's hear from our sponsors.
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27:06
All right, folks. A huge thank you to our guests
27:09
for sharing such incredible insights today. And
27:13
of course, a big shout out to you, our amazing
27:16
listeners, for tuning in and spending your time
27:19
with us. If you're interested in my digital courses,
27:22
being coached, or having me come and talk to
27:25
your company, just go to Michael and fill out
27:28
the request form. Remember, networking isn't
27:32
about being perfect. It's about being present.
27:35
So take what you've learned today. get out there,
27:38
and make some meaningful connections. If you've
27:41
enjoyed this episode, please don't forget to
27:44
subscribe, leave us a review, and share it with
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someone who could use a little networking inspiration.
27:50
Let's keep the conversation going. You can find
27:53
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27:57
website, foreman .com slash podcasts.