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