Teaching Students the Power of Relationships

Teaching Your Students the Power of RelationshipsPwC-KWHS Seminar for High School Educators

Sachin Rekhi

1. My Story

2. Why Relationships Matter

3. The Power of Social Networks

4. Bringing Relationships to Your Classroom

5. Q & A

Agenda

My Story

19831997 2001

LinkedIn Contacts

2005 2007 2010

My Real Story

7

8

“Your ideas don’t matter unless you can effectively socialize them.”

Stephanie Saad, Microsoft manager & mentor

Gus Tai, Partner, Trinity VenturesMy investor, advisor, mentor, and…

10

My Real Story

Why Relationships Matter

Of all jobs are found through networking

Of people trust recommendations from

people they know

70% 90%

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The Importance of Weak Ties

“We are most often hiring, getting hired by, and

closing deals not with our best friends and family

members, but with acquaintances, friends of friends,

and people we have just met.”

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The Power of the 2nd Degree

Your network is larger than you think because of your friends of friends

The Power of Social Networks

2KConnections

1.3MPeople

Bringing Relationships to Your Classroom

1. How to leverage relationships to make today’s decisions

2. How to invest in building relationships

3. Overcoming the fear

Bringing Relationships to Your Classroom

Have your students pick a question they may be grappling with:

1. I’m trying to decide which college to go to that is the best fit for

my aspirations

2. I think I might be interested in a certain career, but I’m not

exactly sure what that looks like

3. I want to find a way to contribute to this cause I care deeply

about, but I’m not sure where to get started

Classroom Exercise: Leveraging Relationships

Then have your students answer each of these questions:

1. What resources would you leverage today to help answer this

question?

2. How could you instead use your network to get better

answers?

3. How could you also leverage social networks?

Classroom Exercise: Leveraging Relationships

1. Existing resources?

– Search online about the career

– Go to the library to find resources

– Talk to my guidance counselor & teachers about career options

2. Leverage your network?

– Ask my parents who they know in the profession for advice

– Ask my friend’s parents who are in the profession for advice

– Ask my counselor for alumni of my school that may be in the profession

3. Leverage social networks?

– Find friends of friends I can get an introduction to who are in my desired

career

Classroom Exercise: Leveraging Relationships

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Classroom Exercise: Leveraging Relationships

Have your students draw their personal network:

1. Identify distinct groups of people where you know 5 or more

people

2. Detail how frequently you interact with each group

3. Determine how you could stay in touch better with the least

frequent groups

4. Think about how you could expand your network to new

groups

Classroom Exercise: Investing in Relationships

Overcoming the Fear

The Reality

Q & A

http://www.sachinrekhi.com

@sachinrekhi