When a colleague leaves your current company, they usually send a goodbye slack ping or email recognizing folks who have helped them with their careers. At that point, people reply to the thread with the standard “Sad to see you go, stay in touch :(” message, and we all move along with our merry day of attending fun ethics and compliance meetings.

Sadly that’s a missed opportunity. Your colleague is about to leave the safety of their current firm to enter the unknown of a new company. During this transition period, they are vulnerable and this is when you can either significantly strengthen or weaken a relationship.

One easy action you can take to strengthen your relationship with your colleague, let’s call her Amanda, is to open up LinkedIn and search for former colleagues in your network that will be working at Amanda’s new firm. Once you have a list of folks, you can ask Amanda if she would like introductions to former colleagues you know at her new firm. They don’t have to work directly on her new team; having introductions to employees from different orgs and functions provides her with a broader view of the company that helps her understand their operations better. 99% of the time, Amanda will say yes. 

Now you can reach out to those colleagues and say, “Hey, Amanda is joining your firm. She’s awesome. Would it be ok with you if I shared your LinkedIn profile with her so she can reach out to you?” The odds are that person will say yes.

At most, your efforts will take 15 minutes, but Amanda will never forget this because you helped her set up a network of friendly faces that will make the unknown less scary.

The content here is for informational purposes only, and should not be taken as investment advice. All views contained herein are my own and do not represent the views of any other organization.