The Idea in Brief
What separates successful leaders from the rest of the pack? Networking: creating a tissue of personal contacts to provide the support, feedback, and resources needed to get things done.
Yet many leaders avoid networking. Some think they don’t have time for it. Others disdain it as manipulative.
To succeed as a leader, Ibarra and Hunter recommend building three types of networks:
- Operational—people you need to accomplish your assigned, routine tasks.
- Personal—kindred spirits outside your organization who can help you with personal advancement.
- Strategic—people outside your control who will enable you to reach key organizational objectives.
You need all three types of networks. But to really succeed, you must master strategic networking—by interacting regularly with people who can open your eyes to new business opportunities and help you capitalize on them. Build your strategic network, and burnish your own—and your company’s—performance.
The Idea in Practice
The most effective leaders understand the differences among the three types of networks and how to build them.
Operational network#Personal network#Strategic networkNetwork’s purpose#Getting work done efficiently #Develop professional skills through coaching and mentoring; exchange important referrals and needed outside information.#Figure out future priorities and challenges; get stakeholder support for them.How to find network members#Identify individuals who can block or support a project.#Participate in professional associations, alumni groups, clubs, and personal-interest communities.#Identify lateral and vertical relationships with other functional and business-unit managers—people outside your immediate control—who can help you determine how your role and contribution fit into the overall picture.
Leveraging Your Networks
Networking takes work. To lessen the pain and increase the gain:
Mind your mind-set.
- Accept that networking is one of the most important requirements of a leadership role. To overcome any qualms about it, identify a person you respect who networks effectively and ethically. Observe how he or she uses networks to accomplish goals.
Reallocate your time.
- Master the art of delegation, to liberate time you can then spend on cultivating networks.
Establish connections.
- Create reasons for interacting with people outside your function or organization; for instance, by taking advantage of social interests to set the stage for addressing strategic concerns.
Example:
An investment banker invited key clients to the theatre (a passion of hers) several times a year. Through these events, she developed her own business and learned things about her clients’ companies that generated business and ideas for other divisions in her firm.
Give and take continually.
- Don’t wait until you really need something badly to ask for a favor from a network member. Instead, take every opportunity to give to—and receive from—people in your networks, whether you need help or not.
When Henrik Balmer became the production manager and a board member of a newly bought-out cosmetics firm, improving his network was the last thing on his mind. The main problem he faced was time: Where would he find the hours to guide his team through a major upgrade of the production process and then think about strategic issues like expanding the business? The only way he could carve out time and still get home to his family at a decent hour was to lock himself—literally—in his office. Meanwhile, there were day-to-day issues to resolve, like a recurring conflict with his sales director over custom orders that compromised production efficiency. Networking, which Henrik defined as the unpleasant task of trading favors with strangers, was a luxury he could not afford. But when a new acquisition was presented at a board meeting without his input, he abruptly realized he was out of the loop—not just inside the company, but outside, too—at a moment when his future in the company was at stake.
