‘Your network is who you know. Your reputation is who knows you. When you grow the first, you grow the second.’
– Rob Brown
Your network will open doors for you. It will make you a better leader and a better team player. It amplifies your voice and magnifies your contribution to the cause. Yet most people struggle with building a network.
Networking is simply talking and listening. Building and leveraging relationships. It's not a dark art or mysterious science. The problem is that it's just not taught or trained well. It's not on the curriculum. It's not a professional qualification or academic accreditation. It's rarely offered in an ‘on the job’ training programme.
As a result, too many high-quality technically-gifted and academically-loaded people struggle with it. Yet it's vital for you in your quest for career capital and reputational influence. Instinctively you know that.
From your personal perspective, your network is a valuable piece of the career capital jigsaw. The people you associate with and can call upon for help say much about you as a person.
As you move up the ladder, you'll be aware of critical transition points. Your peer group changes. Your perspective on what's important changes. What you spend your time on changes. Who you need alongside you changes.
The people you currently associate with can enhance or undermine your reputation. You may have heard the old saying ‘show me your friends and I will predict your future’. You tend to become like the people you spend the most time with.
You naturally aspire to become those people you look up to and into. That's why celebrities are not the best role models. You don't have to go far to find one with drug problems, relationship issues and psychological flaws. There are enough mere mortals to associate with who will do wonders for your reputation.
So, here's the headline. Your network is who you know. Your reputation is who knows you. Your network is always smaller than your reputation. There will always be more people out there who know you or of you that you've never even met. That's because people will talk about you to those you don't know. And your words, your voice, your brand, your art, your stuff will be out there on show to the world in front of people you'll never meet. This is why they say ‘your reputation goes before you’.
Your reputation will always exceed your network. And the bigger and better you can grow your network, the bigger and better you can grow your reputation. In other words, work hard and smart to build your connections, for your network feeds your reputation.
If you associate with people who match your own values, dreams and aspirations, then you'll find the right level of empathy and support when you need it. If you foster relationships with people who can fill in the gaps of your weaknesses and complement your strengths, you'll soon become the finished article with tons of career capital. After all, maybe you can't do it, but you know who can, right?
As a strategic networker and career builder, it's your job to source and nurture these relationships. Hopefully before you need them. And then use them in the right way to excel your performance and achieve your career objectives. Once you know what you want, you're closer to defining who you want.
This is why you need to build and leverage a formidable, diverse network of all kinds of people. Not just for the assistance they'll give you in kicking on. But for the kudos of simply being associated with them.
When it comes to developing career capital and getting on the radars of all the right people, your network feeds your reputation. You need a Networking Blueprint, which starts with calibrating your current network. Who do you know right now?
The right people and the right connections won't always come to you. Usually you've got to go to them. This is what creates your network. Your network is one of the two biggest engines to build your reputation (the other is your authority or expert status). So how do you go about building one?
The first step in building and leveraging a formidable network is to look at your start point. What have you got? What do you need? Where are the gaps? There are all kinds of people you need on your team bus. What kind of shape is your networking in right now?
They say the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The worst time is now. A network is similar. It's better if you started a long time ago, because it would be awesome now. But you've got to start somewhere. In the Reputation Building Toolboxes there are tons of ways to build your network. For now, be concerned with who you need around you to aid you in your career quest.
If you're starting out, it will be more social than professional. Up to the age of 30 is party time. Social media mayhem. You're all over Facebook or Twitter or Instagram sharing your interesting life. Then it starts to get serious.
Who are you playing with currently? Take a long hard look at your email list, your LinkedIn connections, your social media followers and your phone contacts. You'll see if you've got the right people on your team bus. Remember: the network you have right now has got you where you are. It's probably not adequate to get you where you need to be.
You'll need to build up and out. To fill those gaps. To get the right people around you. To create an inner circle of confidantes and advisors. And of course an outer circle of followers, friends and fans. Then you fill in the gaps. Round it out. Take it up a few levels. There are three main approaches to view and build your network. Let's find out more …
Putting together a network of individuals that works for you takes a bit of doing. A network is a collection of individuals who know you or at least know of you. The ideal network is deep, diverse and varied. It generates career capital for you and elevates your reputation by association. It cuts across countries, cultures and boundaries. It's a blend of personal, social and professional. It's levels above you, below you and to your left and right.
It comprises certain kinds of people you can trust. It gives you loyalty, ability and integrity. It covers gaps and blind-spots. It provides expertise and knowledge. It gives you connections and influence. It offers critical feedback and confidential advice. Along with your reputation, it's your single biggest asset. So you've got to get it right.
When seeking help, you can't assume you'll have all the right people to lean on. You can't leave it to chance. You've almost got to build it one person at a time, one conversation at a time. As a leader, employed professional or corporate executive, there are three main approaches to building out your network:
Think about it. You network because you can't make the magic happen all on your own. You need to get stuff done now or in the future. You rely on others to spread the word on how well you're doing. Let's explore these three approaches in more detail so you can pick the one that works best for you.
Look closely at influential leaders and high-level professionals. Most manage multiple kinds of networks to help them take on more power and responsibility. When you recognize different functions for your various connections, you can begin to organize them into special buckets, groups or ‘nets’. From 30,000 feet, these are:
Lots of networking will happen by accident. You don't really have to force the social stuff, for example. But to build a network that makes you better you must be purposeful. A hotlist of people who complement your reputation doesn't happen by accident. To grow a network that affords you career capital, you must be strategic and intentional. Networking is work after all. Otherwise it would be called ‘net-eating’ or ‘net-socializing’. Let's explore these four ‘buckets’ one by one.
This bucket of people help you get your job done. It covers your internal responsibilities and your everyday working relationships. It includes colleagues – direct reports and superiors. It might also feature outside stakeholders like clients and suppliers. You know each other well. You're focused on achieving the objectives for which you were hired.
Your work connections help you with the politics, the bureaucracy, the problem solving and the decision making. They supply ideas and resources. They help you make things happen. You don't have too much choice in who is in this network, but everyone tends to know their role in it.
In building your OpNet, it's easy to be more tactical (here's what we're doing) than strategic (here's what we should be doing). It's all about routine and the short-term demands of the job in hand. Relationships that are too fractious or close can sometimes hinder getting stuff done. Personalities might clash. Work leaks into social. It's a rigid but necessary network. But it won't take you higher up the food chain.
This bucket of people will help you move on and up. It's essential to facilitate any transition into leadership, authority and seniority. It gives you a wider profile outside your everyday ‘internal’ stuff. It develops you personally and gives you access to specialist skills
When you get to a certain stage of competence, you start to feel stifled by your work environment. You yearn for more opportunities. You feel limited by your lack of skills, knowledge and reputation. A lack of career capital is holding you back. These are signals to develop your ProNet.
Networking externally means moving outside your normal circles to increase your perspective and profile. Think alumni groups, professional associations, various committees and forums. This is often done on your own time and coin. Few people will push you do this personal networking. And few people actually build their ProNet because it takes time and effort that they don't have.
The upsides of filling this bucket are huge. The connections you make provide valuable introductions, career opportunities and insight. They may become mentors, coaches or sponsors. They help benchmark your own skills. They tell you how your career is progressing. It's a fairly safe way take your thinking and your profile up a level. And you do make yourself more valuable to your company with what you learn.
This bucket is very future focused. You're thinking way beyond your ‘now’. Harvey McKay wrote a networking book called Dig Your Well Before You're Thirsty. It's a great line which stresses how important it is to think ahead about who you're going to need long term.
This StratNet is organizational in nature. It widens your horizons to the big strategic picture. It's beyond tactical and into the company's mission. The stakes are higher and the connections are higher. It takes courage to reach out. How do you add value to people who may not see the immediate benefit of even knowing you?
This kind of networking takes you into leadership territory. You reach out across functions and business units. Vertically and horizontally. You want to know what people do and where they fit into the collective. What their areas of expertise are and what they are responsible for.
When you build these relationships, you tap into the heartbeat of your organization. Every connection you make gives you more of a say in organizational strategy. As a result, you gain more executive presence because of your strategic standpoint. And you earn more career capital for future moves.
You meet more demi-gods and VIPs with this kind of networking. You're dealing with power players with significant influence. You're handling culture issues, office politics and strong personalities. This requires a higher level networking skills, greater authority and a more convincing articulation of your contribution to the cause.
This is the obvious final bucket. It keeps what you're doing real and gives you balance in your existence. This is where your friends live. The ones you do life with, have fun with, let down your hair with, socialize with. Be vulnerable with and celebrate wins with. They are your emotional release and your sanity check.
Employers and recruiters ask the interview question ‘what are your interests outside work?’ for a reason. They need to know that if work goes bad, you've got something to fall back on. Some sports, social, leisure, hobby or interest to lean into. Some perspective and support that nourishes you spiritually, emotionally and physically. If you've got nothing and your job is it, then if that goes south, your whole life goes down the pan with it.
You need friends and you also need PEAST people. This stands for Professionals, Experts, Advisors, Suppliers and Tradespeople. For when your roof leaks, your washing machine breaks down and your computer dies. For when you want to draw up a will, your daughter needs driving lessons and you need a new car.
Your LifeNet also gives you valuable support when life's trials and challenges come at you. Stress. Debt. Loss. Injury. Illness. Anger. Guilt. Parenting stuff. Health stuff. Loneliness. Indecision. Addictions. Accountability. It's tough going through all this alone. This is where best friends, community links, neighbours and even faith connections (e.g. church, mosque, synagogue) come into their own.
If you like the idea of seeing your networking as filling buckets, this four-pronged approach makes good sense. Be careful not to spread yourself too thinly. You've got to keep ‘making plan’ and bossing your everyday responsibilities. Your ProNet and your StratNet are discretionary networks. You don't build them by accident. It's intentional. It's ‘over and above’ your regular work. You've got to want it.
As you reach out, you're looking for some routine. Some regularity. It won't help you to dip into some higher level external networking for a ‘season’ then disappear back into your work cave. That's how you blow a reputation. Consistency builds trust. Familiarity builds bonds.
Try to keep business and personal separate. Be professional and do the right thing. Blurred lines can make things awkward. It's not always possible. Networks are not mutually exclusive. Take the game of golf. You can easily see how the people you meet there might cut across all four of these buckets. People leak into other networks, especially as you get to know them. People can become more useful to you as you uncover their skills.
Stay focused on your key targets. Skewing your time to people you like may be fun but not strategic. You'll need to get outside your comfort zone. Where possible, get people you know to intro you to people you don't. I call this piggy-backing. You're leveraging one network to access another.
Try always to give back. Show and share the love so people know they are valued and appreciated. Nurture your relationships and keep calibrating who you know (see later). Do most of it intentionally but leave some room for those lucky encounters and serendipitous moments. Who knows what lies on the other side of a random ‘hello’?
For more insight into these kind of networks, check out:
You now understand the power of people. You need other people around you. The right kind of people. Let's call it your dream team, your team bus, your ideal network. You need the support and expertise of others who can do what you can't.
In the Dream Team Approach to defining the perfect or ideal network, you hand pick your players. You identify certain kinds of people with certain attributes and you go after them. You might already know them. You just might need to know them more. Spend time with them. Unlock their potential. See if they're really worthy of being on the team.
What follows are 16 kinds of people that you almost can't afford to be without. Some are taken from research by the Gallup Organization. This came out in the fascinating book Vital Friends – The People You Can't Afford to Live Without by Tom Rath. He was looking for the types of people you need in your life for maximum success and satisfaction. To find out, thousands of people all over the world were asked ‘do you have a friend at work?’
I've added a few more and grouped them as follows:
It's not a definitive list, as you will think of others who can help you in your situation. But it's a start. As you read through them, consider which ones you have in your network right now and where you fall short. Those are the gaps that need plugging if you're going to build your reputation and accelerate your quest for career capital.
These people get you thinking. They provide bold enlightenment, useful feedback and critical analysis. They help you make decisions and negotiate complex territory. Praise them and thank them for their talent and their wisdom.
These people are dynamic and inspiring. They lift you up and enthuse you with their energy, ideas and positivity. They help keep you motivated and self-confident, particularly during tough times. Praise them and thank them for their passion and their all-action approach to life.
These people are your word of mouth marketers. They want you to do well. And they're not in the habit of keeping your brilliance a secret. They have influence and power. They have reach and credibility. Praise them and thank them for their commitment to your cause and their selfless giving nature.
These people are your die-hard partners. Through thick and thin, through sun and rain, they're there for you. They love doing life with you and adore you just because you're you. Praise them and thank them for their devotion and their faithfulness.
These people are the pains in your behind. They set standards you strive to live up to. They crack whips, set targets and irritate you into action. Praise them and thank them for their high standards and relentless pushing.
Your dream team is probably already known to you. Some will already be onboard your team bus. Your challenge is playing the right people in the right positions. In assembling your dream team, here are five really useful questions to ask yourself:
Don't be overwhelmed by the collection of personnel you need in your dream team. Just realize that, like the Avengers in the Marvel comics and films, each brings different super powers to your table. You just have to be the one who assembles the team.
A final thought on the Dream Team Approach. What roles do you fulfil in the lives of others? Where do you show up in the networks of others? You've heard the old saying ‘the best way to get a friend is to be a friend’. What roles are best for you to support others? More crucially, what roles are the wrong ones for you to occupy?
When building a network, most people don't leave it to chance. They think strategically about what type of help they need and from what type of person. There is another way. When you RAP your network, you go for size and speed. You're looking to make a quick impact. You'll recall that RAP stands for Random, Accelerated and Piggy-backed.
Random means you're not too precious about who you connect with at this early stage. You want to build quickly. You're going for a mile wide AND a mile deep. You're more concerned with quantity than quality. You can sift and cull later.
Accelerated means you keep momentum going. You're looking for quick wins and low-hanging fruit. You're proactive in your approaches. You're hustling. You're working it.
Piggy-backed means you use your network to build your network. You piggy-back on the connections of others to facilitate referrals and introductions. You explore peoples' networks so you know who they know. You ask for help. You cultivate the company of connectors and door openers. You see your contacts as windows into other worlds. And you take advantage.
When you scale your connections up this fast, you usually don't have the time to judge the merits of each connection. You accept virtually all requests to connect on LinkedIn. You're open to any and all corridor conversations, social events and introductions. You think ‘yes’ before you think ‘why’.
You may think this is similar to the Career Hustler from Chapter 1. You recall the gung-ho approach with very little strategic thinking. But you'd be wrong. This is actually a very defined strategy. Different people need different kinds of networks and different strategies at different points in their life. Perhaps for a season, this volume vs. value approach might just work for you.
Taking the RAP route gets you on the radars of all kinds of people. And quickly. It can be dangerous if you're not organized, because you'll neglect any meaningful follow up and keeping in touch. But as a short-term strategy, it works.
You can't build a reputation by being anonymous. Even if you came up with the most incredible ideas, products or insights, they would never fly. If your network is who you know, then your reputation is who knows you. You need the first to drive the second. You need a network.
Never underestimate the terrifying power of people in building your reputation. Your ability to open doors and leverage human capital is very attractive to employers. It shows you are connected, trusted and credible. It underlines your credentials to both get stuff done and gain buy in for your initiatives.
You now see the business case for networking and how your network feeds your reputation. Who you associate with says much about you. Aligning yourself with people of status, influence, power, insight, connectivity, integrity and skill is one of the most powerful reputation-building things you can do. And we know that your reputation is your single biggest contributor of career capital.
You understand the need to calibrate your network to identify gaps. It is possible to define and thus construct your ideal network. You can do it in terms of the different kinds of networks you need – the Buckets Approach. You can look at the types of people you need around you – the Dream Team Approach. And you can go fast and loose with the RAP Approach – Random, Accelerated and Piggy-backed.
All are effective. All are legitimate. All are intentional. A combination of all is valid. All will enable you to build your network wide, deep, diverse, strong and influential. You just don't know which people will be your winning lottery tickets. You may have to kiss a few frogs. But you're doing it purposefully and strategically, which will make you unstoppable.
The message is clear. Reach out strategically, authentically and even serendipitously. Yes, those chance encounters and random conversations can often be as lucrative as the planned ones. Be open to the many different ways to get you to the same goal.
Now you've got a means to distribute, amplify and support your ideas and expertise, you just need something to shout about. You need expert status. You need the Authority Blueprint …