BRIDGES FOR CAREER NETWORKS

Linkages are good for careers – Dr. Jeffrey Pfeffer and Dr. Muneer Muhamed

Did the working from home (WFH) routine result in increased virtual camaraderie – professionally and personally? If yes, why are there increasing cases of depression and stress amongst employees in all categories?

After all, didn’t Nobel Laureate Prof. Daniel Kahneman say that people who enjoy socialising with others find it most relaxing? But their enjoyment depends on whom they interact with – friends, family and their significant others. Professional acquaintances? Not so much. So why don’t people network professionally as much as they should? They simply don’t like it!

Professional networking is demanding in the best of circumstances. Networking remotely after a day filled with Zoom meetings seems like too much. Evidence shows that networking is essential to career success but it shouldn’t have to need so much effort.

Here are some tips to make your professional relationship building more effective and efficient…

SPEND THE TIME People should spend 8-10 hours a week building professionally relevant relationships. The secret to getting much through networking is spending more time doing it! Figure out who you need to meet to get things done and advance your career, make a list and determine how you are going to connect with them, and what you’d like to talk about.

Many people say that what is uncomfortable initially becomes pleasanter and easier over time. At a time when interacting remotely for work is ever more encompassing, ensuring that you spend sufficient time on building useful professional relationships is increasingly important as chance encounters happen less.

MAKE WEAK TIES People tend to find jobs through those with whom they have only weak ties. These are acquaintances they may have met casually once or twice, or seen infrequently.

The logic behind this advice is that people to whom one is strongly tied are more likely to have the same information and contacts, whereas those who are weakly tied tend to have useful information and new contacts.

Spend time meeting people from diverse industries and geographies. Similar to diversification being valuable for a financial portfolio, knowing a diverse group of people with different interests and backgrounds is useful professionally.

SEEK LINKAGES It’s beneficial to bring together individuals who could profit from interacting together. Venture capitalists connect social actors with money to invest and people who have technology or other business ideas.

Real estate brokers connect buyers with sellers, investment bankers put entities that need capital in touch with those who have capital to invest – the range of brokerage opportunities is vast.

Brokering between groups to fill structural gaps provides a range of options that would otherwise be unseen. That’s the mechanism through which brokers develop social capital. This translates into career success in part because brokers are better able to come up with good ideas.

People who build bridges either within or across organisations enjoy benefits in their careers and job performance. Strategise about who
can profit from being connected – and then connect them.

LEARN TO LINK Networking involves behaviour rather than the reflection of someone’s personality. Fortunately, evidence suggests that networking skills can be taught and learned – even if you are an introvert.

American sociologist at the University of Chicago Dr. Ronald Burt is a leading scholar and teacher of network concepts. He and a colleague conducted a field experiment where they educated some executives in a business on building social capital, and analysing network structures. The authors compared the subsequent careers of people who had attended the programme with those who hadn’t.

They found that graduates of the executive education training in network ideas were 36-42 percent more likely to receive top performance evaluations, 43-72 percent more likely to be promoted (an effect that got larger over time) and 42-74 percent more likely to be retained by their organisations.

This evidence shows that network ideas are teachable and learnable with good outcomes for those who master the skill.

Of course, it is harder to put these learned skills into practice during a pandemic or crisis. For example, people are not accidentally meeting others at conventions that no longer occur in person. So folks need to be even more strategic in their networking activities – irrespective of their Zoom encounters!

What could be left to chance earlier is no longer possible and networking must become even more intentional – not only for one’s career but for personal happiness and wellbeing too. And it is likely that networking skills and social capital will become even more important in an environment where successful networking is harder.

This makes it even more important to master the lessons for establishing linkages.