Making A Network Work
If you have not updated your professional network in the last few years, you might find that your meetings, email inbox, text messages, and phone calls lack strategic insights.
Is it possible to achieve next-level success with the same professional circle you’ve had for a decade or more? I’d argue it’s not.
Jim Rohn famously stated, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”
This raises a crucial question:
When should we reassess our closest contacts to understand their influence on our behaviour, success, and outlook?
Significant shifts in trends, technologies, and threats increasingly emerge from diverse, sometimes unexpected parts of the world and new sectors. In an interconnected world, achieving success in any field critically depends on the breadth and diversity of our professional networks.
Hindered Progress
Being surrounded by people who merely uphold the dominant narrative, avoid meaningful debates, and maintain the status quo - due to blind spots, arrogance, or disinterest - can severely hinder progress. Remaining in such an echo chamber is equivalent to being stuck in a bygone era.
We know we are experiencing this when we:
Echo Common Sentiments: Repeatedly find ourselves echoing messages prevalent in our circle, without questioning or fostering discussion.
Idealise the Past: Romanticise past times as simpler or better, despite recognising that current times show few signs of improvement.
Resist Change: Feel an element of personal internal resistance to shifts in the workplace, society, or emerging technologies.
Avoid Network Growth: Resist expanding our professional network due to perceived lack of time, previous unhelpfulness, or negative experiences.
Feel Unprepared: Notice that certain leaders possess more progressive or informed narratives and strategic insights, making us feel underprepared to address the implications of current global shifts.
Experience Stagnation in Low-Ambition Environments: Encounter a rising impatience to level up and play a bigger game where it matters, trapped by an environment lacking in ambition and drive.
The Strategic Advantage
Herminia Ibarra’s work at London Business School confirms the power of strategic networks in fostering leadership development1. Her research reveals that networks extending beyond immediate circles allow leaders to tap into a vast array of innovative ideas and essential resources. Ibarra suggests that by cultivating networks that are not only diverse but strategically aligned with their objectives, leaders can access groundbreaking insights and challenge traditional approaches effectively.
Ronald Burt’s studies on ‘structural holes’ within networks show that individuals bridging these gaps can catalyse innovation2. His research demonstrates how such positions facilitate the flow of diverse information and resources across groups. They boost creativity and significantly enhance problem-solving and opportunity generation within organisations.
Both Ibarra and Burt emphasise that a curated professional network is crucial for a leader’s ability to drive change and achieve ambitious outcomes. As leaders, it’s crucial to be proactive and deliberate in expanding an inner circle beyond the familiar and comfortable, embracing diverse and challenging spaces to propel transformative progress.
Networked for Multi-Dimensional Success
At the world’s largest reinsurer, where I led the establishment and management of advisory networks across key emerging markets in Asia and Latin America, our goal was to deeply integrate into these regions, not merely to expand our presence.
By engaging local leaders in roundtable discussions with the executive team, we accessed essential insights and significantly increased our local influence. Our efforts were deliberately focused to ultimately expand market share, attract top talent, and enlarge a local shareholder base. This strategy not only deepened our understanding of key local markets but also bolstered our global competitiveness by aligning our corporate strategies with regional dynamics.
Meeting Tomorrow’s Leaders Today
It can be daunting to meet and build meaningful professional relationships beyond our existing circles. However, the immense value of expanding our networks becomes evident when we consider the origins of tomorrow’s leaders. These leaders will emerge from:
Fast-growth sectors and companies.
High-growth low- and middle-income countries.
Cities with established and emerging innovation hubs.
Regions known for high levels of entrepreneurialism - particularly those successfully tackling major socioeconomic, environmental, and health-related challenges.
Essentially, if you have not updated your professional network in the last few years, you might find that your meetings, email inbox, text messages, and phone calls lack strategic insights. Consequently, your success could be limited, as you might only see more of what you’ve already experienced on repeat.
Recreating The New Rules of Success
To achieve anything significant in the world, it’s crucial to know the world. Those who will rule the world, recreating the next rules of success for the many and not the few, will have rich and strategic connections across the globe.
Get out into the world. Know the world, be connected to the right people - not just the same people.
Further Reading:
https://www.london.edu/faculty-and-research/faculty-profiles/h/herminia-ibarra
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/421787