With today’s challenging environment impacting every sector, it is crucial that leaders have strong, diverse networks to draw on. Mounting anxieties about costs and resourcing through to concerns about employee engagement and mental health are sector agnostic issues. Senior leaders face a myriad of common challenges, drawing on the network to share what’s working (and what’s not) can help unlock new ideas, new approaches and offer up solutions to knotty problems. The sheer weight and the seriousness of the issues at hand, from war to inflation are putting untold pressures on leaders whose personal resilience and energies are being taxed to the maximum.

Networks are powerful for multiple reasons. Given organisations are increasingly cast as agents within eco-systems rather than as solus entities, a strong network equates to strong collaboration potential. To innovate and to compete, organisations need to collaborate by working together. One important way to lubricate this collaboration potential is to create dynamic networks .This isn’t just common sense; research shows organisations whose leaders have strong and diverse networks are more successful across a number of dimensions. According to a study published in the Journal of Corporate Finance in 2018, CEOs with robust connections across a diverse network create higher firm value. The researchers worked with over 1200 CEOs and argue that the diversity of their networks was critical to CEO success.[1]

The word ‘networking’ can make some people cringe, but there is more to networking than canapes and small talk. The networks we are talking about here are both internal and external to the organisation, they are both personal and professional. Internal networks are those relationships and connections which help leaders get things done at work, these tend to be useful when delivering against stated or targeted outcomes. Successful leaders are often noted for their ability to successfully navigate organisation systems, for their willingness to pick up the phone and to connect with the right people at the right time.

External networks include personal contacts and connections both within and beyond the organisation and tend to span the duration of a career. An external network is made up of the individuals one engages with personally and professionally over time; the external network is useful for referrals, insights and is an important source of informal advice.  Strong external networks often also include people who might influence your career progression, and given the top jobs are increasingly routed through search and select organisations and head-hunters, keeping ‘in’ with the right conversations matters more, the more senior leaders become.

Strong external networks should include people in similar roles in different organisation settings who share the same strategic challenges, alongside connections made via professional bodies or sector specific organisations where the ‘big picture’ as well as the day to day is aired and debated. It is important to nurture all the aspects of a strong network to include this more strategic dimension, not just the internal and the personal or informal.

3 ways leaders can build stronger, more diverse networks

1. The Right Balance
Make sure you balance your network by investing in personal and internal networks alongside external contacts. A diverse network by definition must include a range of different actors. There is a tendency to have a small subset of ‘go to’ people, personally and professionally. This is helpful, but can be narrow and lead to ‘echo chamber’ thinking.  If you do what you always did… you’ll get what you always got. Leaders tend to prioritise the operational, internal networks which help get work done, and rely on a small sub-set of long-standing personal connections built up over time. This is great, but it is not the route to improving the diversity required for a truly strong network. If you tend to prioritise internal and personal networks, branch out and extend across the full spectrum to really power up the diversity of your network.

2. Refresh and Renew
In the 1990s, British academic Professor Robin Dunbar came up with the concept of the number of relationships the human brain was capable of sustaining over time, this has become known as ‘Dunbar’s number’. He consistently observed the number of stable relationships humans are capable of sustaining lies between 100 and 250 people, made up of some strong and some weaker ties. Debates about what Dunbar’s number means in the age of social media and the internet are on-going but it begs the question what does this mean for professional networks ? How should leaders make the best use of the opportunity to extend professional networks offered by the internet and platforms like LinkedIn ?

The most effective networkers have a holistic understanding of not only their own networks but also of the second and third-degree networks and their multiplying effect.. It is important to include some individuals in your core network not because they can offer an immediate benefit, but because they are well connected to others who might. Managing second or third-degree ties in a network also takes effort; if you are happy to introduce these people to your closer contacts, they will be more likely to do the same.

Take a look at the LinkedIn contacts you have accumulated, it will help you spot gaps, and give you the opportunity to cull some of your dormant contacts. This is also a good time to refresh your network by reaching out into new spaces and conversations. While it is broadly recommended that leaders secure 500+ connections to make LinkedIn worthwhile, if the majority of those are inactive, the network won’t be working as well for you- so reviewing your connections via platforms like LinkedIn regularly is important.

3. Networking as Active Leadership Practice
One of the success factors identified in an excellent study designed to determine the difference between ‘innovative’ and ‘ordinary’ managers found that innovative leaders spent up to 20% of their week practicing certain skills- one of which they call ‘networking for ideas’.[2] Networking for ideas is the active practice of seeking out ‘other’ opinions, counter narratives and opposing points of view to test your own thinking. The research showed that for organisation success and innovation, the practice of actively seeking alternative opinions and insights outside the ordinary differentiated the most innovative leaders. If we always discuss the same questions in the same circles, it is likely we will hear the same themes and approaches- so it is imperative to break out once in a while and refresh. Join some new professional forums, speak at conferences and join social events with people outside your usual circle; these are great routes to finding ‘non-like-minded’ individuals.

Networks, like anything of real value take time to build, and require consistent nurturing. Framing networks as leadership practice reminds us they are predicated on nurturing relationships. This doesn’t happen overnight but making a conscious effort to diversify and strengthen your internal and external networks will pay dividends for you, your team and your organisation.  Starting with the hardest part first is a good way to embed any leadership practice; if you can overcome the trickiest hurdle, the rest feels easier. Ask yourself what puts you off most about the prospect of diversifying your network, what do you dread, or find difficult ? It might be the finding time, it might be knowing where to start, it might be trepidation about new people or navigating an unfamiliar environment, take that head on and get ready to reap the rewards.

[1] Yiwei Fang, Bill Francis, Iftekhar Hasan, Differences make a difference: Diversity in social learning and value creation. Journal of Corporate Finance, V.48, 2018, p474-491

[2] Dyer, J., Gregersen, H. B., & Christensen, C. M. (2011). The innovator’s DNA: mastering the five skills of disruptive innovators. Boston, Mass., Harvard Business Press