Building Strategic Connections in Three Easy Steps

Why Build Strategic Connections?  Do you want to be able to see the future and get insight and leverage on current reality?  Would you like for your most valued senior colleagues and role models to think of you when they need someone who can really make a difference on their most important project?  This is where building a strategic network  is worth the investment of your time.  This doesn’t have to mean feigning interest in golf—it can be as simple as letting your interests and passions be known to others and asking them to share their own experiences.

These “strategic” connections often are elusive—we may feel we don’t have time, and we may lack confidence to reach out to peers and senior colleagues who could help us expand our world views.  At the same time, developing that perspective and in-depth understanding is what will cause others to think of us as leaders—the people who ask insightful questions and offer valuable perspectives on changing organizational landscapes.  Here’s how:

Step 1:  Identify a challenge you care deeply about, an issue about which you would genuinely like to learn and contribute. My friend and colleague Bruce Hazen calls this developing a “Focus of Inquiry.”  Hazen notes that you get bonus points if you choose an issue where you have potential to contribute solutions in the future. Start out with questions that come from your own curiosity, and after a few conversations you will also be able to offer your own valuable perspectives about patterns and trends based on your inquiry so far.

Step 2:  Think about who else might be concerned about the same challenges. Reach out to them. This may include peers and individuals who are earlier in their careers than you, and it will likely include senior colleagues inside and outside your own organization.  Each group of individuals will see the issue from a different perspective than you, which is what you are going for. You may start by reaching out to individuals whose formal responsibilities are related to your area of inquiry; use a “snowball” approach to ask those you start with to suggest who else might be good for you to consult with. 

Step 3: Reflect on what you’ve learned and revise your questions and who you ask.  Reach out and Repeat. The goals here are to get to know others who are operating in different spheres than you, see things from their perspectives, and over time develop your own valuable perspectives to share with others.   A desirable by-product of initiating these strategic connections is that when these individuals need to promote or hire someone for needs related to your inquiry, they will be more likely to think of you.

At the final session of our Paths to Leadership program last week, one of the participants reflected to me during a break, “When I’ve approached people and ask to meet with them about my project for Paths to Leadership, the response has been so positive.”  I nodded and said, “You know, you can keep doing that—you don’t have to stop because you’ve completed this class.  You simply say, ‘I’m working on a project about X and I’d really like to speak with you about your experiences with X.’” 

In either scenario, you have declared yourself to be a curious colleague, someone passionate about making things better and interested in building on the experiences of others. That’s a good enough reason for you to ask for 20 minutes of someone’s time, and a good reason for them to say yes and actually be interested in talking with you.

It’s really that straightforward.  You expand your big-picture perspective; others get to know a talented, energetic person (you) who might be able to help them solve important problems going forward.  Everyone wins. Try it and let me know how goes!