How to build a powerful professional network

It will fuel a lifetime of success for you

Have you heard of the book Your Network is Your Net Worth by Porter Gale? She makes the case that your true “net worth” isn’t measured by the wealth you have amassed. Instead, your most valuable asset is the meaningful connections you have created and actively maintain with other human beings.

The world is rapidly changing. Relationships are spanning the globe and no longer restricted to the people you physically meet every day. Succeeding in this new world depends on your connections with good, smart, and talented people.

The old way of networking and power plays is fading from relevance. It will no longer be about who you know, the favors you owe, or your title. It will be about the value you can bring to the table. It will be about the kind of person you are.

“I believe in the power of social capital to improve your productivity, expand your professional options, and raise your overall quality of life. I believe that seeking out and working in collaboration with others who share your interests and values will provide a stronger foundation, enabling you to reach a higher level of success than you would on your own.” — Porter Gale

Why a strong network matters

Creating something of lasting meaning, impact, and value is rarely possible alone. We need to collaborate with others who share our beliefs, values, and vision. You can’t leave this relationship building to random chance (e.g., the people you happen to work with in the office, the neighbors that live near you).

“Nothing of significance was ever achieved by an individual acting alone. Look below the surface and you will find that all seemingly solo acts are really team efforts.” — John C. Maxwell

Traditionally, we have relied on our employer to insert us into this readymade network. We collaborate with our coworkers on the shared vision of the company. This is all well and good, as long as you never waver or lose faith in that vision. If you decide to leave, or your employer falters and fails, your node is removed from that network and the links to you fade.

Yes, you can connect with your old coworkers on Linkedin, but we all know that isn’t the same as being in the trenches together. You can no longer rely on a bond that is only based on shared employment and daily interactions at the water cooler. You need to create your own strong network that is based on entirely different factors that remain fully under your control.

True, the world is changing, but luckily we are able to take ownership of our relationships more easily than before. We can even forge strong relationships with likeminded individuals across the entire world. You have to take control of your career and treat it like a business, with you as the owner.

As I’ve talked about before, the power of your network will determine how successful you will be in landing great job opportunities that bring you closer to your ultimate career goals. Access to the hidden job market isn’t granted if you aren’t connected to great people.

Clearly, the people with the strongest networks have better opportunities than those who struggle to compete with the masses for the best jobs. But, your network is even more important if you strike out on your own to create a business of you. It is so much easier to build awareness, raise capital, and find customers for your new business when you have a powerful network.

Plus, as you scale your business to find partners and hire employees, nothing can replace the trust you’ve created within your network. I’ve tried partnering with and hiring strangers before. It’s challenging, to put it mildly. I’ve had much greater success over the last few years by building and maintaining deep relationships first.

Assess your current network

As a first step, you need to take a hard look at the state of your current network. Most of us have networks that evolved organically, instead of intentionally. We’ve accepted requests from friends, coworkers, and recruiters. We’ve reached out and actively connected with a few people, but usually without a real strategy or goal in mind.

If your network is anything like mine was, it is heavily weighted within a single industry and geographic region. Mine is still saturated with Silicon Valley Tech folks (e.g., startup founders, Tech execs, designers, product managers, engineers, VCs, Angel investors), but I’ve been diligently working over the past few years to expand it much more broadly.

Power

How powerful is your network? What do the people in your network do? Are some connectors themselves?

While we are transitioning to the concept of a valuable network independent of the old definitions of “power players,” let’s not kid ourselves. Some people are in stronger positions of influence than others.

Some can introduce you directly to an investor who will take a meeting with you, no questions asked (if you’ve tried to get to an investor before, you know how valuable this is). Some can bring you in for a role and the job is yours, if you want it. The interviews are merely a formality. Power, influence, and position still matter (for now).

When you are just starting out in your career, your network tends to be primarily composed of your peers. For example, college students connecting with other college students. That’s fun, but not very powerful — yet.

As you grow in your career, this network will grow with you. But, it takes time and patience. Some of my peers who were just starting out with me as young designers are now C-level executives at publicly traded companies. Some of have had great success and transitioned into the world of investment.

If your network is composed primarily of peers, I challenge you to reach beyond your social circle to bring in older and more powerful nodes. As a student, this could mean connecting with faculty, advisors, and mentors. As someone early in your career, meet and connect with more experienced people at conferences, workshops, meet ups, and other events. Don’t be shy about speaking up, reaching out, and connecting with them.

I spoke at the Fluxible conference a few years ago. My talk was on Designing for Love and Money, and I talked about treating your career like a business. A student in the audience asked about how you can even get a start when you don’t have experience, and you’re not well connected in the industry yet.

Speaking to a room full of hundreds of people, I said, “Send me a connection request on Linkedin right now. Connect with me and tap into my network. I’ll do what I can to help you.”

Guess how many people took me up on that? About five. I’ve stayed connected to one of those people ever since the talk, and given her feedback, guidance, and support in her career pursuits. She just landed a great new job, by the way.

Level up the power of your network. The latent opportunity within your network is a function of the power of the individuals within it. Don’t play small.

“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” ― Jim Rohn

Alignment

How aligned is your network with your strategic career path? Does it reflect your desired role in the right industry? If you’re making the leap into entrepreneurship, do you have the connections and support that will make that endeavor more successful?

The majority of my network used to be in corporate Tech. This worked exceedingly well for me when my career was based in Silicon Valley. I was able to meet with investors that other people couldn’t easily reach. I was able to pull together teams of great people. I still can get advice from some of the best minds in the industry across Design, Product, Engineering, and more.

But, as my 2nd Act career shifted into a new direction, I had to expand my network to connect with people who were more fully aligned with my new business. I have spent the last few years making friends around the world with strong backgrounds in sales, marketing, PR, publishing, writing, social media, finance, business strategy, and entrepreneurship.

I have learned a great deal that I was never exposed to in my narrow professional niche. I’ve built relationships with wonderful people who have become business partners in new opportunities. This wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t taken the time to realign and expand my network.

Consider where you want to take your career next, and then take a hard look at your own network. Are you connected with the right people who align with your new goals? If not, now is the time to invest in creating those new relationships. Find people who will support and motivate you. Find mentors who have successfully walked the path before you.

Diversity

The diversity in your network is important for a variety of reasons. Unfortunately, we tend to befriend and connect with people who are most similar to us. Believe it or not, we even tend to have friends who are genetically similar to ourselves (how freaky is that?).

That’s why people in Tech tend to have a network composed mostly of similar people in similar professions in Tech. I’ve witnessed and experienced this firsthand. For the longest time, my network was mostly designers in Tech, in Silicon Valley.

But, it’s been proven that the best outcomes are generated by more diverse teams. That includes diversity in backgrounds, education, socioeconomic status, profession, industry, gender, race, and age. If your network is homogeneous, it’s time to shake things up.

“A 2015 McKinsey report on 366 public companies found that those in the top quartile for ethnic and racial diversity in management were 35% more likely to have financial returns above their industry mean, and those in the top quartile for gender diversity were 15% more likely to have returns above the industry mean.”

Get out of your comfort zone and attend events and meet ups that you normally wouldn’t consider. Join groups that will stretch your mind, educate you in new ways, and introduce you to people you don’t typically meet in your daily life and 9-to-5 job.

We talk about the “Silicon Valley Bubble” and it is a very real issue. We design software, create solutions, and think our problems are the same problems everyone must be facing.

“How will I ever get across town if I have to wait for a dirty old taxi? I know! An elegant on-demand car service.”

Let me tell you. The folks outside of wealthy, tech-savvy, urban areas don’t give a flying fig about a car service. They’re worried about getting laid off at work, scared that they won’t be able to pay the rent, wondering how they could ever send their children to college, and trying to put food on the table.

Get out of your personal bubble and expand your network. I have and it has been amazing. It first started when I joined a CrossFit box and made close friends there. Some of us were Tech geeks, but many people worked in very different professions and had very different life issues, concerns, hopes, and dreams.

It continued when I moved out of Silicon Valley and into a more rural area. It has been surprising and refreshing. When I meet people, they don’t start the conversation with, “Where do you work? What do you do?” and become disinterested if I don’t say Facebook, Google, or some hot new startup.

Conversations center more around real, day-to-day life. How we spend our weekends, recent travel, our families, new restaurants, books and movies, health and fitness, etc.

Diversify your network to become more creative, collaborative, empathetic, and successful. Eliminate the mindset that you can only accept Linkedin requests from people who are just like you, or can do you a favor. The value and power of a more diverse network (in every sense) may not seem immediately apparent, but the benefits are long-term and real.

Freshness

When was the last time you talked with the people in your network? How often do you meet folks for lunch, coffee, or drinks? Do you socialize with people on a personal level, or do you just try to leverage them like tools?

A stale network is a weak network. You can’t just tap into people when you need a favor. No one likes that. I can’t even begin to count the number of times that someone would contact me only when they needed a favor, after not seeing me for years.

I’m a bit of a hermit, so this advice feels somewhat hypocritical. But, you can be better than I am. As a parent, part of my knowledge sharing is to help my children to learn from my mistakes and be a better person than I am. I feel the same about offering my advice here. I know that being social is a weakness of mine. I’m a deep introvert, although many don’t know that.

Learn from my mistakes and keep your connections fresh. I know that you can’t have lunch or coffee with 500+ people every month. That isn’t a realistic expectation. But, you can connect in small ways that take very little time. I will occasionally do this.

I send a short message to people just to let them know that I was thinking of them. Maybe it’s to share an article I thought they would like. Maybe it’s to share a memory of an event we both experienced. That’s it. I don’t add, “Oh, by the way. Can you also do me a favor?”

There are great CRM systems that handle customer relationships like this quite well. Perhaps there are Network Relationship Management systems as well? I don’t know. If you do, please educate me in the comments. I’m not talking about Facebook’s lame birthday reminders. Getting those always feels like the birthday cards my dentist and insurance agent send me every year. Ugh.

Some things you can easily do:

• Create a list of people from your network you would like to stay more closely connected with (Linkedin buries this, but you can export your data, including your connections).
• Create a spreadsheet as a simple relationship management tool. Put names in columns, other relevant info (e.g., who they are, how you met, what they do, etc.), and then have columns for when you last contacted them and how (e.g., just to say hello)
• Identify a small subset of people you want to physically meet for coffee, lunch, or drinks, and arrange a date.
• Set up video chats or phone calls with another subset of folks who live too far away from you.
• Send a “Thank you” to people who really made a difference in your life. I know that we sometimes feel too shy to say it in person. It’s easier with time and distance. I’ve sent thank you notes to professors, bosses, and mentors from my past. It feels good to acknowledge them and they seem to appreciate the gesture too.
• Share a relevant, interesting article with another subset of people (e.g., a research article on clean energy)
• Simply say, “Hi, I was thinking about you the other day and wondering how you’ve been doing?” to another group of people

You get the idea. If you want your network to be valuable, you have to keep the connections fresh. It’s based on relationships with real people. I think you’ll be surprised to discover how much fun it is to reconnect with people.

We all get busy with our lives, and think that we can’t make time. But, it’s worth the investment. I have a weekly video chat with some folks from my network, and Slack chats with others. I always come away feeling energized.

Bond

How close are you to the people in your network? How willing are they to help you out? How often do you help people out? Are they comfortable introducing you the other valuable individuals in their network?

This is somewhat related to the freshness assessment. It’s hard to have a strong bond if you haven’t maintained a relationship. But, we also have relationships that are inherently stronger than others. Months can go by without a call with my siblings, but the bond is always stronger than the ones I have with people I network with every week.

So, assess the existing bonds within your network. You know which ones are strong, which ones are casual, and some that are really weak (e.g., you connected on Linkedin but you have never even talked with those people). Identify opportunities to strengthen the bonds, where appropriate.

One great way to strengthen a bond is to provide value, with no expectation of anything in return. All too often, people only help out others when they get something too. You can stand out by delivering value with no strings attached.

I’ve introduced people to other great people simply because I thought they would find value in that relationship. I’ve helped hiring managers find candidates. I’ve helped candidates find jobs. I’ve made this my new business now, but I provided this value for free for over 10 years to people in my network.

Invest in your network

I hope that this has inspired you to spend more time cultivating your network. It is one of the best investments that you can make, both professionally and for your personal life. My network has enabled a great deal of my success over the past 20 years.

All too often, we just let our networks happen. They grow and evolve organically. There will always be some element of that, but don’t let that be the end of the story. Have a long-term strategy in mind, set some goals for your career and life, and reshape your network to be a powerful part of making that come true.

Note: An earlier version of this article appeared on my Medium blog.

Speaking of expanding your network, you can join my free Slack team where we discuss career growth, work challenges, new job opportunities, interviewing tips, and more.

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