The importance of networking at every stage of your career

‘No man* is an island’ (*or person)

‘It takes a village’

‘It’s not what you know, it’s who you know’

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When it comes to our personal lives, we know that we need people around us. People to help raise us up, to lean on, to encourage us and to share with.

But when it comes to our professional lives, we sometimes fall under the misconception that we need to do it on our own.

That’s rubbish.

Your professional network is one of the most valuable assets you have. That applies at every stage of your career.

What you need them for and what your network looks like will inevitably change over time, but wherever you are on the ladder, you need to keep networking and keep prioritising relationships.

If your networking has fallen to the wayside recently, use this as a motivator to pick it back up, dust it off and start cultivating a network to be proud of.

What is networking and why does it matter?

At its heart, networking is the act of building and maintaining relationships with others in your field or industry. That might be your peers, or those further up the ladder than you, or it could be clients and leads. Networking is about getting known, and noticed, by the right people.

The stereotypical view of networking is chatting over drinks after work. Buying rounds for people, inhibitions lowered, ties loosened. These days, thankfully, networking’s moved on a bit.

Today you can take part in networking in the way that suits you best, breakfasts, lunches, coffees, online. With a shift in work-life balance and an increased importance placed on health and wellbeing, the drinking element is slowly being phased out.

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The impact of strong networks

In my Leaders with Ambition podcast, the number one piece of career advice that’s offered by guests again and again is the importance of networking across your entire career.

Often we associate networking with promotions or job offers, but the reality is that your network can be helpful in so many ways and we shouldn’t neglect it.

It’s not just beneficial for jobseekers. Networking can be is an extremely powerful means of building relationships with your clients. Regardless of how you do it, or what stage you’re at in your career, your network can be a powerful asset.

Networking throughout your career

Early stages

For all those in the early stages of their career, the priority needs to be on making sure you show up, establish yourself and solidify your networking skills.

I talk to so many people who tell me that they don’t like networking, or they don’t feel confident doing it. But the truth is, it’s a skill that you need to learn, and you need to practise it. Building those networking skills now and putting them to use will directly impact your future.

That doesn’t mean you have to network upwards. This is the time to build a solid peer group.

Not only so they can help support you now - but they’re the leaders of the future. Solidifying your peer network now means that as you move into more senior positions you’ll grow with your current peer group.

As you move up the career ladder the number of people in the same position as you decreases. You go from being one of many to just one.

Senior people have a peer group because they invested in those relationships when they were junior, and then they maintained them throughout their career.?

?Use this time to do that - develop your networking skills and create the base of your network.

Middle management

With more responsibility and a more diverse working landscape than previous generations, it’s easy for those in middle management positions to dismiss networking as a time suck. Networking is yet another thing on their to-do list that they simply don’t have time for.

But for those looking to progress in their career, this is when doubling down on your networking will give you a competitive edge.

There are 3 types of networks managers need to create.

●????? Personal

●????? Strategic

●????? Operational

The first two are quite straightforward. Personal networks can include university friends and alumni, sports clubs and other social opportunities to meet a wider range of people.

Strategic networks are the toughest but also the most beneficial. It’s those people who bring best practice to your awareness, share opportunities and help to shape managers thoughts and visions for the future.

Operational networks are often overlooked. These are the people you need to know to get things done. While this could be primarily internal e.g. HR, this can also apply to industry professionals such as with suppliers. Building out a network of helpful people you can draw on in the future is essential to career success.

C-Suite

For C-Suite executives, networking is part of the job. It’s how you stay connected, raise your profile, enhance career prospects and gain valuable insights.

The difference between networking at a middle management level and C-Suite, is that it’s expected for a CEO to attend networking events in the middle of the day. For managers it’s not so clear cut, putting extra pressure on their workload if they want to attend.

?For senior leaders, networking is about more than just looking for the next opportunity. Building a network across all levels helps you find new talent or growth opportunities for the business. That’s the beauty of a cross-level, cross-industry network. You can give back, and open doors for others, like others opened the door for you.

Clients

The final aspect of networking that we have to think about is clients and leads. It’s slightly corny but it’s true, people invest in people. That means we need face time with our clients, or potential clients, to make sure we understand what they need but also so to build their trust.

After all, when you think of your own social interactions - who are you more likely to work with - the person introduced to you by your friend or one who sends you a cold DM?

In a world of constant busyness. It’s so easy to think networking is an extra, a nice to have, and to forget about it. But that makes it even more important.

Your network is your professional support group, your pool of opportunities, your next client, your next promotion. Your network can be everything you need it to be…but it’s not going to happen without thought and action.

From the very start of your career until the very end, you need to find ways to build networking into your working life. There’s a reason why it’s the number one piece of career advice I hear, and with networking existing in so many different formats, if you put some time in, you’ll be able to find a way that suits you and your communication style and strengths.

Don’t let being busy be an excuse to make your professional development harder. Get out there and start talking to people.