It's All About Your Connections
Marilyn Nagel
Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer RISEQUITY, owner and CEO Ready-Aim-Aspire.
I learned midway through my career that it definitely is not just what you know but who you know that matters when you want to move up in a corporate environment, or build your own company or organization.
Around the mid-point in my career, I thought I was firmly on the path for a senior executive role having been named as my boss’s successor. I led teams who received awards and delivered outstanding results in a highly competitive global industry where innovation is everything. When my boss did leave the company, I met with the head of HR to see what needed to be done to set the gears in motion for my promotion. Did I need to formally apply for it? Or would I simply automatically be assigned the new title and duties?
This is when I discovered that I wasn’t going to be considered for the position. I was told, quite candidly, that while my performance ratings were top-notch, I had not bothered to cultivate relationships with executives one level above me – the people who would ultimately make the new hiring decision. Yes, we had worked together quite effectively. But they considered me to be aloof and some even thought I was an intellectual snob.
As much as it was a shock at the time, it gave me the opportunity to consider how I might have been responsible for this perception of me. I had in fact neglected to recruit the next level above me into my network as sponsors, advocates or peers. I was like most women, who are busy heads down with work (and family) and don’t spend any time thinking strategically about our network as a tool to career success. I thought the senior leaders were busy so focused my meetings on brief agendas and did not take time to cultivate any interpersonal relationships as I did with my subordinate group. I also avoided many of those after work social situations where lots of informal networking takes place because I’d had an experience earlier in my career with a senior executive’s inappropriate advances and thought it just best to avoid some of that potential “bad boy” behavior that can occur when a male dominated group gets to drinking after a long work day. All of that contributed to the perception of my being aloof and damaged my ability to create support at the next level.
Since that time, I’ve been studying and refining how to build intentional networks (particularly for women) in ways that leverage our innate abilities as connectors. Women are excellent at making authentic, meaningful connections with people, having a natural ability in the core building blocks of networking, but we don’t approach, define, or characterize networking in the same way that men do. My goal is to help women become intentional about building and leveraging their social and professional networks toward achieving career goals while being authentic and maintaining appropriate boundaries.
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Executive, Transformation Leader, Managing Director, Trusted Advisor, Diversity & Inclusion Champion, Developing next gen leaders, Purpose-driven leadership
6 年Marilyn, I love this post. It's authentic and transparent and one many of us can learn from. ?I want to share this link with you because the work you did at Cisco during your I&D years led to rebranding the company and helping put Cisco on the map around talent. ?That is something to be greatly proud of. ?https://www.rankingthebrands.com/Brand-detail.aspx?brandID=54 Back to your article, there are times indeed when the network is critical to being considered for that next role. ?However, there are times when leaders make a decision early on, right or wrong, to bring people from the outside to bring fresh set of ideas.? Regardless, you are spot on in making sure time is well spent finding relevant opportunities to manage upwards and across. ?It's important that they are relevant discussions, perhaps volunteering for projects etc and requesting perspectives on a an internal or customer challenge. ?Sometimes the "networking" can appear shallow if it doesn't come with an engaging conversation. ?The "how" is equally important and the word that you use "intentional" is spot on along with "relevant".
Behavioral Consultant on Overcoming Fear: Unlocking Potential in SMB's | TEDx Speaker | Vistage Speaker | Homeward Bound Leadership Coach | Transformation Guaranteed Day One
8 年As someone who moves around a lot, I know how important it is to build your networks wherever you go, and do so strategically. Thanks for being part of mine.
Excellent wisdom, as always! Thank you for being so transparent. Many people underestimate the importance and power of their network. Many don't consider the diversity of their network either (levels, geos, industries, gender, etc.). This highlights the impact networking has on your career, ability to build your brand, and help others. Great article!
Leading innovative workforce development and education programs for learner and industry success
9 年Add to this that some people (and again probably mostly women), do not really want to manage up as it could be perceived as wrong and inappropriate for a variety of reasons.
Consultant at Effective PPC
9 年Flash back ~25 years ago...Does anybody know a good writer? Ask Rene Siegel who she knows. ~23 years ago...Does anybody know a good PR person? Ask Rene Siegel who she knows. And so on and so on... Hey Rene, you know what, you should start a business to connect high tech marketing, marcom, PR, etc. consultants...and the rest is history. High Tech Connect. Flash forward to today...Do you know Rene? Yes. :-)