Networking: What Leaders Need to Know

You have said that networks matter to outcomes that are important for both individuals and organizations. How so?

The easiest way to think about it is that nobody can do it alone. We are no longer able to perform our complicated, interdependent jobs by ourselves. It’s not like being a cobbler in the olden days, with a workshop where make shoes alone. Today, there are only small pockets in organizations where people can work in isolation. For the most part, we need others for knowledge, resources, and access to opportunities.

Internal and external networks are critical for carrying out any kind of job today. The whole point of having organizations in the first place is to have people with different competencies and expertise come together to pursue something collectively important that they could never achieve on their own.

Talk a bit more about how these networks contribute to making us effective in the workplace.

It’s a question of moving away from what the formal design of what the right channels are for us to access the resources we need.