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Networking at Senior or Board Level

Networking at Senior or Board Level

Filter tag: Change Management and Executive Outplacement, Customer & Brand, Leadership Capability

When was the last time you actively sought out a new contact at a conference, or sent a LinkedIn request to someone beyond your second degree of connection? If you are like many senior executives, it has likely been a while. Data from McKinsey shows that only 14% of professionals have grown their networks since 2020, while less than 50% reported making any effort to do so.

The vast majority of executives spend their career lifecycle in closed networks. This shouldn’t come as a surprise when you consider that many professionals remain in the same sectors and industries for their entire career. Those who have reached the senior level will have spent many years occupying the same spaces, attending the same events, and engaging in the same conversations with the same groups. The higher you climb to the top, the thinner the population gets and the more likely it becomes that senior executives already know each other.

For senior leaders, the C-suite, and members of the board, being closed off and not actively growing the scope of their network can lead to a major reduction in their career value and lost opportunities. It also does not align with the more agile demands of modern leadership. Today’s executives must be adaptable, curious, and keen to evolve in the wake of ongoing disruption. These behaviours can be stimulated and enhanced by exposure to more open and vibrant networks.

In this first instalment of our networking series, we are exploring the ways in which executives in senior, C-suite, or Board level roles can extend and leverage their networks both during an executive job search and for success in their existing position.

 

Why Network?

In business, there exists a popular adage that states, “It’s all about who you know.” This idea provides the entire basis for networking as a practice. The people you meet, attend school with, and work with through the years play a part in your professional past, and those relationships may prove beneficial in the future even after your paths have diverged. Fostering these relationships over time can help generate referrals, retain valuable partnerships, and build your reputation in your industry and beyond. You can tap into the wisdom, experience, and insight of your trusted peers for your own personal growth. You can also leverage your relationships when venturing into a new geographic or business area for your organisation, or if you plan to make a career change.

While who you know matters, it is equally important who knows you. When you are sharing your thought leadership on LinkedIn, who is seeing that content? When you attend conferences or industry events, who is walking away with your card or contact details? When your business is on the verge of securing a new partnership or revenue stream, or is facing a crisis of public opinion, is your reputation as a leader enough to instil confidence?

The further your reach extends among the right audiences, the more value your name holds. This increases your credibility in the marketplace and your notoriety. By getting out there and getting in front of the right people, your name is on people’s minds when relevant opportunities arise or in conversations related to your areas of thought leadership. The people who know you can carry you even further to the people they know, potentially leading to partnerships or beneficial new contacts. And if you have really strengthened your name recognition and reputation amongst your stakeholder audiences, then your sheer presence on the board alone can reflect positively for your organisation in others’ minds.

There is so much value to this practice for both businesses and individuals to reap, but how should senior executives think about their networking activity to drive their own impact?

 

Using Networking to Your Advantage

For senior leaders, the C-suite, and members of the Board, networking will have different objectives than it might for someone looking to climb the ladder. Executives at this level will be looking to take that final step up to the top, build their professional reputation, establish thought leadership, take on higher impact Executive or NED roles and other similar opportunities, or make a lateral move to a different organisation. Therefore, the way they navigate their networking activities will differ. Even so, networking at the senior or board level can be narrowed down to four core activities:

 

  • Benchmarking: One of the most valuable yet most overlooked aspects of networking is its power as a research tool. Interacting with other senior executives both in your industry and beyond it is a great way to get a feel for how your skills, experience, and capabilities compare to others at your level. Are there any capabilities that you lack that you should work on developing? Is there something unique that you bring to the table that sets you apart from your peers? Are there trends in the market you might have overlooked or gave too little consideration? Conversations with others in your industry can help gain insight into where things stand and where they are heading, which can help you to adequately prepare for what lies ahead for your role, job function, business, or industry.

The best way to do this is to reach beyond your immediate circle. If you limit yourself to those you are closest to, you may not gain a comprehensive view of what the senior market really looks like. Recent research from MIT, Harvard and Stanford found that weaker social connections have a greater effect on job mobility than stronger connections. Reaching out to your lesser known or secondary contacts on LinkedIn is more likely to yield opportunities than mining your close personal relationships would be. When looking to benchmark yourself in the marketplace, be sure to look beyond your immediate sphere to help paint a clearer picture of what is happening at the senior level.

 

  • Development: That said, gaining insights from those around you can be incredibly valuable for driving your own personal development. Oftentimes, others close to us can see us more clearly than we see ourselves. Our personal biases and perceptions can cloud our judgement and prevent us from reaching our full potential. To combat this, try asking your colleagues, friends, and family to describe what they perceive as your strengths and weaknesses. Are these in line with the ideas you have about yourself, the impressions you would like to leave others with, or the professional image you would like to project? You might find areas in which others have noticed you can improve and grow, which in turn can guide where you devote time to skill building or other professional development activity.

Of course, personal growth is incredibly valuable for delivering long term value as a leader, but it can also help you solidify your value proposition for an executive job search. Many job opportunities—especially at the senior level—are secured by word of mouth and peer referrals. For many at the senior level, it will have been a while since they have been in the job market, and things will have changed pretty dramatically since then. Rather than simply fishing for leads on open positions, use networking as a means of putting feelers out in the marketplace, seeking out advice for navigating current conditions, and using feedback to drive your search efforts. If you aren’t engaging with your peer network and learning from them, you may be missing out on potential opportunities to expand your horizons and enrich your career.

 

  • Innovation: Just as we cannot always rely on our own judgement to be an accurate barometer of our own personal strengths or of the conditions in the marketplace, sometimes it is better to branch out to find new ideas and ways of doing things. Senior leaders, the C-suite, and members of the Board are all in unique and high-pressure positions of having to deliver impact at scale and drive the business forward through every new challenge. Building a strong internal team is fundamental for delivering desired business outcomes, but sometimes leadership need to look beyond the business to gain a better understanding of the market and the needs of their customers. Getting out there and having valuable conversations with various different groups can give rise to new ideas and innovations, and can help leaders gather feedback about proposed plans and projects before committing to them.

 

  • Sharing: You should not treat your network like a cash machine from which you only withdraw. Networking is a reciprocal practice in which you need to give as much as you take. Just as you glean insights from your network, you should be feeding back your own knowledge and advice. Being able to offer valuable contributions helps to strengthen those relationships and others’ perceptions of you as a thought leader. The more insight you can provide on particular subjects, the more you become associated with and are viewed as an expert in these areas. Then over time, it becomes more likely that others will think of you when opportunities and discussions related to these subjects arise. Not only that, but your insights and advice may benefit those you share them with and help them to progress on their own career path.

 

Your approach to networking and the motivation behind it will vary based on where you are in your career and where you aim to be, but it is important that you do it regardless. Treat networking as an integral part of your role as a senior executive rather than an added-on chore.  To truly reap the benefits of this useful peer-to-peer practice, treat networking as ongoing relationship building rather than a transactional exchange. You never know when you’ll need to draw on the power of your network, and it is crucial to build the necessary support and perceptions ahead of time.

For over a decade, The Rialto Consultancy has helped individuals access high-quality networks that can expose them to new thinking as well as new career and business opportunities. If you would like our help with strengthening your network and getting in front of the right audiences, explore our upcoming networking-focused Events and get in touch with our team about our Executive Coaching or Executive Transition programmes which also support to build your personal digital brand.

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