I posted this on the Forte Foundation blog for their upcoming Women's Conference. There's a lot of talk about networking and social networks but, so many people are still uncomfortable with what it means "to network." In my coaching practice, I work with clients to manage their networks and the conversation often begins from the vantage point of this post.
You’ve got career aspirations, the MBA, and experience. You have a network of colleagues and former classmates and there was a time when that was all you needed to be assured of a “good career.” Times have changed and in a global market, battling a global recession, it will take something more to make you unstoppable in the wake of the unpredictable. That something more is an “Extraordinary Network.”
Unlike the “Old Boys Network” of the past, having an extraordinary network gives you access to people, ideas, thinking and opportunities that lie outside traditional, hierarchical, insular networks that have been defined by upbringing, education and employment. If your Dad retired with a gold watch, after a 35-year career with the same employer, rest assured you probably won’t.
Professionals in today’s workforce are vulnerable to continued market shifts, including globalization and M&A, that disrupt existing career paths while creating new, yet to be defined, opportunities. In fact, it’s likely that your post-MBA career will be the source of numerous on-ramp events in the form of new roles, new cities, new companies, and industries. And there will be transitional, off-ramp experiences prompted by your own life choices, and unforeseen organizational events (i.e. restructurings, relocations, and reductions in force) causing intermittent dislocation, and even economic insecurity. Whether you are on-ramping, off-ramping or holding steady, your extraordinary network is the access to influence, innovation, and choice in a changing world.
The “Extraordinary Network” is diverse, resilient and adaptive to your life’s objectives. Where the “Old Boys Network” was often created by tenure, longevity and hierarchy, the Extraordinary Network involves the relationships we have, and the relationships we actively create to make things happen, that wouldn’t have happened otherwise. The Extraordinary network is dynamic and actively managed throughout your career. It’s vibrancy gives life to the axiom “the Network elevates the leader,” generating expansive influence and support to deliver powerful results.
