Giving and Receiving: How Networks Can Boost Your Career
6 August 2012
Read by 1671 persons
We constantly emphasize the importance, if not more, of networks. Whether praising them when we are part of them or denigrating them when we feel excluded, networks have become both a media cliché for their controversial side and an essential leitmotif for HR for their supposed efficiency. It is urgent to redefine networks, their functioning and the ways in which they are effective.
What Network?
If we believe the Latin etymology (rete), a network is a net formed of nodes and links. It has characteristics that its components do not possess. The networks that interest us here are social networks. They are composed of individuals and organizations (the nodes) connected by relationships, social interactions (the links).
Interaction is the constituent element of the system, and the performance of the system is a function of its complexity, that is, the number of its elements and the quality of the interactions between them. A list of identified individuals, a directory, is therefore not enough to constitute a social network.
But these interactions must also be positive. To be useful, these links must be relationships of help, solidarity, cooperation or integration. The network of your sworn enemies can prove powerful and efficient... but not for you. The quality of positive links in social networks is generally a function of two factors: the common goal and the debt incurred.
The Common Goal
Previous generations were characterized by strong beliefs, and powerful networks were built around the sharing of values or the pursuit of common ideals and objectives. Churches, political parties, trade unions, schools, philosophical clubs and charitable associations were for a long time the only social networks. And let's not lie to ourselves, it's still true. But they are no longer the only ones, nor the most effective today. The complexity of the modern world, the acceleration of changes, and the rise in the global level of education have marked the decline of collective ideologies and have weakened the networks that were based on them. Today, it has become extremely rare for it to be enough to know someone who knows the State Councillor to get a civil servant job.
The Debt Incurred
Generally speaking, and even if ingratitude can exist, a person who owes you a service rendered or a helping hand from your network will be much more inclined to help you in return. The most striking example is alumni, these associations of former students of a school. People who have themselves acquired leading positions thanks to a helping hand from this network of former students are undoubtedly more able to return the favor.
In terms of career management, it is this need to share a common objective and the duty of reciprocity linked to a debt that explains the relative inefficiency of the new social networks that have appeared on the web. Whether it is Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Myspace, Twitter, Xing or others, technology only provides us with a new channel for networking and communication. The new social networks, if they are fantastic vehicles for words and thoughts (see the Arab Spring), have not brought much that is new in terms of a cooperation engine.
This leaves your personal network. There is an interesting theory, called "Dunbar's number", which considers that it is impossible to have stable relationships with more than 150 people. This limit would be inherent in the size of our neocortex and would prevent us from having efficient and lasting interactions with more people. This reinforces our assertion that it is far preferable to rely on a small network with strong attachments than on a huge group of contacts without real links.
Your network therefore starts with your family, your friends, the people with whom you have carried out projects, spent time, the people you have helped. It also includes other students, your work colleagues during internships and your teachers. Don't be obsessed by the quantity of nodes, always prefer the quality of the links.
How to Develop an Effective Network?
Developing your network means expanding it, deepening it and maintaining it. These three actions are essentially based on a concept that is uncommon in a professional context: giving. Some talk about investment. I prefer the notion of giving for its gratuitousness at the time it occurs and the dynamic it triggers within the network.
Giving Today...
Giving is giving up something of value that one possesses to offer it to another without expecting anything in return. This value can be of any nature; money, advice, information, help, work but also listening, time.
For there to be giving, there must be formal reception by the beneficiary. This formalism most often takes the form of thanks and implies a kind of "obligation of revenge".
Unlike an investment, the giver does not know if this return will take place; he does not even hope for it for himself. By making a gift within his network, he will change the behavior of the beneficiary who will most often settle his "debt of honor" towards another member of the network who will in turn make a gift to the network. This circular causality is at the basis of the functioning of networks because it is impossible to build such a system on the basis of pure give-and-take. It is the network that is the beneficiary and in return, members can count on it.
Developing your network is therefore not about multiplying contacts but multiplying acts of giving over time. It's about doing more than you should, it's about helping others even if they haven't asked for it, it's about giving when the other needs it and not when you want it. It is also about accepting not to receive immediate compensation; in short, it is about believing in the network and its intrinsic strength, independently of the quality of its members. And if, within a network that works well, someone doesn't play the game, doesn't give or calculates, reasons in the short term..., the risk is not only to see this person sidelined from the network but to see the entire network become disorganized and lose its power of mutual aid. Bringing someone into your network is therefore taking personal responsibility towards the entire network.
To Receive Tomorrow
It is often after having given a lot that one can in turn solicit the network. But since the network is based on trust between members, it may be that you can immediately benefit from the network thanks to the past generous contributions of those who sponsored you into the network.
Will the network find you a job or further your career within an organization? The answer is obviously no. Firstly, because there would be much to say about the ethics of the caricatured practice of "pulling strings". Secondly, because the network cannot replace talent or merit, it accompanies them and that is already extraordinary.
It will allow you to collect valuable information on companies, open positions, organizational charts, actors and recruitment processes. Sometimes, the network will even come to you to inform you of information that has not yet been communicated, such as an open position or the departure of a person.
This information will allow you to not only calibrate your communication and adapt to the situation but also to be reactive, even proactive, when applying.
The ultimate stage of the network's return is when it can recommend you. This counter-gift from the network to you is particularly precious. Not only does the person recommending you expect nothing in return, but they are taking a personal risk. Allowing you to call on their behalf, getting you an appointment, passing a file directly or giving a favorable opinion are the most difficult gifts to make. Indeed, not only does the person who does so settle their debt to you or the network, but they trust you by vouching for your own quality. This time, it is you who become indebted to the network; it is a matter of not disappointing the trust placed in you by this person and by the... network.
Conclusion
Your network today is a bit like your vegetable garden. You will have to learn to plant in the autumn to harvest in the summer. Weed, work the land daily and accept without discouragement that not all seeds produce. It is only at this price that your network will return a hundredfold what you have given it. And then the following autumn... you will have to start again.
Frédéric Kohler, HR Consultant, Go Top SA, Geneva.
Success-and-career.ch
Posted online August 6, 2012.
What Network?
If we believe the Latin etymology (rete), a network is a net formed of nodes and links. It has characteristics that its components do not possess. The networks that interest us here are social networks. They are composed of individuals and organizations (the nodes) connected by relationships, social interactions (the links).
Interaction is the constituent element of the system, and the performance of the system is a function of its complexity, that is, the number of its elements and the quality of the interactions between them. A list of identified individuals, a directory, is therefore not enough to constitute a social network.
But these interactions must also be positive. To be useful, these links must be relationships of help, solidarity, cooperation or integration. The network of your sworn enemies can prove powerful and efficient... but not for you. The quality of positive links in social networks is generally a function of two factors: the common goal and the debt incurred.
The Common Goal
Previous generations were characterized by strong beliefs, and powerful networks were built around the sharing of values or the pursuit of common ideals and objectives. Churches, political parties, trade unions, schools, philosophical clubs and charitable associations were for a long time the only social networks. And let's not lie to ourselves, it's still true. But they are no longer the only ones, nor the most effective today. The complexity of the modern world, the acceleration of changes, and the rise in the global level of education have marked the decline of collective ideologies and have weakened the networks that were based on them. Today, it has become extremely rare for it to be enough to know someone who knows the State Councillor to get a civil servant job.
The Debt Incurred
Generally speaking, and even if ingratitude can exist, a person who owes you a service rendered or a helping hand from your network will be much more inclined to help you in return. The most striking example is alumni, these associations of former students of a school. People who have themselves acquired leading positions thanks to a helping hand from this network of former students are undoubtedly more able to return the favor.
In terms of career management, it is this need to share a common objective and the duty of reciprocity linked to a debt that explains the relative inefficiency of the new social networks that have appeared on the web. Whether it is Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Myspace, Twitter, Xing or others, technology only provides us with a new channel for networking and communication. The new social networks, if they are fantastic vehicles for words and thoughts (see the Arab Spring), have not brought much that is new in terms of a cooperation engine.
This leaves your personal network. There is an interesting theory, called "Dunbar's number", which considers that it is impossible to have stable relationships with more than 150 people. This limit would be inherent in the size of our neocortex and would prevent us from having efficient and lasting interactions with more people. This reinforces our assertion that it is far preferable to rely on a small network with strong attachments than on a huge group of contacts without real links.
Your network therefore starts with your family, your friends, the people with whom you have carried out projects, spent time, the people you have helped. It also includes other students, your work colleagues during internships and your teachers. Don't be obsessed by the quantity of nodes, always prefer the quality of the links.
How to Develop an Effective Network?
Developing your network means expanding it, deepening it and maintaining it. These three actions are essentially based on a concept that is uncommon in a professional context: giving. Some talk about investment. I prefer the notion of giving for its gratuitousness at the time it occurs and the dynamic it triggers within the network.
Giving Today...
Giving is giving up something of value that one possesses to offer it to another without expecting anything in return. This value can be of any nature; money, advice, information, help, work but also listening, time.
For there to be giving, there must be formal reception by the beneficiary. This formalism most often takes the form of thanks and implies a kind of "obligation of revenge".
Unlike an investment, the giver does not know if this return will take place; he does not even hope for it for himself. By making a gift within his network, he will change the behavior of the beneficiary who will most often settle his "debt of honor" towards another member of the network who will in turn make a gift to the network. This circular causality is at the basis of the functioning of networks because it is impossible to build such a system on the basis of pure give-and-take. It is the network that is the beneficiary and in return, members can count on it.
Developing your network is therefore not about multiplying contacts but multiplying acts of giving over time. It's about doing more than you should, it's about helping others even if they haven't asked for it, it's about giving when the other needs it and not when you want it. It is also about accepting not to receive immediate compensation; in short, it is about believing in the network and its intrinsic strength, independently of the quality of its members. And if, within a network that works well, someone doesn't play the game, doesn't give or calculates, reasons in the short term..., the risk is not only to see this person sidelined from the network but to see the entire network become disorganized and lose its power of mutual aid. Bringing someone into your network is therefore taking personal responsibility towards the entire network.
To Receive Tomorrow
It is often after having given a lot that one can in turn solicit the network. But since the network is based on trust between members, it may be that you can immediately benefit from the network thanks to the past generous contributions of those who sponsored you into the network.
Will the network find you a job or further your career within an organization? The answer is obviously no. Firstly, because there would be much to say about the ethics of the caricatured practice of "pulling strings". Secondly, because the network cannot replace talent or merit, it accompanies them and that is already extraordinary.
It will allow you to collect valuable information on companies, open positions, organizational charts, actors and recruitment processes. Sometimes, the network will even come to you to inform you of information that has not yet been communicated, such as an open position or the departure of a person.
This information will allow you to not only calibrate your communication and adapt to the situation but also to be reactive, even proactive, when applying.
The ultimate stage of the network's return is when it can recommend you. This counter-gift from the network to you is particularly precious. Not only does the person recommending you expect nothing in return, but they are taking a personal risk. Allowing you to call on their behalf, getting you an appointment, passing a file directly or giving a favorable opinion are the most difficult gifts to make. Indeed, not only does the person who does so settle their debt to you or the network, but they trust you by vouching for your own quality. This time, it is you who become indebted to the network; it is a matter of not disappointing the trust placed in you by this person and by the... network.
Conclusion
Your network today is a bit like your vegetable garden. You will have to learn to plant in the autumn to harvest in the summer. Weed, work the land daily and accept without discouragement that not all seeds produce. It is only at this price that your network will return a hundredfold what you have given it. And then the following autumn... you will have to start again.
Frédéric Kohler, HR Consultant, Go Top SA, Geneva.
Success-and-career.ch
Posted online August 6, 2012.
