Make Your Own Luck: Harness The Power Of Your Professional Network

Judith Perle, co-founder of Management Advantage, shares her thoughts on the secrets of successful professional networking

Academics aren’t known for agreeing with each other. Yet researchers from top institutions around the world agree on at least one thing: building a strong network is one of the keys to success. And they make their point clearly and forcefully. In an article published by the MIT Sloan School of Management, Rob Cross and his colleagues state:

“What really distinguishes high performers from the rest of the pack is their ability to maintain and leverage personal networks. The most effective [high performers] create and tap large, diversified networks that are rich in experience and span all organizational boundaries.” [1]

Professor Herminia Ibarra (an expert on leadership and professional development at INSEAD business school) and Mark Hunter say in the prestigious Harvard Business Review:

“We have seen over and over again that people who work at networking can learn not only how to do it well but also how to enjoy it. And they tend to be more successful in their careers.”[2]

This academic consensus begs the question: Why? Put simply, the answer might run something like this: ‘Networking is so important because it can help us enrich every aspect of our professional (and most probably personal) lives.’

I know this because I’ve spent the past decade helping people find ways of networking more effectively and, crucially, getting them to feel more comfortable doing so. In that time I’ve come across abundant research, and masses of case studies to back this up. Here’s just one of the many anecdotes I’ve collected over the years.

A Visit To The Opera Pays Off

Kay, an MBA student at London Business School, told me the following story:

“I used to work in London for two real estate investment management firms in business development and marketing. A couple of years ago, I was at an industry conference in Vienna. At the time I was working for a start-up firm and got chatting to Anne, who was a Director of Business Development for a large global firm — in other words, right at the other end of the spectrum of my industry.”

“We discovered that, as well as having a lot in common professionally, we were both interested in art and culture, and were keen to see more of the city of Vienna. Anne told me that she planned to spend the weekend after the conference exploring; I recommended the production of Carmen that I had just seen at the Vienna Opera House, and told her about some easy ways to get tickets. We also exchanged ideas about other things to see. We ran into each other again the next day, both having left the conference early to pop into the nearby Kandinsky exhibition.”

“Nearly eight months later I was at a cocktail party in London hosted by the same association that had run the conference in Vienna. The start-up I was working for was failing and the office was being shut; I was to be working there for just one more week. My company (and its imminent demise) was the topic of many conversations, and I was speaking to a lot of people about what was going on. As the evening was coming to an end, I spotted Anne and asked her if she had enjoyed her weekend in Vienna after the conference. She immediately thanked me for my advice about the Opera House and we got talking. When she learned that my employer had fallen apart, she invited me to lunch the following week…and offered me a job working for her several weeks later.”

I chose this case study from for several reasons. Firstly, it’s a nice example of how valuable chance encounters can be. I’m not saying, by any stretch of the imagination, that each and every conversation you have will bring huge benefits in its wake — but I am saying that if you aren’t willing (or able) to have those conversations, you’re going to miss out on lots of opportunities (and, probably, lots of fun too).

Look at how Kay decided to fully engage Anne in conversation when they first met. She could have made polite small talk about real estate and left it at that, as so many people do. Kay and Anne didn’t become best friends, but they listened and learned a lot about each other through just one conversation and another chance encounter.

And finally see where that casual conversation led. Not immediately but later, when Kay really needed help. Just luck, chance, providence…? Or keeping one’s eyes and ears open, engaged and receptive to the power of your network?

The Rules Of The Game

But what exactly is this ‘networking’ thing, and what are the rules of the game?

A good networker builds relationships with a wide variety of different people. Some become close friends, others remain more pragmatic professional contacts — and still others never get beyond the ‘acquaintanceship’ stage. Crucially, professional networking isn’t about just ‘working a room’ so you can give your business card to anyone who will take it. In fact, a lot of networking takes place far away from networking events — at the water cooler, between parents picking up their offspring at the school gates, at conferences…. Kay and Anne weren’t close friends, but they did manage to build up a good level of rapport in their encounters.

Networking should be about giving rather than getting. We all know people who only contact us when they want something… and who only value us in terms of what we can (or might) give them. And we all also know how (un)popular characters like that are. So don’t fall into the trap of trying to manipulate people to get what you want out of them. When Kay and Anne exchanged information, neither was thinking about a job in the future or hiring staff. Yet in the end both benefited — Kay by getting a job when she needed one, and Anne by finding a new member of the team without expensive advertisements or time-consuming interviews.

There’s also a world of difference between networking and selling: networking is about opening doors, keeping them open and seeing where they lead. Selling is about ‘closing’. There are similarities in the techniques involved, and effective networking can undoubtedly help you make sales and win business, but if you’re seen to be selling, people are likely to slam that open door in your face …hard.

So the very best networkers keep an open mind — about who they’re talking to, why they’re talking to them, and what they might hope to gain. Becoming a better networker involves, first and foremost, a change of attitude.

To do this effectively, though, your social skills may need a bit of polishing. The challenges that each of us face, in the skills arena, will be different. Some people find it hard to start up conversations; others run out of things to say, or struggle to develop rapport with the person they’re talking to. Some people are fine in face-to-face situations, but find the telephone a real challenge. And almost everybody could do with a reminder about the importance of following up quickly and effectively after an initial meeting or phone call. After all, relationships aren’t created overnight. They take time to develop, and trust needs to be built up brick by brick.

None of this is rocket science. In fact, I can pretty much guarantee that you already know what to do. I sometimes tell workshop participants that networking is basically what our mums taught us: be nice to people and they’ll probably be nice to you.

In short, networks are about people. Talking to people, helping people, getting involved in their lives ….and, ultimately, also reaping the rewards that those relationships can bring.

In his fascinating book, The Luck Factor, Professor Richard Wiseman from the University of Hertfordshire explored the psychological differences between people who think of themselves as unusually lucky (or unlucky). One of the four key principles to enjoying good luck is skill at creating, noticing and acting upon chance opportunities. Lucky people do this in various ways — by networking, adopting a relaxed attitude to life and by being open to new experiences.

Networking alone won’t change your life. But active networking will certainly go a long way to nudging things in the right direction.

[1] Rob Cross, Thomas Davenport and Susan Cantrell, “The Social Side Of Performance”, MIT Sloan Management Review, Fall 2003, Vol 45, Issue 1

[2] Herminia Ibarra and Mark Hunter, “How Leaders Create And Use Networks”, Harvard Business Review, January 2007

You can hear Judith speak in depth on the power of networking at the CASE Europe Annual Conference.