Professional Social Network: A Personal Analysis

In my opinion, the common saying “it’s all about who you know” should be replaced with “it’s all about how you grow, nurture, and leverage your networks.” It’s not simply a matter of knowing influential people, you must be able to make a connection, nurture your relationship and use this relationship to support your goals. This is the type of networking that Ibarra and Hunter (2007) suggest is valuable for emerging leaders.  Given our focus on relationships, informal networks, and social network analysis, I decided to focus on analyzing my professional network.

One of the first compliments I received from a colleague, shortly after joining the world of college admissions, was that I was very good at “working the room”.  I really did not get what she meant at that time, but as I look back at my career trajectory, I now fully understand how networking has helped me get to where I am today. A personal connection, developed at a summer admissions institute, with the then dean of admissions at Stanford University, transformed into a mentoring relationship. This relationship has helped me advance professionally and personally.  This person was my running partner at the summer institute, then became a friend and confidant and has now been my boss for the past 9 years. After reading the Ibarra and Hunter (2007) article, it dawned on me that this personal connection helped in my “personal advancement” and strategically placed me in my current career path.  

As I examined other types of networking, I wanted to find more about my informal networks since we learned that these “informal relationships among employees are often far more reflective of the way work happens in an organization than relationships established by position within the formal structure” (Cross, Borgatti & Parker, 2002, p. 26). I found a perfect example of the effectiveness of my operational network which was recognized at our annual employee meeting. In November 2011, I had the honor of receiving a “values award” which is given to 8 employees each year who are nominated by their peers and selected by the senior operating team and CEO.  In an organization of close to 1500 employees, it is sometimes hard to navigate a formal structure, but I have been able to effectively tap into informal networks that have allowed me to get things done (Cross, Borgatti, & Parker, 2002; Krackhardt and Hanson, 1993).  In fact, when my colleagues read parts of the nomination as the award was presented, “collaboration, effectively working with cross divisional teams in multiple geographical locations, and inspiring teams to accomplish goals” were some of the kind remarks that were shared and speak to the strength of my operational network (Ibarra and Hunter, 2007; Cross, Borgatti, & Parker, 2002; Krackhardt and Hanson, 1993).

I then got curious about my strategic networking and spoke with my husband about a feature that I had not yet explored on LinkedIn and which can help you visualize your professional network by plotting your connections on a graph. This map appears to be a reflection of my “ego-centric network” which includes my alter connections (Hanneman and Riddle, 2005). The map below really allowed me to see nodes and ties in my professional network. Also, since all of these connections are with people who I either asked to connect with, or who requested my permission for a connection, they are represented in this “directed” graph (Hanneman and Riddle, 2005).

The map below depicts how much my College Board network has grown and dominates my professional connections.  Most of my ties to this College Board network are strong and have a high trust value, so I tend to reach out to them when I need to learn something without much hesitation (Levin and Cross, 2004).  My connections to my Diversity Education Network are more strategic in nature and are what could be considered “weak ties” (Levin and Cross, 2004, p. 1480).  I consider them trusted weak ties that I can tap for futuristic or strategic knowledge that I might not be able to get from my strong ties. This observation is congruent with Levin and Cross’ (2004) argument that these trusted weak ties are useful in the transfer of “non-redundant information” (p.1480).

Finally, by examining my professional network map, I can see areas that need a bit more attention.  When I labeled my graph, I could see “random” connections with people in completely different fields that I had met during a 5-hour flight from New York, but who could be useful to leverage to discuss mutual topics of interest like the manager in the example provided by Ibarra and Hunter (2007) that discussed “customer relations” during his hunting trips with random connections (p.7). A few other networks where I have not done much with my connections are the admissions, Red Cross and silicon valley networks, so I should put a bit more effort into re-connecting even if it’s just by email.  My favorite article this week was the Ibarra and Hunter (2007). I hope to use their framework as a model as I continue to analyze, develop, nurture and leverage my professional network.


Graph 1. Adriana’s LinkedIn Professional Network: http://inmaps.linkedinlabs.com/network
References

Cross, R., Borgatti, S., and Parker, A. (2002). Making invisible work visible: Using social network analysis to support strategic collaboration, California Management Review, 44, 2, pp. 25-46.

Hanneman, R., and Riddle, M. (2005) Introduction to Social Network Methods. Riverside, CA: University of California, Riverside. Chapters 1-3.

Ibarra, H., and Hunter, M. (2007). How leaders create and use networks. Harvard Business Review, 1-9.

Krackhardt, D, and Hanson, J. (1993) Informal networks: The company behind the chart. Harvard Business Review, 104-111.

Levin, D., and Cross, R. (2004). The strength of weak ties you can trust: The mediating role of trust in effective knowledge transfer. Management Science, 50(11), 1477-1490.

Professional Social Network Analysis Graph (2012). Retrieved on March 16, 2012 from http://inmaps.linkedinlabs.com/network