network. You need to think about the
overall structure of your relationships, and
where you are positioned, in relation to the
position of others in the network. Are you
connected to people that are very central,
that have many other connections? These
can act like brokers, meaning they can
connect you to areas of the network that
otherwise you wouldn't be able to connect
to.
Managing Your Network
As a leader, managing professional
networks does not just mean managing
your own network, but also facilitating
the relationships amongst your followers.
Don’t get me wrong, I do not mean micro
managing your team.
Facilitating the relationships amongst
your team is focusing on creating an
environment that allows people to be
effective, to get all the social support and
the social resources that they need to be
an effective member of the team and really
make a good contribution.
Many companies nowadays do this
systematic network analysis to understand
what the informal work networks are in
the workplace in their organization. By
so doing, they identify those who are
informally in their networks, and get
to identify gaps and weaknesses in their
network.
As a leader, this is something you want to
focus on. You need to be able to understand
how you can facilitate connections that
might not naturally be happening, but that
you think are really important for your
organization or team.
want densely interconnected networks,
because they create a lot of constraint on
how we behave and how we think, because
there is group pressure for conformity. He
argued that the value in a network comes
from open structures, and that members
in the inner group are connected to others
As you do this analysis, the big concern that nobody else knows. This means that
is what kind of network creates value for they are bridging what he calls structural
your organization or the team.
holes, which are parts of the social fabric
in an organization where there is no other
There are two diametrically opposed connections.
views on what actually creates value in
networks. One view comes from James Rambert said that bridging those holes
Samuel Coleman, who argued that could bring in many fresh ideas that lead
interconnections in a network is what to serendipity, inspiration, creativity and
creates value. This means that a leader innovation in a team. If you were to follow
should be keen to ensure that everybody this school of thought as a leader, you would
is almost connected to everybody else in not encourage people to focus on the people
the network.
around them, but rather encourage them to
go all out to make new connections.
The benefit of this density would be that
people gain a lot of knowledge about each I would think that for a leader, the big
other, and they learn to trust each other question would be how to balance the two
as they gain more knowledge. It is easier schools of thought, as each sound beneficial
for them to coordinate their behavior to in a way. In my opinion, getting a formula
support each other and that ultimately to combine both would ultimately get you
is what creates value. If leaders were to the best results.
follow that, they would encourage people
to get to know each other with the people
George Mbithi is a Communications and
that they interact with a lot as best as they
Public Relations professional who has a keen
can, to create these densely interconnected
eye on Authentic Leadership. He has worked
clusters.
in mainstream media, the private sector, as
well as in the development sector. You can
A complete opposite view comes from
reach him via mail on: [email protected].
Rambert, who argues that you do not