Do Not Waste Too Much Time Networking

Let's discuss a term closely related to connections. Most invincible executives agree that "networking"—the formal, planned, and deliberate cultivation of relationships for the purpose of assisting one's career—is also of very limited value in getting jobs or promotions. This belief is consistent with my personal experience. As a lawyer who works for a firm that represents a large percentage of the large companies in my region, I get frequent networking requests. For example, an acquaintance of mine decided to close his small, floundering ad agency. He proudly told me that he was going to embark on a massive "networking campaign" to try to get a new job. I set him up with a couple of my friends. From what he told me, he must have taken forty people or more out to lunch to pursue leads for a marketing job. He was a firm believer in the power of networking.

About seven months later, he called me with the good news. He had finally landed a job as the director of marketing for a hotel. I congratulated him and asked, "Which one of your lunches paid off?"

"Actually, I got the job by responding to a want ad," he replied.

This is not an uncommon scenario. Invincible executives generally believe that mid-level executives waste too much time networking. While being a member of a trade association is, for example, good for perspective on your industry, it rarely leads to a new job. Or, as Doug Bain of Boeing put it, "I think you are not going to get to the top of an organization unless the people at the top know you because you have fulfilled whatever expectations they have or skills they want. But you have to separate that from the 'schmoozing.' I don't think those connections do you a bit of good. I remember that I mentored a young executive in the contracts department. She kept emphasizing 'networking' and I finally said, 'Knock off the networking.' If your networking is part of the job you are doing [like marketing or community relations], that is great. But if all you are doing is networking in the sense of sucking up, that works against you."