Nurture your network: How to become an influential leader

Alicia McKay is a leadership strategist who believes that people don’t need an MBA to be a good leader, but they do need relevant, practical skills and support — the kind that isn’t found at business school. 

In this extract from her book, You Don’t Need an MBA, McKay goes through a vital skill that every strategic leader needs: how to nurture your network to have meaningful influence. 

You Don’t Need an MBA by Alicia McKay. Source: supplied.

Nurture your network

We’re living in the age of networks. All of us have them: personal and professional, digital and tangible, internal and external.

Understanding your network, your role in it and your personal influence style is critical to be a strategic influencer. If you work your network, your ideas are more likely to be supported by others. You’ll have better access to resources, support and information, and you’ll save time by knowing where to go with tricky questions. You’ll be more aware of what’s going on around you, and you’ll start to get a birds-eye view — helping you spot opportunities and problems more easily.

In my work with teams and leaders, I’ve noticed several varieties of influencers:

The five influencers

1. The expert

   The trusted authority who connects people through knowledge and insight. Experts become the ‘go-to’ with strong currency in technical and scientific-based organisations.

2. The boss

   The strong leader who connects people by virtue of their authority and presence.

3. The broker

   The liaison leader whose work requires them to move between different groups. Often an internal or shared service provider, the broker closes triangles and connects people who should know each other.

4. The other woman

   An externally facing leader who works in multi-stakeholder environments and makes the right internal and external connections.

5. The unicorn

   The rare influencer, probably in the magic 3%, who seems to know what’s going on with everything all the time and is recognised as such. Unicorns have deep institutional knowledge and they are often the ones to receive curly questions about history or how things are done.

Influential leaders are clear on which role they play from the list above. Their role might change depending on which network of people they’re operating in, and they maximise the opportunities that come from that.

Draw the map

Not everyone is going to love us, and that’s cool. There are 1 billion Apple users, but only a handful of them sleep outside the store when a new iPhone is released. There are Apple haters, too, but they number even fewer and are mostly listened to by other haters. Most people are quietly supporting the brand by handing over their money, using their phones and keeping their mouths shut. Relationships are the same.

When you try to be everything to everyone you risk becoming nothing to no-one. Intentional influencers are clear and honest about who they connect with, and what for. They don’t want to waste time trying to make everyone happy; they focus on making sure they’ve got good relationships in places that really matter. Remember our micro-influencers? It’s all about quality, not quantity.

Every leader should know what their network looks like: who they’re connected to (personally and professionally), what the value of that relationship is and how important it is to the big picture. This isn’t grubby, or transactional — it’s a sensible, clean way to be intentional and genuine in your connections.

Try drawing up your network map, with a series of post-it notes. On each note mark what the value of that relationship is, why you need to keep it (or not) and how you should keep the relationship going. Think about your most important goals for the future and identify any gaps, or relationships that might require more investment. This clarity should help you make decisions about where to direct your energy, so that you don’t drop important balls.

For bonus points, consider the dynamics of each of those relationships, and what each person or stakeholder most needs from you. Influence isn’t just about you — it’s a reciprocal dance that should help everyone achieve their goals by leveraging others’ efforts.

For example, the team you manage needs your direction and support the most. With that clarity, you can tailor your communication to be as clear and directive as possible, asking good questions about their challenges. Your colleagues, however, don’t need you to tell them what to do. Instead, they value your perspective, reciprocity and flexibility. For these relationships you should go out of your way to listen, and be flexible whenever you can.

The dynamic with your superiors is different again. Building credible influence with managers needs you to establish two-way trust and offer solutions, not problems. In that dynamic, problem-solving positions you as a trusted go-to. Try that same behaviour with your teams, though, and you’re edging into micromanaging territory. Senior leaders need your expertise and insight, so your interactions should reflect that — but flex your expertise with your peers, and you could get them offside.

The key is to be as intentional as possible, honouring the time and investment of everyone you’re connected to.

This is an edited extract from You Don’t Need an MBA by Alicia McKay, available now at Booktopia.