When people talk about networking, they are usually referring to something external. If they’re a hard skills-type of person like an engineer or scientist, they tend to think of networking as an activity for “salespeople” and other less-evolved beings. This is absolutely the wrong attitude, especially for the current time.

In our current times of regular layoff announcements, internal networking is just as important as external networking. Internal networking is one of the most powerful things you can do when it comes to developing the Social Capital necessary to keep your job (for more on external networking, see this earlier post).

Don’t overdo it

I once worked with a guy who would make it a point to quietly find out what our Boss was reading so they could talk about it together. He did it book after book. Fundamentally, there’s nothing wrong with this but he was excessive. One book is a happy coincidence; 5 books in a row and you start to raise suspicions and begin to smell of inauthenticity. As with all things requiring skill, you have to know how much force to apply. It’s not an on/off switch.

I’m not talking about cheesy manipulation games. Let’s be clear about that. I’m talking about staying visible.

Increase your visibility

Internal networking is about increasing your visibility among your co-workers. This makes some people uncomfortable. They want to do their job quietly and not attract any attention. This approach is fine when things are good, but recognize that when it comes to choosing who to let go, the anonymous guy that nobody really knows is an easy target.

Visibility also has the additional benefit of confirming your corporate value. Some people may say, “I want my work to speak for me.”

Make no mistake, your work will always speak for you.
The problem is, when a company is in crisis, it may not speak loudly enough.

It doesn’t matter how exceptional you are if nobody knows who you are. They have to have a face to attach the credit.

Who do you need to be visible to?

Internal networking is generally pretty simple if you break it down into an easy-to-remember framework. First, I divide my targets into 3 segments:

• My direct reports (people reporting to me)
• My peers
• People I report to

My direct reports

This is an important group. They have to buy into my leadership if I’m going to have any measure of success. Developing Social Capital with this group is important because I want to avoid any sort internal sabotage. I also want my people to be willing to burn the midnight oil for me if we run into an emergency of some sort. And make no mistake, when it comes time to pick people for the chopping block, a Team committed to your leadership can often tip the scales in your favor. Senior management is always hesitant to upset successful chemistry.

The tricky part of developing Social Capital with your direct reports is maintain your leadership position while doing it. You want them to think positively about you but not consider you their peer. If they do, they’ll soon start wondering why they’re reporting to you.

My peers

I have to remember that in terms of manpower, people at this level, though I may not work with them daily, are actually my “Team.” Social Capital with this group is primarily about safety. You’re less likely to be surprised by some corporate initiative if you have good communication with your peers. As with your direct reports, your peers can help you in a jam and that will only happen if they know who you are.

People I report to

This is the trickiest one because you don’t want to be seen as currying favor with your superiors. That’s exactly what you’re doing but you have to make appear as something else. Do this wrong and you’ll irreparably damage your Social Capital so I recommend you try this only if you’re relatively comfortable in your social skills and have developed enough Social Capital with your peers and direct reports first.

Action Plan

As we’ve established, the more people who know you, the safer you are (unless they know you for something bad, obviously). So, now what? Our readers will know that we’re not particularly interested in academic information. We want to help you actually “do” things, so here’s our template for internal networking.

1. Recognize birthdays & special days (peers and direct reports)

You have to know the birthday and special day of every person who reports to you as well as all your peers. And I do mean all of them. Leave someone out and you’ll unnecessarily make an enemy. This either requires some detective work or a trip to HR, if they’re agreeable. When the special day comes up make sure they get at least a card. This simple gesture goes a long way.

With your direct reports, you can give better gifts depending on their performance but make sure that everybody understands why they’re getting something special. I always gave a gift certificate at a nice restaurant for the anniversary of the highest performing member of my team. If this makes you uncomfortable, stick with the card.

With your peers, make sure the gift essentially of no monetary value and the same as all the others unless you an established personal relationship with them. You don’t want people to question your motives.

You’ll notice that I did not include your bosses here. Unless you’re advanced at this, don’t give birthday gifts to your bosses; it’s likely to be seen as disingenuous.

2. Recognize birthdays & special days (direct reports’ spouses and kids)

This is surprisingly good for developing Social Capital; it never hurts to have a spouse on your side. Again you can give cards, but I like to give something a little more. Female spouses would get flowers (presented to the employee so he could take them home and get credit). Male spouses would get cigars or a bottle of whisky. You can adjust as you see fit bit make sure it’s consistent from one to another.

Personally, I’ve never worked with a woman who forgot her spouse’s birthday. If the gift is for a woman’s spouse, I would personally sign the card. If it’s for a man’s spouse, I would leave the card blank. That way, if he forgot the special day, he can give the gift from himself and I just helped him out.

Don’t give gifts to the spouses and kids of your peers. It’s weird to be that knowledgeable about the lives of their spouses and kids unless you’re actually friends. The same applies for the spouses and kids of your bosses.

3. Attend corporate social events

Your company may plan corporate events for socializing. It’s important that you attend these. You have to remember that these are working events and you’re there to develop your Social Capital. It’s not play and shouldn’t be treated as such. I’ll get into the details for how to handle this in a future post. This is generally your only opportunity to socialize with your superiors and you must make the best of it.

4. Eat lunch with others

Like the booksays, never eat lunch alone. ALWAYS eat it with someone unless you’re off site and nobody can see you. Don’t eat it at your desk over work unless you absolutely have to. Use the time to develop your Social Capital. Whatever you develop will certainly be worth more than that little bit of work you could have done over lunch.

I liked to eat lunch with my entire team at least once a month. Getting the team together can sometimes be more difficult than herding cats so I like to keep the date consistent like the 3rd Friday of every month. I always sprang for pizza and had something fun planned so people wouldn’t dread this event. I didn’t talk business at all during these lunches. It was just an opportunity to get to know my people.

You likely won’t have the juice to get your entire peer group together but you can, and should, take them out to lunch individually. Always pay for the first lunch if you do the inviting. After that, you can go dutch.

Don’t invite your bosses to lunch. That never goes over well. Even if you have a personal relationship with them. Even if it’s okay with them, it may be misconstrued by your coworkers.

I can’t stress how important lunch is, especially if you are a hard skills guy. Like it or not, being the unsung hero doesn’t work in your favor in this current economy. You don’t have the luxury to be too proud. You must use everything to your advantage.

It gets easier with practice

This a lot of work but it gets easier once you get used to it. If all of this is brand new, I don’t recommend that you try to do it all at once. Start off small, maybe with birthdays and when you’re comfortable with that, start doing the lunches. Just keep at it and it’ll soon be second nature. And I promise you, you’ll be pleasantly surprised the by all the good things your new Social Capital will bring to you. It may be what helps you keep your job if lay off are looming.

Let us know your questions and how we can help you with this. We’re here for you and we want to help you stay employed.

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