Expand your networking through centrality
as well as diversity of experience and connections.
Women need a second network.
Perhaps anyone bumping up against glass ceilings
needs a second network.
Listen For Centrality & Diversity.
Brian Uzzi, Yang Yang, and Nitesh V. Chawla found that centrality in networking is essential to success.
Centrality means being connected to people who have a lot of contacts, particularly people who have a lot of connections across diverse groups. Centrality provides quick access to information that advances careers.
Women need centrality the same way men do, but they also need a second network to overcome the obstacles most men don’t face — stereotyping and discrimination. (Anyone bumping up against glass or concrete ceilings faces stereotyping and discrimination.)
The second network is an inner circle of 1 to 3 women who share private information. The best inner circles share few connections. Inner circle members should have different experiences and goals.
The researchers found that random selection of inner circle members increases the effectiveness of the inner circle. Inner circles with individual similarities and similar contacts do not generate “key insights and opportunities.”
“A network’s gender composition and communication pattern predict women’s leadership success”
Yang Yang, Nitesh V. Chawla, and Brian Uzzi
PNAS
Volume116, Number 6, pages 2033-2038.
January 22,2019
© Paula M. Kramer, 2021 to the present
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