How can you use your network to gain support and insights for decision-making?

As a leader, you face many complex and uncertain situations that require you to make decisions that can have significant impacts on your team, your organization, and your career. How can you leverage your network to gain support and insights for decision-making? In this article, you will learn how to identify, cultivate, and activate your network to enhance your decision-making skills and achieve your goals.

1 Identify your network

Your network is not just a list of contacts or a collection of business cards. It is a dynamic and diverse set of relationships that can provide you with valuable information, feedback, advice, and opportunities. To identify your network, you need to map out the people who are relevant to your decision-making context, such as your stakeholders, mentors, peers, experts, and influencers. You also need to assess the strength, quality, and diversity of your connections, and identify any gaps or weaknesses that you need to address.

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2 Cultivate your network

Once you have identified your network, you need to cultivate it by building trust, rapport, and mutual value. You can do this by communicating regularly, sharing relevant information, offering support, asking for help, and expressing gratitude. You also need to diversify your network by seeking out people who have different perspectives, backgrounds, skills, and experiences than you. This will help you to broaden your horizons, challenge your assumptions, and discover new ideas and opportunities.

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3 Activate your network

When you face a decision-making challenge, you can activate your network by reaching out to the people who can help you with specific aspects of the process. For example, you can ask your stakeholders for their expectations and preferences, your mentors for their guidance and wisdom, your peers for their feedback and collaboration, your experts for their knowledge and insights, and your influencers for their endorsement and advocacy. You can also use your network to test your assumptions, validate your options, and refine your solutions.

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4 Benefit from your network

Using your network for decision-making can benefit you in many ways. It can help you to gather more information, generate more ideas, reduce your biases, increase your confidence, and improve your outcomes. It can also help you to strengthen your relationships, enhance your reputation, and advance your career. However, you need to be mindful of the potential pitfalls of using your network, such as over-reliance, groupthink, conflict of interest, and reciprocity expectations.

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5 Improve your network

As a leader, you need to constantly improve your network to keep up with the changing demands and opportunities of your decision-making environment. You can do this by expanding your network to include new and relevant people, maintaining your network by nurturing and renewing your existing connections, and pruning your network by letting go of unproductive or toxic relationships. You also need to monitor your network performance by evaluating its effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction.

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Kathryn Gallan

Helping companies develop, promote and retain diverse talent. Director for women's Talent Solutions @ThePipeline | NED experience | Co-founder @TalentProof
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One thing I've found useful is evaluating the diversity of my network. Being able to discuss a situation or challenge with people who are different to you is invaluable. People within your own company will potentially have the same view or confirm what you think. Those outside, from different backgrounds and experiences all add a different view and way of looking at things that you might not otherwise have.

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6 Learn from your network

Your network is not only a source of support and insights for decision-making, but also a source of learning and growth. You can learn from your network by seeking feedback, asking questions, listening actively, and reflecting critically. You can also share your learning with your network by providing feedback, answering questions, communicating clearly, and acknowledging contributions. By learning from and with your network, you can enhance your decision-making skills and become a better leader.

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Ryan Snodgrass

Entrepreneur* Marketing Director* Licensed Financial Professional
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In my experience, large decisions are not always solved with one person or one perspective. Even if you happen to be a technical expert, you may not have enough information or the right information to make the best decision. Learning from your network and leveraging their expertise can reduce decision times, mitigate the risk of errors and shorten your overall time to deliver a decision or finished product. Customers do not pay for extra time due to delays, reducing the time from idea to product is beneficial to both internal and external customers!

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7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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How can you use your network to gain support and insights for decision-making?

1

2

3

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5

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1 Identify your network

2 Cultivate your network

3 Activate your network

4 Benefit from your network

5 Improve your network

6 Learn from your network

7 Here’s what else to consider

Leadership Development

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How can you use your network to gain support and insights for decision-making?

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1 Identify your network

2 Cultivate your network

3 Activate your network

4 Benefit from your network

5 Improve your network

6 Learn from your network

7 Here’s what else to consider

Leadership Development

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