Understanding and cultivating our networks

  • Published: 18 July 2024
  • Version: VJuly 2024
  • 10 min read

Social and professional networks are an important aspect of our development and act as a protective factor and ‘buffer’. They are also vital in our career development and progression, as they:

  • Keep us informed
  • Teach us new things
  • Help us to become more innovative
  • Provide a sounding board to test out new ideas
  • Help to get things done
  • Expand potential career opportunities
  • Support to navigate political dynamics (Ibarra, 2015: 71)

Professor Clutterbuck (2023) suggests that the key to using mentors really well is to work with someone that can stimulate thinking and try to help you to understand your internal and external world. The result is greater clarity and enhanced decision-making. Mentors support as needed within the social network. There are a number of reasons why people build social networks around their job and career needs:

  • Task information – what you need to know to be effective in your current roles
  • Task achievement – support in doing your current roles
  • Career – Linking with people, who can play an active role in furthering your career objectives
  • Development – meeting people, who can help with your personal growth

Mutual support/ kinship – the comfort and confidence that comes from knowing that there are other people who share the same issues and concerns as you do, and who can offer mutual help and learning
Similarly, Ibarra (2015: 85) identified three core purposes in professional networks:

  • Operational – managing today’s work, getting things done efficiently and effectively, often internal networks within the organisational work structure
  • Personal – growth and development, discretionary in the sense that individuals decide who is within the personal network, including friends, family, trusted advisors
  • Strategic – help to understand the ecosystem, context, generate ideas and garner support and sponsorship; may be a combination of internal and external relationships

Our networks include connected social networks that promote close bonds with a wide range of individuals who may fulfil a number of roles, including, amongst others, positive role models, mentors who provide guidance and coaches who act as thought partners. Mentors can adopt a number of different approaches and roles, depending on how the organisation, programme and programme participants define the role of the mentor and nature of the mentoring relationship.

Sponsorship mentoring was first written about by Professor Kathy Kram in the 1970s and 1980s when she first published from her PhD studies in the Academy of Management Journal. Sponsorship is frequently about advancement and progression, which can be within an organisational context, rather than wider context. The sponsor does more than just sharing experience and knowledge. In sponsorship mentoring, mentors can become advocates for their mentees, raise the profile of the protégé, the sponsor may expand that person’s visibility within the organisation and directly involve the protégé in experiences, opportunities and projects that will provide opportunities for career advancement.

Mentoring is often described as a development process, in which a more experienced person shares their knowledge with a less experienced person, through a series of conversations. The developmental approach is widely used in mentoring programmes, where it is recognised that both the mentee and mentor learn and develop in the mentoring relationship. We see greater levelling of the power, hierarchical distance and the learning between both parties is evident.

Reverse mentoring is sometimes referred to as upward mentoring. Often senior members in an organisation wish to be mentored by someone new to the organisation, for example to understand the experience of new entrants in the organisation.

Reciprocal mentoring is garnering attention and in 2024, Routledge and EMCC Global published a new mentoring text in their Masters Series; Reciprocal Mentoring (Haddock-Millar, Stokes and Dominquez). The NIHR programme is featured in the text. In reciprocal mentoring, sometimes known as “co–mentoring”, two people work together through a mentoring process in which they both take on the roles of mentor and mentee. This could be done by each participating in both roles, or by each person taking a primary role as mentor or mentee but being willing to exchange roles from time to time.

In recent years, Kathy Kram (2024) has suggested we move to a new conceptual understanding of mentoring to conceptualise as a small group of people who help us to grow and develop - a network:

“If I am advising someone now about starting a mentoring programme, I always emphasise the limitations of conceptualising mentoring as simply a one-to-one relationship - it can be that, but individuals are going to have more developmental opportunities if they conceptualise mentoring as a small group of people who they can enlist into their lives to help them grow and develop.” (Kram, 2024, 376)

Often, in the context of mentoring, mentees will join a mentoring programme to grow their professional network. This reason is frequently cited as one of the motivations and outcomes of any developmental mentoring programme. However, knowing where to start can be tricky, therefore spending time together in the mentoring relationship to understand the mentee’s current network and create a plan to cultivate the network can provide the focus and practical steps needed to move forward.

Understanding our network

Ibarra (2015: 87) suggests conducting a network audit, to help understand the current breadth of a network, the degree to which the network links and bridges across people and groups and the extent to which the network evolves over time. Furthermore, a network audit can help to understand the balance between internal and external relationships including operational, personal and strategic networks and relationships. A network audit can help to identify overall strengths and weaknesses of the network and aid in creating a plan to cultivate the network. We outline an adapted version of a network audit activities described by Ibarra (2015).

Step 1 in the network audit

Step 1 involves thinking about and listing up to 10 people with whom you have discussed important work matters over the past few months. You might have sought them out for advice, to bounce ideas off them, to help you evaluate opportunities, or to help you strategize important moves. You will only name people to whom you have actually turned to for this help recently.

Step 2 in the network audit

Together, take some time to examine the names listed. List up to 3 strengths and 3 weaknesses of having this set of connections at the core of your network.

Defining your current network

The next stage is to consider how you might define your current network based on the network audit. Consider the following network categories:

  • Birds of a feather: Your contacts are like you – homogeneous.
  • Network lag: your network is about your past, not your future.
  • Echo chamber: your contacts are all internal; they all know each other.
  • Pigeonholing: your contacts can’t see you doing something different.

Consider your own network, to what extent do the aforementioned network categories reflect your network?

Cultivating your network

Having spent time exploring and understanding your current network, the next step is to consider how to go about cultivating the network. Consider first the purpose of network/s you wish to develop:

  • Operational – helping you to managing today’s work, getting things done efficiently and effectively, expanding the internal networks within the organisational work structure
  • Personal – supporting your growth and development, expanding the personal network, including friends and trusted advisors
  • Strategic – helping you to understand the ecosystem, context, generate ideas and garner support and sponsorship; developing your internal and external relationships (Ibarra, 2015: 85)

Invest in activities to support your network

  • Consider both internal and external opportunities to grow your network
  • Be active rather than passive at network opportunities (help organise or speak at events, rather than be a participant)
  • Use social media to share your interests and cast a wider net of people who share them
  • Create your own communities of interest
  • Invest in new extracurricular activities
  • Look for multiple mentors that serve different purposes
  • If you are a mentee, offer your support internally or externally as a mentor

Building a portfolio of mentors

Over time, we might engage in a variety of mentoring relationships – informal and/or formal – there might be periods of time when we have multiple mentors. Once people have experienced a positive and impactful mentoring relationship, they often seek to build a portfolio of informal and formal mentoring relationships which may support different aspects of their personal and professional development. As the working landscape has changed to become more remote with the shift from office based prior to COVID-19, to home based, to hybrid, the development of e-mentoring or virtual mentoring programmes has intensified. For some organisations, mentoring participant training shifted overnight from face-to-face to virtual. Virtual mentoring relationships have the opportunity to cross time zone, geographical and cultural boundaries, enabling mentors and mentees to cultivate developmental relationships in a variety of contexts.

De Janasz and Sullivan’s (2004) research on multiple mentoring relationships identifies three forms of knowing or career competencies that might be supported by a range of mentors as people transition through different stages in their careers:

  • Knowing why – mentors support the mentee with their changing beliefs and identities, also values, motivation, choices and career orientation
  • Knowing how – mentors support the mentee with their developing knowledge and skills to be able to perform effectively in the role
  • Knowing whom – mentors support mentees to develop their network and relationships to build reputation, visibility and provide new sources of learning, often outside of the organisational network

The portfolio of mentors may address different aspects of ‘knowing’. The mentoring relationships may overlap in time and scope and may vary from short-term, relatively narrow focus to longer-term, broad focus. The mentoring relationships may be informal and develop organically over time.

You may wish to explore who you know in your existing networks, who might be able to support you in each of these areas. Who else might people in your network be able to recommend? What other resources, such as social networks, could you call upon to locate and approach potential mentors?

Identifying a mentor

Before you identify and approach a mentor, it is important to give some thought to the following:

  • Why do you want to engage with mentoring; do you have a particular purpose in mind?
  • What is the context for your mentoring: professional and career development; sector knowledge; navigating the political environment; skills development; confidence and self-esteem; managing change.
  • What are you looking for in a mentor?
  • What makes you an effective - ‘good’ - mentee?


Once you have given some thought to the above, you can then begin to identify a mentor; someone that has potential to support your needs. To identify a mentor, you might consider the following:

  • Immediate professional circle. These individuals can be former bosses, former professors or teachers, or co-workers in another department.
    Professional bodies. Professional bodies often offer informal mentoring whereby they have ‘Mentoring Registers’ for potential mentors that are happy to offer support. You may wish to consider viewing the mentoring register.
  • Friends of friends. When considering people to turn to for guidance, start by considering your immediate network and the connections they can offer.
  • Academic institutions who offer accredited programmes. When mentors are training for their professional accreditation, they must accumulate mentoring and/or coaching practice hours and therefore look for new mentees and/or coaches. You might wish to consider viewing their websites.
  • LinkedIn. There are a whole range of organisations that advertise via LinkedIn their mentoring registers. It might be worth considering exploring the websites.

Approaching a mentor

Once you have considered your needs and identified a potential mentor, you will then want to think about how you approach the individual. You might consider the following:
Emailing directly.

  • Message through LinkedIn or other online platforms.
  • A colleague connects you with a potential mentor.
  • You may not want to ask the individual to be your mentor immediately, but rather, through an initial conversation, explore their role, experience of mentoring as a mentee or mentor and their potential interest in you.

Questions for reflection

  • How might you describe your current network?
  • What opportunities are there to develop your current network?
  • Who do you know in your existing network that may be able to support you with your different needs?
  • How might you identify potential future mentors outside of your existing networks?
  • What existing immediate and wider networks can you draw on to identify potential mentors?
  • What new networks can I join to identify potential mentors?
  • What is the first step, the first action you will take to develop your network and/or support a friend/colleague’s network?

Resources

  • Aris, S. Rao, A. Roycroft, P. & Clutterbuck, D. (eds.) (2024). Mentoring in Health, Social Care and Beyond A Handbook for Practice, Training and Research. Shoreham by Sea: Pavilion Publishing and Media Limited.
  • Casper, S & Murray, F. (2002). Careers and clusters: analyzing the career network dynamic of biotechnology clusters Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, Vol 22, Issues 1-2, March-June 2005, Pages 51-74 ???
  • Chris Spurvey, (2015). How to find a mentor on LinkedIn (2015).
  • Clutterbuck, D. (2023). In celebration of National Mentoring Day, we spoke with Professor David Clutterbuck to gain his insight on some important questions. Available at: Mentoring with Professor David Clutterbuck | Cranfield Trust (Accessed on 14.12.2023)
  • De Janasz, S.C. & Sullivan, S.E. (2004). Multiple mentoring in academe: Developing the professorial network Journal of vocational behaviour, 64(2), pp.263-283.
  • Dunbar, R. (2010). How many friends does one person need? Faber & Faber, London
  • Ellison, NB, Steinfeld, C & Lampe, C., (2007) The Benefits of Facebook “Friends”: Social Capital and College Students’ Use of Online Social Network Sites, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Vol 12, Issue 4, p 1143–1168, July
  • Granovetter, M., (1983) The Strength of Weak Ties: A Network Theory Revisited, Sociological Theory, Vol. 1, pp. 201-233
  • Haddock-Millar, J. Stokes, P, & Dominguez, N. (eds). (2024). Reciprocal Mentoring. Abingdon: Routledge.
  • Howarth, S. Haddock-Millar, J. & Sanal, C. (2024). National Institute of Health and Care Research Mentoring Programme. in Aris, S. Rao, A. Roycroft, P. & Clutterbuck, D, (eds.) (2024). Mentoring in Health, Social Care and Beyond A Handbook for Practice, Training and Research. Shoreham by Sea: Pavilion Publishing and Media Limited.
  • Ibarra, H., (2015). Act like a leader, think like a leader. Harvard business review press.
  • Kram, K. (2024). The Evolution of Mentoring Theory and Practice: A Personal Reflection in Aris, S. Rao, A. Roycroft, P. & Clutterbuck, D, (eds.) (2024). Mentoring in Health, Social Care and
  • Beyond A Handbook for Practice, Training and Research. Shoreham by Sea: Pavilion Publishing and Media Limited.
  • Mate, S.E., McDonald, M. & Do, T. (2019). The barriers and enablers to career and leadership development: An exploration of women’s stories in two work cultures. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 27(4), pp.857-874.
  • Gotitan, R. (2020). HBR. How to find a decent mentor when you’re stuck at home?