Utilizing Your Leadership Resources
The notion that success depends on who you know has roots in exclusion. Even beyond those roots, the reality of that exclusion hasn’t changed much even today. When 80% of jobs are filled through personal connections, it’s difficult not to consider the impact this has on marginalized leaders who may not “be in the room” to build that consequential social capital.
A recent Untapped Leadership newsletter asked:
What would “networking” look like if it’s less about who you know and more about building meaningful and sustained connections?
What or who are your leadership assets? What or who do you have in your reach that you may have over-looked or under-utilized?
How can you resource your resources? What do they need that you can offer?
Success is dependent on who you know, but it shouldn’t be in the way it currently plays out. Rather than cultivating social capital for transactional exchanges or a leg up on career opportunities, we can shift the paradigm towards leveraging collective resources and community support to achieve that success.
In systems that seem to promote cycles of exclusion that undoubtedly influence such vast racial and gender disparities in top executive positions, we must reclaim what social capital and networking actually mean and how it is exercised.
When we think of our resources for career success, we typically think of them along 2 tracks:
Social capital heavyweights — those with expertise and influence stemming from their titles, track records, and/or scopes of work. When thinking along this track, you may find yourself asking “Who can help me get a foot in the door? Who can put me in front of opportunities?”
Knowledge — the academic degrees, programs, coaches, books, and anything else we may look to expand our career toolkit. When thinking along this track, you may find yourself asking “What do I need to learn to be able to _____ (e.g. lead a team, pitch an idea, etc.)”
Both types of resources can have a substantial influence on career trajectories, but both have limitations, particularly for underrepresented and marginalized leaders.
The first sits squarely within our traditional notions of who you know having an outsized influence on success. The more proximity you have to those with that type of power, the better the chances you’ll be able to access that resource. Given that, across the entire economy’s chief executives, only 5.9% are Black, 6.8% are Asian, and 7.2% are Latinx, the data suggest that it’s probable that social capital heavyweight does not look like you.
The second sits atop an undercurrent of economic disparities and financial inequities fueling the perceived need for additional knowledge. For example, in a 2021 report, the Institute on Race and the Political Economy found that the racial pay gap between White and Black and Latinx grew at every level of degree attainment between 2000-2018. The average hourly wage for a Black and Latinx worker with an advanced degree is only about $2 and $4 more, respectively, compared to a White worker with a college degree. The expected knowledge baseline for leaders of color is unfairly higher.
We can often find ourselves seeking out (and paying for) professional and leadership development resources to account for perceived skill and knowledge deficiencies when it actually may be systemic deficiencies that are misplacing the onus on the individuals (e.g. the deceiving narrative of imposter syndrome — don’t buy it.)
Knowledge and skill building are essential in leadership, to be clear. We should always be learning and growing as leaders. We also should not be turning down opportunities to engage with those social capital heavyweights, either. But, knowing the inherent limitations of our depending solely on those two tracks, we win when we divert energy and resource towards a third way…
Our Peers — each other. We should not wait for the chance to cross paths with those with outsized social capital, nor should we wait until we have enough financial means or corporate sponsorship to engage in leadership development programs to feel “ready” to lead.
We should access the resources all around us, right here, right now. All of us who are skillfully navigating career journeys, learning and leading in our ways, and building our shareable expertise. We can sometimes underestimate the power of what we collectively know as we gaze towards the influence of those deemed as experts.
When we invest energy and resources into cultivating, learning from, and contributing to our collective resources, the shifts we seek will arrive.
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