Social Capital and Leadership

Is Your Social Capital Helping or Hindering Your Leadership Aspirations?

“Its not what you know but who you know” is often quoted when one observes a peer worker accelerated in the promotion stakes. Well we think this is only partially true. Its not so much “who you know”, but more about “who knows you”. Becoming visible in your organisation is essentially related to your personal social capital within the organisation and the value others see in your potential, in particular, the company leaders. In this article we explore how you can assess your own social capital within your organisation.

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Your firm has recently selected you for advanced leadership training. You’re clearly on the way up. Soon you’ll know whether you are a Myers -­‐Briggs ENFP or an ISTJ, or a TMI Creator-­‐Innovator or a Thruster-­‐Organiser. You may also be competency assessed against the Lominger competencies assigned to many of the senior roles that you aspire to. They will identify precisely the competency gaps you will need to fill if you are to fulfill your leadership aspirations. All sounds pretty good, so what can go wrong?

“Its not what you know, but who you know”. This old adage, often spoken with a touch of cynicism, whether we like it or not, will play a role in whether you fill your leadership aspirations or not. You only have to look as far as our political leaders to know the truth in the saying. Your social capital is described as the assets that accrue from the network of personal relationships you have. Your leadership training may indeed identify competencies required to build effective relationships, but it is unlikely to identify shortcomings in your social capital or provide you guidance on how to shape your relationship networks to best advantage.

There is no shortage of research supporting the importance of relationships (social capital) when identifying effective leaders. Kelley and Caplan1 studied star performers at Bell Labs 20 years ago and identified relationship networks as a key differentiator for the high performers. Ron Burt2, the Professor of Sociology and Strategy at the University of Chicago took some 7 years out of his academic career to work in the leadership and learning division of a major US defense contractor. In this time he studied waves of leadership cohorts moving through the firm and was able to identify high performers as being differentiated by the types of relationship networks that they kept, specifically networks that were more open and diverse. More recently Alex "Sandy" Pentland, director of MIT's Human Dynamics Laboratory identified the ‘Charismatic Connector” as a key role in successful teams3 through attaching social badges to team members to track their communication behaviours.

In our own work in using organisational network analysis to assess succession risks in large complex organisations, we have identified as expected, that the ‘Chief xxx’ (Chief Engineer, Chief Chemist, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Information Officer etc…) is highly relied on and therefore a potential succession risk. Interestingly though it was often the case that they were valued not necessarily for their knowledge about ‘xxx’ but their organisational knowledge i.e. who they knew in the organisation to help get things done. In one interview we had with a Chief Engineer, he indicated that he was having trouble finding a successor that was happy to fill in for him when he was away. They were often relieved when he returned and happy to return to their regular job. Further investigation found that these potential successors lacked none of the necessary

1 Robert E. Kelley and Janet Caplan,“How Bell Labs Creates Star Performers”, Harvard Business Review, 1 July 1993 2 http://www.chicagobooth.edu/faculty/bio.aspx?person_id=12824623104 3 http://blogs.hbr.org/video/2012/03/measure-­‐your-­‐teams-­‐success.html

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technical skills; in fact arguably they were more up to date than the Chief. The problem was that when the time came to fill in for the Chief everyone expected them to be able to ‘get things done’ in the same way that the Chief does. Our analysis had shown that the Chief Engineer sustained many long-­‐term relationships with his peers across the organisation that was not also shared by his potential successors. Therefore their ability to ‘call in old favours’ to expedite an activity was just not there, and hence they struggled under the weight of expectation.

This example was not an isolated instance for me. In the 1980s I was leading a research team looking to apply artificial intelligence techniques to capture the knowledge of expert practitioners in a Steel Mill. My first assignment was to work with Maurie, the General Foreman of the Sintering plant. He had worked at this plant for over 25 years and was due to retire in 12 months. I diligently spent several weeks ‘mining’ the expert rules for controlling the complex sintering process, for which Maurie was the undisputed expert. We built these several hundred carefully crafted rules into an Expert System and showed it to some of the operators. Were they amazed at the insights that we had collected? Would they now follow the same actions recommended by the system, now filled with Maurie’s sintering knowledge? Not really. Yes the rules were fine, but nothing really insightful and nothing that would lead them to change their own practices.

Well how could this be? Maurie was the undisputed expert and these were his control rules! Further digging identified that the nature of Maurie’s expertise was far broader than just controlling the process. Maurie had relationships with management, the unions, other foreman etc.. He even knew where the brooms were kept on back shifts! Maurie had learnt far more in his 25+ years than how to control the process. He had the ‘social capital’ to get things done.

So where does this leave you as the budding future leader? Does this mean you have to learn to be an astute politician with a little bit of nepotism thrown in when the opportunity arises? How do you build and shape your social capital for career advantage?

Network Structures

The most appropriate type of network for you will depend on the type of leader you aspire to be. If you see yourself becoming the ‘Chief xxx’, an acknowledged leader in your field or discipline, you need to be embedded in a network of ‘like minds’. Deep skills can only be developed through regular interaction with like-­‐ minded peers. It is therefore no surprise that leaders in a field tend to be drawn to work closely with other leaders to provide the best opportunity for pushing the frontiers. At the other extreme, if you see yourself as the ‘super connector’ or ‘rainmaker’, who can bring disparate resources together and empower them to perform, then your network needs to be much more diverse, with a large number of ‘weak ties’ from which you can draw when the opportunity arises.

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It may happen that you are looking to migrate from a domain specialist to becoming an entrepreneur. In this case you will have to migrate your network to a new, more appropriate form.

Shaping your Network for Success

Firstly, we should deal with the competency question first. The majority of competency measures focus on behavioural attributes. Some common measures related to building networks are: the ability to influence others; building collaborative partnerships, persuasive communicator; empowering others; providing motivational support etc.. No doubt these core behaviours may dictate your success in building your relationship network (or social capital). However if we go one step further and ask questions like: what does your current network look like? Is your network limiting or empowering your potential success? How can you shape your network for future success?

To answer these questions we first need to be able to see and assess what your current network looks like. If you are a member of Linkedin you can generate a network map based on your Linkedin connections4.

4 http://inmaps.linkedinlabs.com/ www.optimice.com.au

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Here is my Linkedin network. I tend to accept most Linkedin invitations so there are people on my map (above) who I may not know personally. What is quickly apparent is that I have three major clusters, which represent former employers and my core discipline of Knowledge Management (the largest cluster). There is a geographic cluster of Italians emanating from a key business partnership I have there in the lower right. The small crimson cluster in the lower left interestingly are made up of people that I don’t know personally but are members of an International Business Honour society called Alpha Beta Gamma that I had been elected to but in which I have been passive to date (other than accepting Linkedin invitations).

So how would I assess my own network? Well that needs to be done in the context of an aspiration. As a relatively recent co-­‐founder of an innovative firm looking to develop and sell network analysis products into the market place, I can see that perhaps my network should be more diversified. My strong Knowledge Management network is an artifact from my many years as a discipline lead in that area. This community has led to some good initial sales but other than my Italian connections, my other connections are largely related to past employers. Perhaps I should be looking to explore some of my weaker links

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e.g. the Alpha Beta Gamma society, or some of the smaller, weaker clusters as a means for diversifying my network.

While Linkedin can provide a good macro view of your external network, its likely that your closest colleagues may not even be in your Linkedin network, as the focus for Linkedin is to help you build new relationships. It is unlikely for example, to surface networks inside your own organisation, or say the networks within a key client organisation. For that you may need something more specifically aimed at diagnosing your personal network.

A Personal Network Diagnostic?

I started this paper by referencing some common diagnostics employed in leadership education and training. Tools like Myers-­‐Briggs and TMI can identify where your natural behavioural preferences lie. The idea is that if you are aware of your ‘natural’ type you will be more aware of how to self manage when issues requiring a different style of behaviour emerge. Networking is no different. You will have a natural preference for say being more entrepreneurial, or more single focused, but that should not stop you from adapting as the situation arises. In fact there is research5 indicating that mature managers do in fact adapt away from their personal networking style, as the situation demands. This is not so for more junior staff.

So are there any personal networking diagnostics out there? Rob Cross from the University of Virginia is an acknowledged Social Network Analysis authority and the author of several practical books on the subject. He has designed a comprehensive personal diagnostic6, which provides some specific advice on how you may need to adapt your network to achieve your leadership ambitions.

I have also been experimenting with a diagnostic, which builds on Rob Cross’ work by incorporating the personality assessment diagnostic from Burt et al and also the more recent work around the ‘charismatic connector’ from MIT professor, Alex Pentland’s work on the science behind great teams7. The diagnostic builds an interactive map of your network for you to explore along with some other related measures. Here is an example output rendered on a web page:

5 Burt, R., Janotta, J. and Mahoney, J. (1998), 'Personality Correlates of Structural Holes', Social Networks 20, pp.63-87

6 http://www.robcross.org/consulting_network_diagnostic.htm 7 http://hbr.org/2012/04/the-­‐new-­‐science-­‐of-­‐building-­‐great-­‐

teams/ar/1?referral=00134 www.optimice.com.au

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Summary

In summary, as a leader your network of relationships will play a large part in your future success. Despite its importance there is a paucity of diagnostic tools to help you identify what your current state is in terms your personal social capital. Social Network Analysis techniques can provide you with the tools to visualise and then analyse your current network state. From there it becomes an easier task to decide how to then shape your network to be aligned with your future aspirations as a leader.

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