Leader Network Map

List the people you really exchange help with, see where they all know each other and where you have no way in, and plan two connections your next challenge needs, built through shared work rather than contact collecting.

Mixed research: bridging structural holes, gaps between groups that do not otherwise talk, gives earlier information and more options (Burt, 1992), but the payoff depends on context and the direction of cause is open. The building advice is practitioner guidance (Uzzi & Dunlap, 2005). Review rhythms on this page are rules of thumb.

Use it when:

• You take on a bigger role, join a new organization or start working on your own.
• You drive an initiative beyond your mandate and need backing from groups you rarely meet.
• Decisions keep surprising you, which suggests the information reaches others before you.

Skip it when:

• You need to map who matters for one specific change: use 3.1 Stakeholder Map.
• You need to win one person's help now: use 3.2 Power & Influence Grid or 9.5 Influence Without Authority Map.

The claim from network research is that advantage sits in the structure of your relationships, not their number. Burt (1992) argued that people who bridge structural holes, the gaps between groups that do not otherwise talk, hear things earlier and see more options, because tight circles mostly pass the same news around inside. It is an influential idea, but the payoff from bridging depends on the role, the organization and the culture, and it is not settled whether bridging causes success or success attracts bridges. Treat it as leverage worth building, not a law.

The building advice is practitioner guidance: durable ties grow out of shared activities, such as projects, problems and communities, and reciprocity comes first (Uzzi & Dunlap, 2005). So this page starts from real exchanges, not your contact list, measures how much your contacts overlap, and plans bridges through shared work. The integrity line is craft: a relationship used only as a means is usually noticed, and does not hold when tested.

List up to six people you exchanged real help with in the past three months: advice, information, backing, introductions. Use initials or a role, not full names. Who is actually there, not who you wish were.

Strong answer: "Production planner (my site): gives me early warning on schedule changes; I give him quality data before the weekly meeting; same circle as most of my list: yes." Not: "Planner: good contact."

Illustrative example: the roles and the company are made up.

A newly appointed quality manager at a pulp mill in Finland maps her network.

Step 1: six real exchanges in three months: the production planner, two shift leads, the lab head, the maintenance manager and her predecessor, now retired.

Step 2: five of six know each other, all on site. No bridge into sales, the group's head office in Helsinki, any customer, or other mills.

Step 3: only the predecessor challenges her. If the plant manager's assistant left, she would lose her only route to the plant manager.

Step 4: bridge one: sales, through the quarterly customer complaints review, where she offers a claims summary the sales team lacks. Bridge two: quality peers at other mills, through the industry association's quality network, where she offers to present the mill's new sampling routine. She books both first steps for May and asks her predecessor for a standing call each quarter.