Most women’s networks of relationships are not as useful as they might be.  There are three characteristics of most women’s networks which contribute to this:

1. They are redundant

Redundant means that the people in your network know the other people in your network. Take your team, for example, all the people in your team know each other. They work together. They see each other every day. That network is redundant.

2. The people in their network are similar to them

If you are the mother of small children, you tend to have people in your network who are also the mothers of small children. If you live in Washington, D.C., you tend to have people in your network who also live in Washington, D.C.  If you work in consulting, your network is likely to have lots of other people who are also consultants.

3. Their network is “heavy, deep, and real"

Women tend to have small networks made up of people with whom they have close relationships. Men, in contrast, tend to have networks which are broader and more “superficial”. Men are much more likely to consider someone as being in their network, even if they don’t know the person well.

Why is a redundant, similar, and close network problematic? Because of the value of “consequential strangers.” People who know different people, who are different than you, and who are only casually connected to you expand your network to present more and different opportunities.  For example, 70% of professionals find their jobs through people they know. But only seventeen percent of those people are people they know well. In other words, the best job opportunities come from “consequential strangers”. – people you know only slightly.  You might think your best friend is the person who's going to help you find a job or a new client. But because the people who are closest to you know the same people or the same type of people as you, they have less access to people you don’t know, which is where you’re most likely to find new opportunities.

Reflect on your network:

-Is it too redundant?
-Are most of your connections like you?
-Have your overemphasized close relationships over more casual relationships in forming your network?

If the answer to any of these questions is yes, how could you go about expanding and diversifying your network?  What step will you take this week to do that?