Networking is a skill, not a talent!

Dr Cole Collins, British Academy Early Career Researcher Network Scotland Cluster Project Officer and Researcher Developer, University of Glasgow

During a recent conversation about ‘talent’ and Researcher Development, I was reminded, by a much more learned colleague in these matters, about the ‘Parable of the Talents’ (Matthew 25: 14-30) in which a rich man, embarking on travel, bestows different amounts of money (‘talents’ in the parable) on three of his servants. Two invest and grow their money; the third, seemingly paralyzed by fear, buries it in the ground and earns nothing. When the rich man returns from his travels, he rewards the two who grew their money and punishes the servant who didn’t.

If we apply the parable to network-building, we all start off at the same point and have two options: walking into a room full of people (the talents), many of whom we likely do not know, and speaking with whom will be first step to growing your network (investment). Alternatively, you avoid speaking to anyone (the third servant who didn’t invest).

The opportunity to grow our network can be extremely rewarding – those connections can lead to fruitful collaborations, grants, publishing opportunities, even jobs. But networking can often feel like a vulnerable, difficult thing to do, especially for emerging researchers, some neurodivergent colleagues, people on a time or energy budget, and even those of us who are generally just shy.

It is therefore understandable that we would get the urge to bury our talents and not put ourselves in the vulnerable, potentially risky position of not growing them. But we shouldn’t punish ourselves for not being able to do this on demand. After all, as my RC&RD colleagues have noted, there is a great deal of value added when you develop your social circles, and mobilise the power of your communities.

Apprehension is the enemy of progress

The momentum-sucking fear of failure of making a bad impression in the case of networking, is perhaps why we feel so apprehensive about doing it in the first place. It’s especially difficult to take the leap when we only have examples of effortless networking to draw upon (we all have that colleague who seems to find it effortless!) and can’t see how we might possibly replicate this apparent carefree attitude. 

I count myself simply fortunate that I have confidence and am at ease in social situations. I used to think this was an innate talent I possessed. However, as I have progressed through my career and worked with many different types of people, I realise that it is in fact a persona I have adopted, for a specific purpose. When I reflect on my own experiences of networking, I still feel mildly nervous, when approaching a group of people whom I haven’t met before or walking up to speak to someone whose work I admire.

However, I learned quickly that those people in front of me also share(d) my nervousness. That they too had once been in my place – an emerging scholar standing in front of the titans in their field. There’s a bit of networking that is, unfortunately, quite performative and so sometimes you need to adopt confidence to enable you to take the next steps to building what could be a career-defining connection. Trying on that confidence and wearing it so often that you adopt it as a new practice. And if you really like how that newfound confidence feels, it might even become a new way of being.

Sending the ladder down

But what if there was a third option, not included in the parable above? In 2018, after organising a large, three-day, international conference on the histories of collage, a colleague and I established our own research network. The purpose of which was to connect people interested in researching, learning and working with/on collage in any time-period and any material. We had no set formal structures, apart from a blog and a remit to continue to connect interested collage enthusiasts.

Our network grew to over 400 members in just eighteen months, we published several blog posts, held online and in-person seminars and symposia, and organised workshops for early career academics to get feedback on a piece of writing from established scholars in the field. It was time-consuming, onerous, but extremely rewarding. It led to several publications for both of us and other members of the network, opened doors to funding, and ultimately created a space in which people could share knowledge and expertise across disciplines.

In establishing the network, and putting on these events, I realised how much effort it took to get people in the same room and to make those connections. I made the active choice then to always ‘send the ladder back down’ and additionally, to show people how to climb it. I created ‘how to’ networking workshops for students, thinking about the different ways in which one can network – in-person, online, through social media – and also about the importance of communicating one’s intentions, being polite and collegial in our approaches to one another, and also in understanding the benefit of connecting without the expectation of getting something in return.

Now, as the British Academy Early Career Researcher Network Scotland Cluster Project Officer, networks are part of my professional remit. Much of my role is administrative, but another large part of it is based in conversations. Chatting to Early Career Researchers at events, through email, connecting on LinkedIn and through The Platform (the British Academy’s online forum for the Network) has made me realise that networking is not something that just happens, or that we just do unbidden. It requires skill and needs to be honed. So, what I thought I would do to end this blog post is offer my advice for networking.

How to get started with network building

1. Be prepared – the adage that hard work is 90% preparation and only 10% perspiration is a good way to approach networking. It’s never bad to have some talking points in your back pocket, or a well-rehearsed elevator pitch (a simple and quick description of your research) committed to memory.
2. Shed your expectations – the best conversations and some of the most fruitful connections have been made when I’ve gone in with the intention of getting to know someone, but not necessarily to work with them. If you remove the expectation of a transactional connection, you sometimes remove the pressure to be performative, yielding a more organic and potentially stronger connection.
3. Take a buddy – sometimes it helps to have a friend or confidant along with you for the ride.
4. Bring people into your network – if you have established connections, bring others into that circle and give them a chance to become part of it. We can all be part of keeping on sending the ladder down.
5. Coordinate a network – thinking about the third way of network building I mention above, can you host an event or group? Whether starting small, or getting creative this places you at the heart of a relevant and valuable network.

And remember, networking isn’t ever a talent that you have or don’t have, it’s a practice and it gets easier over time.