Many CEOs, CFOs and other C-suite executives are proficient networkers who genuinely invest time in their networks.
But, for many aspiring executives, networking is something they know they should do more of but never quite get around to. These leaders build strong ties with peers inside their own organisation but rarely think to develop broader networks beyond it. Networking outside their organisational sphere tends to get filed under "important but not urgent", crowded out by the demands of their role, or managing the next quarter.
That is a mistake, and for those aiming for the top of their organisations, an increasingly costly one.
Three Networks, Not One
One of the most useful reframes is to stop thinking about "your network" as a single thing. There are really three interconnected networks worth investing in, and most leaders over-invest in just one.
- Your internal network is the colleagues, direct reports and stakeholders you work with day to day. This one tends to look after itself, though building genuine breadth across the organisation, beyond your immediate team, is worth more deliberate effort than most leaders give it.
- Your personal network is the broader web of relationships built across a career: former colleagues, mentors, peers from other organisations. This needs active maintenance, because it quietly atrophies the moment you stop feeding it.
- Your external network is the relationships that sit outside your organisation and sector: advisors, auditors, consultants, regulators, the media. This is the network that needs more attention as you progress, helping you horizon scan and providing perspectives you won't find inside your own walls.
Auditing which of these three you are actually investing in is a revealing exercise. Most leaders, if honest, will find a significant gap somewhere.
Build A Personal Boardroom
Perhaps the most powerful way to think about your personal network is this: if you were a company, who would sit on your board?
Your personal network should be able to support you in achieving your personal aims and ambitions, and the people who make a significant difference tend to play quite specific roles. A coach helps you work through challenges you would rather not surface internally. A mentor offers career perspective and can unlock doors. An energiser keeps you resilient through difficult stretches. A broker makes introductions at the right moment. And a contrarian, someone whose views and personality genuinely challenge your own and bring the diversity of thought that stops you operating in an echo chamber.
That last one is the role most often missing. It is human nature to build networks full of people who think and work like us, and it is also one of the more limiting things a leader can do.
Personal Brand Is Not Just a LinkedIn Problem
When personal brand comes up, it often triggers a mixture of scepticism and mild discomfort in senior leaders. It can feel performative, or simply not what serious leaders do.
But personal brand is not really about social media. It is what people in your network say about you when you are not in the room: the clarity of what you stand for, the consistency of how you show up, and whether the reputation you have genuinely reflects the leader you are. That reputation travels ahead of you through your internal, personal and external networks, and it quietly decides whether people think to recommend you, include you, or bring you into a conversation before you have even asked.
The data bears this out. Harvard found that 65% of people find their next role through their network rather than ‘conventional’ channels. This means referrals are not given lightly. Recommending someone you do not know well is a risk to your own reputation if it does not work out, which is why most people are careful about who they put forward.
The 2024 Edelman-LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report also found that 86% of decision-makers are likely to invite people behind consistently high-quality thinking into conversations or processes they would not otherwise be part of, and 75% say a piece of thought leadership prompted them to look into someone or something they had not previously considered. Visibility earns you a seat at tables you were never in the room for. And when you show up consistently, the people in your network, and the people in theirs, have something accurate and credible to say about you when your name comes up.
For leaders who want to go further, School for CEOs Managing Partner and co-founder David Sole OBE explores exactly this territory in his book, 21st Century Networking: How to Become a Natural Networker, co-written with Belinda Roberts. It offers a practical, case study-led approach to assessing your networks, building your personal brand, and making networking part of everyday working life rather than an occasional chore.
School for CEOs Vital Few programme for new and aspiring CEOs also includes a session on personal brand, facilitated by a member of our expert faculty.
The Bottom Line
Reciprocity is the golden rule here. The leaders who build the strongest networks are those who invest in them consistently: sharing useful information, making introductions, offering to help, long before they need anything in return. Most people only realise they need a strong network when they suddenly need it, and by then it is possible to build one, but it is much harder work.
Your network is a strategic asset. Like any asset, it depreciates if you do not invest in it. The leaders who navigate transitions most smoothly, access the best opportunities, and build the most resilient organisations are rarely those with the most connections; but those with the most intentional ones.
If you cannot remember the last time you deliberately invested in building or refreshing your network, that is probably the signal worth paying attention to.
Developing Great Networks is one of the practical workshops in the School for CEOs Leadership Series, a set of focused half-day sessions designed to build key leadership skills. To find out more or have a conversation about what the Leadership Series could offer your leaders, get in touch at info@schoolforceos.com.
