Internal Networking: It’s Not Just For Kiss-ups Anymore

March 16, 2011 - PRLog -- Internal networking is not just for kiss-ups anymore! It has become a powerful way to advance your position in your company while catalyzing a shift from silo thinking to a more flexible, collaborative, productive organizational culture.

Like me, you’ve probably been told that broad networking is the best way to find a job, but there are many benefits of networking inside your current company as well. Even if you’re not looking to change jobs, internal networking can help with career development, increase the impact of your responsibilities on an organization, increase individual resources in terms of information, references, and advice available to you, and elevate your influence in the company.  

Internal networking is also a powerful way to help shift your organization away from a silo mentality to a more collaborative way of working. Silos happen when a group, division, function, or even individual, becomes insular and disconnected from other parts of the organization.  The resulting mentality means that these groups don’t share information or goals with others in the same company. This can cause an enterprise to deteriorate into a group of isolated camps with organizational power-struggles, blocked collaboration, an unhealthy corporate culture, and ultimately limited productivity and profit. It happens all the time. In fact, and American Management Association survey showed that 83 % of executives said silos exist in their companies and 97 % think they have a negative effect.

As an employee, internal networking can be a powerful way to have a positive influence on your company by starting to shift the silo mentality. Internal networking can be understood to entail reaching out to others in your organization when your job does not require it.  It involves going beyond the normal scope of responsibilities to create ongoing informal relationships between individuals in an organization. Effective internal networkers are those who are always trying to reach out to help others with information, advice, a connection, and opportunity, etc. It seems to me that internal networking is a critical skill for anyone in an organization who is trying to help others, their companies, and themselves. Keep in mind that the well-connected individual creates value for those around them, and in turn themselves, by connecting others and becoming a resource.

Business leaders acknowledge that internal communications and cooperation between teams are critical to most business growth strategies. Bigger companies can be particularly inclined to suffer from silo mentalities and colleagues working at cross-purposes. An Industry Week study found that business functions operating as silos are the biggest obstacle to corporate growth.  I think that internal networking on an informal, individual basis can be extremely helpful for breaking down silos and encouraging collaboration because people to whom you reach out to will start to recognize how beneficial and easy it is to extend beyond the boundary of their department/group to give or seek assistance or advice.

For more discussions on related topics, visit the UpMo blog at http://www.upmo.com/blog/ and tell us about your related experiences.

Employees Rule! UpMo provides the industry’s first employee-centric career management solutions. By helping people plan, pursue and manage their careers in a way that benefits both them and their companies, UpMo SaaS solutions help companies embrace employee mobility to dramatically increase productivity, reduce employee churn, and improve employee engagement. Check our new solutions at www.upmo.com.

# # #

About UpMo:
Employees Rule. And they want to move, change and grow. Why fight it? Harness that power with UpMo SaaS solutions to ignite productivity and keep your talent in-house. UpMo provides the industry’s first employee-centric career management solutions. Our software is a powerful means to increase employee engagement and motivation, reduce employee turnover, and increase efficiency. Visit us at www.upmo.com.