How Networking Can Increase your Social Power

I wrote the following for a paper but it basically sums up how networking is a must in order to gain social power.

First let’s define power; according to McShane and Glinow, “power is the capacity of a person, team, or organization to influence others” (p. 300). So let’s say you want something done and you want someone else to do some work, if you have power then that person will be obliged to do work for you. But power doesn’t come simply; it could take a while to gain that power. Networking, in order to increase a person’s power can come from expanding a person’s career circle or social circle. “Networking provides a way for you to gain contact with those in positions of power you might not normally have access to in the normal course of your life.” (Minor, T. L., 1997). By getting to know more and more people, one has opportunities to gain knowledge, skills, and experiences. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “there is no knowledge that is not power”. Knowledge, the most important factor, gained can dictate a person decision; these decisions can help a person influence others. Skills can be gained over time from working with others; these skills help in helping a person improve in their field or other field of work. Experiences with other people, bad experiences especially, helps someone gain knowledge and skills, so that person can avoid making the same mistakes and make better decisions. For example, a person who stays home and doesn’t network will have a very hard time developing speaking skills. Let’s look at a party for example; whenever we go to parties, the person who has the highest network connections and has the greatest speaking skills is the one who everyone listens to. At the party, no one will give attention to the person who is unsocial or the one with least network connection because he or she wouldn’t know that many people.

So networking overall helps someone gain knowledge. But networking gives immense amount of benefits. Networking in career search gives an individual boost. “By regularly attending business and social events, people will begin to recognize you. This can you help to build your reputation as a knowledgeable, reliable and supportive person by offering useful information or tips to people who need it.” I’m in the medical field and one of the things that my teaching doctors tell me that in order to get good residencies, one of the best things is to have good connections. In the medical field, networking is highly emphasized in clinical clerkships. We are taught that if a doctor recognizes a student, based on a strong communication with the student, the doctor will favor that student for granting him or her a residency position. Another way to network in my career is to do volunteering in hospitals. By volunteering in the hospitals doctors will notice the volunteer and with time there will interaction with doctors. And by the same process, the doctor will recognize and favor that student for residency.

References

Five Benefits of Networking. (2013, February 12). Small Business BC. Retrieved January 26, 2014, from http://www.smallbusinessbc.ca/starting-a-business/five-benefits-networking

McShane, Steven Lattimore, and Mary Ann Young Glinow. Organizational behavior: emerging knowledge and practice for the real world. 5th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2010. Print.

Minor, T. L. (1997, Jan 31). Networking for professional power. Hispanic Engineer and Information Technology, 12, 12. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.proxy.davenport.edu/docview/218153959?accountid=40195