How To Build Social Capital
Social capital is the relationships you’ve built. These relationships can help you gain visibility, connect with other people, and pave the way for new opportunities.
Social Capital is what will support you as you advance in your career.
The key is knowing how to build social capital. Just because you may know many people, doesn’t necessarily mean they are willing to call someone on your behalf. You need to think strategically when building social capital. Focus on being proactive, strengthening current relationships, and generating goodwill.
Below are three strategies that we believe will help you build social capital to help you achieve your career goals.
1. Be Proactive
To build social capital, you have to be proactive. This means putting yourself in a position where you will be able to meet people and build your network.
As you build your network, you will want to keep the following in mind:
- Set Aside Time To Network – If you want to build social capital, you must continuously network. This means setting aside time each week or month to connect with someone. You can do this virtually or in person, depending on your situation. For example, let’s say your company hosts a virtual coffee hour every Wednesday morning. Decide to attend at least once a month. You are more apt to do it when you set aside time to network. This will help you actively grow your social network.
- Be Strategic – Knowing many people is great, but knowing the right people is even better. This means meeting people who are in positions to help you advance your career. For example, if you want to get into the marketing department at your company, find the executives within the department. Once you know who you want to meet, be proactive in meeting them. You can ask to meet for coffee, ask for five minutes of their time, or sign up to be mentored by one of them. Being strategic will help you make the right connections and build your social capital.
- Show Up And Speak Up – Attending networking events is a great way to be proactive and meet new people. However, no one will get to know you if you aren’t speaking up. Part of networking is showcasing yourself to others. For example, if you are in a zoom networking event, make sure you turn your camera on. Decide to speak within the first five minutes. Ask questions using the chat function. The more others can see and hear you, the more memorable you will be.
Being proactive will force you to make strategic connections with those who can help you advance your career.
2. Strengthen Current Relationships
Strengthening and cultivating current relationships are great ways to build your social capital. This is because the people you’ve met want to feel like you care about them. If you only talk to someone when you need something, they may feel like your relationship isn’t genuine. Nobody wants to feel used.
To maintain positive relationships with others, consider the following:
- Meet To Catch Up – Previous employers and co-workers can be huge assets when it comes to advancing your career. To maintain those relationships, find times to meet with these people to simply catch up. Don’t have a big ask attached to any of these meetings. You want these meetings to be a time to find out how the other person is doing. For example, you can reach out to your former employer once a quarter and have lunch. Ask them what they’re working on. In this way, it won’t feel intrusive when you need to ask them for something.
- Check-In – You probably have a lot of current and former coworkers with who you’d like to maintain a relationship. Trying to go to lunch with every person isn’t feasible. However, checking in, is possible. For example, you can email a few people each week. When you send an email, keep it light and remember, it’s just about maintaining a relationship, not asking for something in each email. You can say something like, “Hi Charles, I hope you are doing well. I’m working on xyz, which reminded me of the time when we worked on the Johnson project together. I wonder if it will ever get finished? Hope to hear from you soon!” Small check-ins will help you strengthen current and previous relationships.
- Encouragement – Another great way to strengthen your relationships is to send a word of encouragement. For example, let’s say you read about your former team getting an accolade. Send them an email saying something like, “Just saw this article, well done!” You can even send a text or a direct message on social media. Making sure your network knows you are thinking about them and watching their career soar will cultivate those relationships.
When you strengthen previous and current relationships, you build social capital. When your network feels valued by you, they will be more likely to help you when you ask.
3. Generate Goodwill
Generating goodwill means making sure your relationships are a two-way street. This means, it isn’t all about you. To get people to advocate for you, or put in a good word, they have to have a reason to do it. When you generate goodwill between yourself and others, you give them a reason to want to help you advance your career.
There are a few ways you can generate goodwill.
- Offer To Help – One of the easiest ways to generate goodwill is to offer help. For example, if your boss is working on a big project, ask your boss if they need any help. Or, if you see a co-worker struggling to meet a deadline, ask if there is anything you can do. In both cases, they may say no, but your offer will mean a lot. Just remember, if they do say yes, be prepared to do the work. And do the job without complaining.
- Think Ahead – Thinking ahead means you anticipate what someone might need, and you do it without them asking. For example, let’s say you always have a meeting at 10 am on Monday. Before the meeting, your boss is trying to clean up the conference room and get their materials passed out before everyone comes in. You could go into the conference room and clean up before your boss gets there. In this way, you are showing goodwill by thinking ahead. Your boss didn’t specifically ask you to clean up, but you knew it needed to be done.
- Be Sincere – When you communicate with others, it is important they know you are being sincere. This means making sure you actively listen to them when they speak, not being sarcastic with your tone of voice, and clearly communicating what you need. For example, let’s say your co-worker is presenting during a meeting. Make sure you are sitting up in your seat. Engage in good-eye contact and limit all of your distractions. Ask your co-worker any clarifying questions to show you are listening to their presentation.
When you generate goodwill between yourself and others, they will be more likely to help you advance your career.
Building social capital is all about relationships. Being strategic in building new relationships, and maintaining previous ones will help you create an extensive network of trusted advocates.
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