Social Capital in Leadership: The Signal That Predicts Who Gets Promoted (And Who Plateaus)

Social capital is the leadership signal most performance review systems miss. It is the sum of trust, credibility, and network density a leader carries — how many people will say yes to a request from her without asking for the business case, how many relationships she maintains without administrative overhead, how many rooms her opinion is present in without her being physically present. Leaders who build social capital rise. Leaders who do not, plateau — regardless of technical competence.

Why performance reviews miss it: social capital is relational, not output-based. The leader with high social capital produces results through others in a way that a 1:1 review cannot fully attribute. The leader with low social capital produces results through effort, which looks heroic in a review and unsustainable three years later. The first gets promoted faster. The second gets stuck — even when her direct-output metrics are better.

Below is how to spot social capital in your leadership bench, the four behaviors that install it (they compound slowly, which is why most leaders never invest), and how the Learn2 participant-driven leadership programs make social capital a measurable development outcome rather than an unnamed “executive presence” mystery.

Consider a room full of light bulbs with the leader as the light bulb in the center. It doesn’t matter if the leader isn’t the brightest bulb in the room. What matters = Does the leader light up and energize others? Decision makers call this Social Capital. Transformational leaders don’t need to personally shine the brightest; transformational leaders consistently evolve organizations by lighting up others and by galvanizing the collective.

WHAT IS SOCIAL CAPITAL?

Social capital is the professional relationship between networked individuals – strengthened from mutual trust and respect. You can increase your social capital in two primary ways:

1. By fostering a formal and informal network of high-performing professionals.
2. By leveraging your growing network for mentors, sponsors, and inside intelligence.

These relationships can provide an upwardly mobile, thoughtful leader access to opportunities that are otherwise invisible. Evaluating leadership from a network-aware perspective considers each individual’s ability to leverage collaboration through trust, respect, and integrity.

SUCCESSFUL LEADERS AND SOCIAL CAPITAL

Leaders carry out their work while dealing with ever-changing business issues, juggling conflicting priorities, multiple accountabilities, and matrix / ambiguous responsibilities. Social capital is a critical success factor for upwardly mobile executives. When we begin to look at talent that is at the director level or above, evaluating ‘human capital’ expertise is not enough; it is not a reliable predictor of success. When it comes to the higher levels in the organization, we should evaluate leadership talent from a network-aware perspective. It’s incumbent on us to consider theirsocial capital quotient. = What is their relative ability to mobilize the collaborative efforts of a network?

BUILDING PROFESSIONAL RELATIONSHIPS THROUGH SOCIAL CAPITAL

Building meaningful network relationships requires a complex series of activities that each leader must undertake as an individual, no one can do this for you! Each activity is discreet but they build upon each other in a layered and complex manner.

SETTING NETWORKING GOALS

Select 1 or 2 goals from each level of your connections to develop over the next 3-4 months. Once you have those network relationships humming, you can broaden out your network map plan. Start with your end state in mind.

CREATING AN ENVIRONMENT FOR RELATIONSHIP BUILDING

Being the bright light in the room is part alchemy and part applied network science. Knowing how to build and leverage a network is a career-building skill set! Executives that are aware of this framework for relationship building and social capital, and have the ability to execute it, becoming highly valuable to their organizations. Having strong social capital is a competitive advantage in the boardroom, at the senior table, and an important component of leadership development. Strong well-leveraged social relationship capital = you’re connected to key influencers + you have the ability to invoke them. Why should you care about your network strength? Having strong relationships translates into demonstrations of necessary / visible support at critical junctures, for you or your enterprise.

HOW DO I BUILD SOCIAL CAPITAL IN MY ORGANIZATION?

Building authentic relationships requires a firm foundation of strong peer relationships and an extraordinarily high-performing team. In the absence of these strengths, the ability to leverage your network enough to build adequate social capital is diffused and others in your organization may potentially interpret your under-performance as confusion about priorities!

THE SOCIAL CAPITAL CAVEAT:

The work of building solid relationships is not linear. Plan to develop your relationship capital by deliberately building a powerful set of professional business relationships. Select activities that support your intention to have a strong, valuable network. Leverage your relationships in the best interests of your organization. Make sure to spend your social capital wisely and respect the influential power it provides to you and your career. ~Dr. Gail Johnson Morris