HBR's 10 Must Reads on Career Resilience (with bonus article "Reawakening Your Passion for Work" By Richard E. Boyatzis, Annie McKee, and Daniel Goleman)

How Leaders Create and Use Networks

by Herminia Ibarra and Mark Lee Hunter

WHEN HENRIK BALMER BECAME the production manager and a board member of a newly bought-out cosmetics firm, improving his network was the last thing on his mind. The main problem he faced was time: Where would he find the hours to guide his team through a major upgrade of the production process and then think about strategic issues like expanding the business? The only way he could carve out time and still get home to his family at a decent hour was to lock himself—literally—in his office. Meanwhile, there were day-to-day issues to resolve, like a recurring conflict with his sales director over custom orders that compromised production efficiency. Networking, which Henrik ...