How to Nurture Your Professional Network
The Power of Reaching Out — Without an Agenda
How many times have you thought of reconnecting with a former colleague, manager, or even someone with whom you spoke briefly at a conference, only to talk yourself out of it?
Maybe you weren’t sure what to say. Maybe it felt awkward. Or maybe it just slipped down your list of priorities. Regardless of the reason, these small moments of hesitation can quietly chip away at one of the most powerful tools we have in our careers: our network.
During a recent ALJ Alumni Masterclass, Amit Parihar offered a fresh, practical perspective on why—and, importantly, how—to reconnect meaningfully with the people around us. He explains, “We need to possess a networking mindset.”
Making a Genuine Connection
A networking mindset prioritizes curiosity, generosity, and long-term relationship-building over transactional outcomes. Rather than viewing networking as a means to an end, approaching networking as a mindset rather than an approach reframes it as an opportunity to grow, share, and support.
Further, the group realized that nurturing your network in low-pressure moments makes it easier and more natural to lean on it during challenging ones.
Barriers to Reaching Out
Even the most outgoing professionals can struggle with maintaining their network. Fear of rejection, concerns about poor timing, assumptions that someone is too busy or uninterested, or the belief that a connection should always serve a specific purpose. These barriers, real or not, often prevent meaningful reconnection.
A Real-Time Experiment in Networking
During the session, Parihar urged participants to list a few people in their networks they’d been meaning to contact—and then asked them to reach out to one of those people in real-time, via call or text, without any agenda. The purpose? Simply to check in, say hello, and express genuine interest in how the other person is doing.
The result? A simple but powerful experience that showed how small gestures can have big emotional payoffs. Whether it was a returned message, a voicemail, or a brief chat to schedule a lunch soon, this exercise in reaching out often led to warm responses, renewed dialogue, and a surprising sense of satisfaction.
It's time to challenge yourself ...
In the LinkedIn comments of this post, tag someone you’ve been meaning to reconnect with!
About the Author
Betsy Piland is the Marketing and Communications Manager at Agile Leadership Journey. She has spent the bulk of her career working in higher education, healthcare, corporate learning and development, and nonprofits—always looking to tell a compelling story that will inspire audiences into action.
When not at work, she can be found digging in her garden, baking something delicious, and spending time with her husband, daughter, and two rescue dogs.
Connect with Betsy on LinkedIn.
