A few years ago, I was in a graduate leadership program at Carnegie Mellon University and took a class from a talented educator and author named Robert E. Kelly.  Dr. Kelly had just written a book called “How to be a Star at Work.” (disclosure: I am receiving no affiliate income from this or any other book!)

Honestly, I thought it was going to be one of those kick-your-feet-up, blow-off kind of classes, but it ended up being one of the most interesting sessions of the program.

We all know that certain people tend to rise to superstar level at work. They may not be smarter or harder working than others, but they have a certain “something” that seems to push them up the corporate ladder.

Dr. Kelly had a research grant to determine the factors that these high-fliers had in common. After all, if you could actually test for these factors, wouldn’t that have a powerful impact on corporate recruiting and training?  Turns out it wasn’t that simple, but after years of investigation he eventually found the magic formula.

According to Dr. Kelly’s research, one of those key characteristics of a corporate rock star is an ability to effectively network and find information quickly.  Let’s say you had two employees — Tom and Tammy — equally well-educated, enthusiastic and nattily-attired.  But Tammy had just one advantage — she knew how to use technology to rapidly find the people and resources she needed to accomplish a task while Tom picked up a phone and started calling people in the company directory. The research showed that Tom had no hope of ever catching up and the more complex the task, the further Tammy would outshine him.

It makes a lot of sense.

I’ve already written about the importance of personal “technological adaptability” as an increasingly important life skill. But Dr. Kelly’s research seems to indicate that expert networking skills like an ability to navigate the social web can also be a crucial differentiator in your career.

So there.  Now you can explain to your spouse that all that time you’re wasting on Twitter is actually a career-advancement opportunity! You may be just 140 characters away from the tweet smell of success.

Illustration: toothpastefordinner.com

12 Comments

• 

  By Marc Winitz, March 10, 2010 @ 8:02 am

  An entrepreneur I used to work with founded “Weekend University” and teaches classes on just how to do this, but way beyond Twitter. If you are interested, have a look at this online class (I get no money and have no relationship here, just passing it on):

  http://www.eventbrite.com/event/586284593
• 

  By Mark, March 10, 2010 @ 8:41 am

  Great contribution Marc, Thanks!
• 

  By Johnny, March 10, 2010 @ 10:34 am

  Building a network means building contacts and some people have a savviness for not hesitating to call on those contacts for whatever they need. Climbing the corporate ladder is just knowing that they will eventually meet the right contact pretty soon.

  I don’t say it is bad practice or necessarily using others but it isn’t something I do myself. I like the whole building relationships rather than contacts and, if you eventually need to utilize any one of them, there won’t be any moral dilemma about you “using” them.

  It’s much in the way of yourself building relationships by returning comments on your own blog. After all, you were able to round up your network who were more than willing to help with the brainstorming session.

  That’s no small feat!
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  By steve dodd, March 10, 2010 @ 10:53 am

  Building relationships verses building contact lists is the key secret. Too many forget this. The basic fundamentals of success with social media as a whole apply here as well. Building contacts is no different than collecting business cards. If you don’t engage and add value to conversations, when you need to leverage that “relationship”, you’ll suddenly find you don’t really have anything to leverage.
  As networking has been forever, it’s hard work, but crucial to success in business (or anything else for that matter).
• 

  By Mark, March 10, 2010 @ 11:27 am

  @Johnny That brainstorming example is a good point. This is what he’s talking about:
  http://businessesgrow.com/2010/03/03/how-to-use-twitter-to-crowd-source/

  Here’s another one. Recently I guy on Twitter was looking for a technical resource that I had just stumbled upon. I tweeted him back an answer to his question. His reply: “I havebeen looking for the answer to that question for three days and found it on Twitter in 10 seconds. Twitter rocks.”

  I think that is a great illustration of being savvy enough to use your virtual network to get a job done. And the better you are at doing that kind of data mining the more successful you will be. Really appreciate your comments Johnny!
• 

  By Mark, March 10, 2010 @ 11:28 am

  @ Steve — An incredibly wise point. Pure “numbers” of followers are not going to help you. You have to be engaged.
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  By John Bottom, March 10, 2010 @ 6:50 pm

  Interesting post Mark, but was the secret really ‘finding information fast’ or ‘finding the people and resources to get something done fast’. They seem fairly distinct and it seems to me that the stellar advancers are often the ones with the charm [or thick skin] to ask people to do things for them, rather than researching it themselves.

  But I’ll still quote you when my wife complains I am spending too long on the laptop…
• 

  By Mark, March 10, 2010 @ 10:13 pm

  Probably the second. Still done efficiently through the social web!
• 

  By Alvin McCoy, March 13, 2010 @ 7:31 am

  This ability to acquire timely and relevant resources is what has accelerated the transition of traditional marketing to the collective social web.

  Makes perfect sense.
• 

  By Michelle Tripp, July 11, 2010 @ 11:12 pm

  Just wanted to say I LOVED that book and picked it up during a B&N forage probably ten years ago. It’s been one of the mainstays I go back to time and time again. “How To Be a Star At Work” goes way beyond networking… In the business world it may be all about “who you know,” but the other principles in the book help employees develop into a extremely well-rounded and perceptive individuals ready to contribute at high levels once they make the right connection. Thanks for reminding me to pull it off the shelf and put it back on the night stand. Timeless wisdom.
• 

  By Mark W. Schaefer, July 13, 2010 @ 9:03 am

  @Michelle — Glad to find another fan of the book. Thanks for taking the time to comment.

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