What's the difference between strong & weak professional connections?

Are you curious about defining your interpersonal relationships? Maybe you want to get better at networking, but you aren't sure how to do it? Or maybe you need to figure out which people can help you find a job?

Then it might be time to learn how to differentiate between strong and weak connections!

A connection, also called a tie, is your relationship with someone. All your connections make up your network. This includes your friends, family, coworkers, acquaintances, and anyone you know that you may have some sort of relationship with.

Your relationships can be broken up into two categories: weak and strong connections. Several things can decide whether a connection is strong or weak.

• Closeness: how close you are emotionally. The closer you are to someone, the stronger your connection will be.

• Frequency: how often you interact with someone. Connections are stronger with people you interact with frequently.

• Role diversity: the number of roles a person fulfills in your life. For example, your coworker can also be your mentor, friend, etc. More roles can create stronger connections.

Strong Connections

These are your close relationships. They involve a lot of communication, trust, and emotional closeness. This includes:

• Friends and family

• People you interact with frequently

• People who fulfill multiple roles in your life

Strong connections are the people you rely on for support.

Weak Connections

These are your casual or superficial relationships. This may be people you don't interact with daily. This includes:

• Acquaintances, coworkers, or classmates

• People you know, but not very well

• People who fulfill singular roles in your life

Weak connections can provide perspectives and resources that your strong connections might not.

Strong connections fulfill multiple roles in your life, like how a coworker can also be a close friend or mentor.

You may be able to talk to them about your personal life, but they can also help guide you in choosing your next job. They might be someone you can hang out with, but also feel comfortable asking for career advice.

In a professional environment, strong connections can:

• Help you move up in your career. Strong connections can recommend you for promotions and new jobs, opening up more opportunities for growth and promotion.

• Increase your job satisfaction. They may help you stay in a job, or make the work environment more pleasant.

• Provide emotional support to help you navigate difficult situations. For example, they might keep you from getting too discouraged when looking for a job.

Weak connections expose you to more ideas and can act as gateways into different networks.

Maybe you have a coworker you like in the workplace, but you wouldn't hang out with them on the weekends. That's fine! Weak connections are important because they provide insights and networks that could be completely different from our strong ones.

In a professional environment, weak connections can:

• Help you connect to a different network. Your weak connection could introduce you to someone with the experience you want.

• Provide you with new ideas. Maybe they can show you stuff like how to automate your emails.

• Help you find new opportunities. They can expose you to more companies or people looking to hire someone — for example, an organization that you haven't heard of, but one that aligns with your values.

Remember, weak connections can eventually turn into strong ones!

Jeremy just graduated college and he's looking for his first job as a programmer. He joined an online forum of programmers, and he met someone new who works at a company he's interested in. They've spoken a few times, but they aren't very close.

Jeremy wants to make the most out of this new connection. What should he ask this person?

A. "Can you introduce me to other programmers?"

B. "Can you be my mentor?"

C. "Can I go to the next networking event with you?"

D. "Can you get me a job at your company?"

Now you should be able to differentiate between the weak and strong network connections in your life. Remember that it's important to cultivate both of them, as they provide variety and serve different roles in your network!