Networking Isn’t Easy For Women, But It Is Crucial

By Liz Rappaport
Thursday, October 1, 2015, 6:35 PM

Go to lunch with an ask. Don’t be afraid to be transactional. Make yourself go to the cocktail party.

“Networking is like exercise,” says Candace Corlett, president of WSL, a retail strategy consulting firm. “You know you must, but do you? And you know if you do, you’ll feel better.”

Professional relationships create opportunities and outlets for sounding off about career challenges, say senior executive women, who attribute most of their advancement to having connections. But women have fewer ties than men to colleagues and cohorts at work and outside work that can help them, according to data collected in a study of 118 companies by LeanIn.Org and McKinsey & Co.

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