How to Use This Worksheet
This is a tool for honest self-assessment — not a performance review, not something anyone else will see. The goal is to give you a clear, unsentimental picture of where your professional relationships actually stand, and what to do about it.
Work through the five sections in order. Each one builds on the last. Budget about 30 minutes the first time — it'll take less once you've done it before. The worksheet is most useful when you're starting a new role, approaching a performance cycle, or suspecting that your network isn't serving you as well as it should.
What you need
- 20–30 minutes uninterrupted
- A blank doc or paper
- Your honest instincts — not a polished answer
Best done when
- Starting a new role or joining a new team
- 4–6 weeks before performance review season
- After a reorg or leadership change
- Any time you feel "invisible" at work
Map Who's Currently in Your Network
Before you can improve your network, you need an honest picture of what's already there. Use the three tiers below to categorize your current professional relationships.
Inner Circle
People who know your work well and would advocate for you today. Manager, close collaborators, a sponsor if you have one.
3–6
target size
Working Network
Stakeholders, peers in adjacent teams, skip-level contacts. People you interact with on projects and whose work intersects yours.
8–15
target size
Ambient Network
Former colleagues, external contacts, industry peers. People you're not actively working with but want to stay warm with.
15–30
target size
Rate the Quality of Each Relationship
Having a name in a tier isn't the same as having a strong relationship. This section helps you assess the actual health of your most important connections — because the goal isn't a long list, it's a functional one.
The four dimensions of relationship quality
Visibility — do they know your work?
Could they describe your recent projects and contributions accurately if asked by someone more senior? Or do they know your title and not much more?
Trust — would they go to bat for you?
If this person were in a meeting where your name came up favorably or unfavorably, would they advocate for you? Or stay neutral? Or might they not help?
Reciprocity — is it mutual?
Do you invest in each other roughly equally? Or is one side consistently doing more — sharing more, helping more, initiating more?
Currency — when did you last actually interact?
Relationships that haven't been maintained decay. A relationship that was strong 18 months ago but has had no contact since is an ambient contact at best, not an inner circle one.
Find the Critical Gaps
The most dangerous gaps in a professional network are the ones you don't notice until you need them. This section surfaces them before they matter.
Gap Type 1: The Advocacy Gap
The question: If your performance review were happening today, who would speak up for you — unprompted — in the calibration meeting?
If you can't name at least two or three people who would advocate for you in a room you're not in, you have an advocacy gap. This is the gap that affects your rating and your promotion trajectory most directly.
🖊 Write down:
Names of 2–3 people who would advocate for you today. If you can't fill this in, that's your most urgent gap. If your list has only one person (usually your manager), that's also a gap — you're too dependent on a single advocate.
Gap Type 2: The Function Gap
The question: Are there entire teams or functions whose work touches yours — but where you have no real relationship?
The most common function gaps: Finance (budget cycles), Legal (policy and contracts), Product or Engineering (if you're in an adjacent function), HR (comp and policy), and Operations. If any of these routinely affect your work and you don't know anyone there well, things slow down when you need help.
🖊 Write down:
3 functions that interact with your work. For each: do you have a real relationship with someone there? Circle the ones where the answer is no.
Gap Type 3: The Seniority Gap
The question: Does anyone more senior than your direct manager know who you are and what you do?
If the only person more senior than you who knows your work well is your manager, you're exposed. Reorgs, leadership changes, and promotion decisions all involve people at levels you're not reaching. Visibility at one level above your manager is a minimum for career resilience — at two levels above for senior roles.
🖊 Write down:
Name one person at your skip-level or above who knows your work and would speak positively about it. If you can't, that's a gap. If you can, write down one level higher and try again.
Gap Type 4: The External Gap
The question: If you were on the job market tomorrow, who outside your current company would take your call, respond to your message, and potentially help?
Internal networks are great for your current role. External networks determine your options when circumstances change — layoffs, reorgs, career pivots, or simply wanting more. In 2026, when job-hopping every 2–3 years is common and layoffs can arrive without warning, the external network is insurance, not a luxury.
🖊 Write down:
5 names from outside your current company — former colleagues, industry contacts, people from previous roles. If you struggle to get to 5, your external network needs attention.
Answer the Four Diagnostic Questions
These four questions cut to what matters most. Write your actual answers — not the ones that sound good.
Build Your Action Plan
A network audit without actions is just a list. This section turns your gaps into specific, scheduled moves.
How to prioritize: the urgency-impact matrix
🔥 Do first (high urgency + high impact)
- Advocacy gap — less than 2 advocates
- Performance cycle within 8 weeks
- Manager transition happening now
- Promotion case being built
📅 Schedule for next month
- Function gap where work already intersects
- Seniority gap — one skip-level relationship
- Key relationship in decay
- Unrealized high-potential relationship
🗓 Build into quarterly habits
- External network warm maintenance
- Ambient network touches
- New function relationships
- Repeat this worksheet
💤 Lower priority for now
- External gap with stable current role
- Tier 3 ambient network expansion
- Industry contacts with no current overlap
Quick-Reference: Network Health Signals
After completing the worksheet, use this reference to benchmark where you stand. Healthy networks don't need to be large — they need to be functional.
Read the Full Workplace Relationships Series
Workplace Relationships Series · Pillar
The Complete Guide to Workplace Relationships
The full overview: tiers, managing up, skip-level visibility, conflict
Workplace Relationships Series
How to Work With Any Manager
Includes the Tier 1 relationship that matters most
Workplace Relationships Series
Compete Less, Collaborate More
Why collaborative peers become your most durable network asset
Workplace Relationships Series
How to Handle Workplace Conflict Without the Drama
What to do when a key relationship needs repair