How to network as a senior leader

By: Jhoni Jackson, Edited by: Gabriela Pérez Jordán

Published: March 18, 2025

As a senior leader, you may already have an established professional network. However, continued networking can be just as vital at this level in your career as it was in your beginnings. Making new connections can introduce you to unexpected resources and fresh insights.

Read on to find out how to network as a senior leader.

Networking strategies for senior leaders

Join professional organizations

Ask colleagues or search online to find professional organizations, including those specific to your industry and ones that bring together leaders and executives from different sectors. Engage with members of these organizations through events, interest groups, online discussions, and other networking opportunities.

Additionally, you can consider contributing to these organizations, such as helping coordinate or speaking at events, to help make yourself known.

Connect with executives through continued education

Continuous learning can be advantageous at any stage in your career. Online and in-person courses and trainings for executives can sharpen your existing skills and help you acquire new ones — and they also offer an opportunity to network with other leaders.

For example, cohort-based online executive education programs and master's degree programs offer connection to other leaders through real-time discussion and forums.

Attend industry events

Attend in-person industry conferences and events to make face-to-face connections. Take advantage of any social hours budgeted into the itinerary. You can even offer to be part of the event: Consider taking on a volunteer role or offering your services as a speaker.

Explore online networking

LinkedIn and other social networking platforms offer extensive networking opportunities. Leverage these tools to add to your network and connect via industry groups. Additionally, you can meet other professionals through professional webinars that offer interactive elements, such as a group chat or post-lecture discussion forum.

Maintain your network

Make an effort to check in on your network. It might be helpful to keep a list of important contacts and review it occasionally.

Seek out the LinkedIn profiles of people in your network to see if you've missed any recent posts. If it's been a while since you've talked to a connection, send a message to see how they're doing, and ask if they have any industry events coming up. For local networking contacts, make plans to meet up for coffee, lunch, or dinner.

Ahead of any in-person networking event you plan to attend, contact members of your network to find out if they're also going. Then coordinate a time to catch up.