Creating Concentric Circles with Susan McPherson

In this episode of Reimagining Company Culture, we spoke with Susan McPherson, founder and CEO of McPherson Strategies and author of The Lost Art of Connecting. Susan has twenty-five years of experience helping leaders build networks that actually matter, and her work is a useful corrective to the transactional view of networking that dominates most career advice.

The idea she calls concentric circles is straightforward. Real networks are built out, not up. They start with the people you already know and extend through the relationships those people have. The HR leaders who use this approach end up with networks that support them across their whole career, not just during an active job search.

Why Professional Networks Matter More for HR Leaders

Research from Chronus on mentoring in the workplace and similar studies consistently shows that structured mentorship connections produce measurable retention and promotion lift compared to ad hoc connections. The same logic applies to peer networks: structure beats chance, and structured investment compounds over time.

HR leaders sit at an unusual professional intersection. They need relationships with finance, legal, operations, and every line of business leader, plus a strong peer network outside the company. The peer network is especially important because many HR situations are unprecedented for a single CHRO but well understood in the broader community.

Research on mentorship and networks consistently shows that deliberate relationship-building produces better career outcomes than unplanned networking. Harvard Business School analyses have repeatedly found that formal mentorship programs and structured peer networks produce more promotions and better retention than ad hoc connections. For HR leaders, who depend heavily on peer wisdom, this pattern is especially pronounced.

Additional findings from McKinsey's work on developing next-generation leaders note that formal sponsorship and mentoring programs are especially effective for leaders navigating complex organizational dynamics. HR leaders fit that pattern directly, and they benefit from these programs as participants and as designers.

How Concentric Circles Shows Up in Practice

What is the difference between networking and concentric circles?

Networking is often about meeting new people for a specific outcome. Concentric circles is about deepening existing relationships and letting those relationships grow outward naturally. The first is extractive. The second is reciprocal and durable.

How do you start building concentric circles if your current network is thin?Begin with the people you already know and have a real relationship with. Reach out with a specific reason, not a generic request. Deepen those relationships first, and let introductions to new people come through that trust.

Susan also spoke to the underappreciated value of listening in networking. Leaders who ask better questions tend to build deeper relationships than leaders who share better anecdotes. That inversion is counterintuitive, but it shows up consistently in how the strongest HR networks are structured.

For HR leaders in transition or early in their careers, this is useful framing. Listening is a lower-stakes investment than performing, and it tends to produce better long-term connections. It also protects the leader from the common networking failure mode of trying to impress.

What Actually Works for Building Real Networks

Principle 1: Be a connector, not just a participant

The most valuable people in a network are the ones who help others find each other. HR leaders who actively connect peers, vendors, and candidates tend to have the strongest networks, because they become the center of a web rather than a node on someone else's.

Principle 2: Invest consistently, not intensively

Networks decay if they are only activated during a job search. Schedule recurring touches, share genuinely useful information without asking for anything, and show up at peer events even when you do not need to.

Principle 3: Separate peer networks from vendor relationships

Both matter, but they serve different purposes. Peer HR networks give you honest counsel. Vendor relationships give you operational support. Mixing them tends to erode the honesty on one side and the professionalism on the other.

One more piece worth flagging. Networks benefit from explicit diversity of perspective. A network made up entirely of HR peers at similar-stage companies will miss insights that come from finance peers, from peers in very different industries, or from peers at different scales. Deliberate variety strengthens the network's usefulness over time.

The same discipline benefits peer ER leaders working through sensitive matters. Reliable workplace investigation workflows, combined with a confidential peer network, produce both operational consistency and better judgment on the hardest cases.

Where Employee Relations Fits

ER leaders benefit from peer networks more than most HR roles, because ER cases are often sensitive, high-stakes, and unfamiliar. Peer networks give ER leaders a confidential channel to test approaches before they take them live. Inside the company, ER relationships with legal, finance, and senior HR partners shape how cases get resolved. Teams running a mature ER operating model and case management practice typically have formal mechanisms for these connections, not just informal ones.

ER drill-down: building internal relationships before you need them

The time to build relationships with the general counsel, CFO, and communications lead is not the day of a sensitive case. ER leaders who invest in these relationships quarterly, with low-stakes check-ins and shared learning, are far more effective when a high-stakes case arrives. The relationship is the infrastructure that makes the resolution possible.

Strong employee relations practice benefits directly from peer networks, because most ER questions are easier to work through with trusted external counsel than with internal stakeholders alone.

Frequently Asked Questions About Professional Networks

Does the size of a network matter?Not as much as the quality. A network of 30 trusted people is usually more useful than a network of 300 loose contacts. Depth beats breadth, especially for HR leaders facing sensitive issues.

How often should you touch base with your network?Regularly, with a cadence that matches the relationship. Close peers weekly or monthly. Broader network quarterly or semiannually. Do not let relationships decay for a year and then reach out asking for something.

Is digital networking useful?Yes, as a complement to deeper relationships. LinkedIn and professional community platforms help maintain awareness and surface new contacts. Neither replaces the one-on-one relationship building that produces real trust.

How do you handle competitive dynamics in a peer network?Name them. Peer networks work when people are explicit about what they will and will not share. That clarity builds more trust than vague professions of openness, and it makes the network safe for everyone.

How do you know if your network is working?You get useful, unsolicited input on problems you are facing. You have people you can call for a frank opinion on a hard decision. When either of those is true, the network is functioning.

Concentric circles also gives HR leaders a framework for thinking about how to develop their own teams. Managers who are good networkers tend to produce direct reports who are also good networkers, and the effect compounds across the team. HR leaders who model the practice produce a more connected function.

The Bottom Line for HR Leaders

Susan's framing is a useful counter to the transactional networking advice HR leaders often receive. Networks that produce real value are built over years, through reciprocity, and with specific investments in the relationships that already exist. They are not assembled in a crisis.

HR leaders who start now, invest consistently, and think of themselves as connectors rather than recipients build the kind of professional infrastructure that supports them through every stage of their career. The ones who wait until they need help usually end up calling cold contacts at the worst possible moment.

The work is less glamorous than speaking at conferences or accumulating online followers. It is also what actually protects and grows an HR leader's career, and what gives the function itself a stronger foundation inside and outside the organization.

See how AllVoices supports the ER and HR workflows that benefit most from a well-built peer network.