Strategic relationships are crucial for your personal success.

In our highly-complex world, you simply can’t do business in isolation. You need strategic relationships – relationships that provide mutual value through information, contacts, money and so on, such that everyone involved can better succeed.

Strategic relationships have numerous advantages. Most crucially, people will base judgments about your identity and social status on your network. If people know you know Mark Zuckerberg personally, for example, they will look at you differently, even though you don’t share his accomplishments (like founding Facebook). Your network, therefore, differentiates you from other people.

In addition, you have more power if you belong to a powerful network. Your network is like a street gang. You don’t have to have committed a crime to inspire fear or respect in others. You can reap those benefits simply by belonging to a group with that kind of reputation.

Finally, a strong network can give you access to private information or earlier access than would otherwise be possible. If you ever need a piece of information or need a favor, you can simply ask your network. If they can’t help you, they can ask their people, and hopefully you can get what you need. That’s the power of a strong network.

So, do you have a strong strategic network? A good way to find out is by asking the following questions:

• How big is your strategic quotient (SQ), that is, the proportion of strategic relationships you have compared to other network relationships?
• How many people do you talk to on a regular basis? And does this communication create added value?
• Do you have a “wish list” of people you want to connect with? And do you have a plan to make your wishes come true?

In our following blinks, you will learn the best ways to tackle these questions as well as how to grow and curate your strategic network in ways that will bring you closer to achieving your goals.