It is important to have a cordial relationships internally and externally to grow up inn the career ladder. One can never climb the corporate ladder with solely focusing on work.

A very informative article about "How to build an internal network to advance your career" The focus has been predominantly on external network in order to associate with people outside your work environment in order to learn from their experiences which might be different with mine and looking at things from different perspectives.

This article looks internally, and how this internal network (if done right) can assist in career advance. Getting sponsor and/or a mentor can assist in developing certain skills that I might no have.

My next steps is to identify mentor and/or sponsor to assist in skills development.

Very true, I have seen this in 2 employers I worked for, in some cases it's not about who you are but who you know. in most cases having someone with influential abilities recommend you for a project will help you advance a lot in your career.

Building that trust with a sponsor to recommend you is probably one of the most important factors you need to work on, in most cases these sponsors need to make sure their reputation stays in tact which in turn might stop them from recommending someone due to their work performance.

I was lucky to report to a controller which advanced to the VP of Internal Audit, he opened up a lot of doors which helped me advance within the company, due to the fact that I performed well while working with him and then also because he knew me and was able to recommend me and explain my abilities to the hiring divisions.

Attending work functions or casual lunch / get together are extremely important, when you have a work and personal relationship with someone you tend to work better together, as long as die personal relationship stays professional only.