LinkedIn Recommendations Made Simple
I’ve already had a rant on this blog about the people who do reciprocal recommendations. Â Now, I’d like to introduce you to a colleague of mine, Michelle Fischer of Creative Leadership, who has a really nice way of looking at this very subject. Â She calls it the art of ‘saying it forward‘ and you can read more about it on her Creative Leadership blog.
In my experience most people only provide a testimonial or recommendation AFTER they have received a request from someone to provide one, what Michelle suggests is that you change this into a positive connection by pre-empting the request and provide a recommendation for someone you like and who’s work you have valued for some reason BEFORE they get a chance to ask.
I have to say, that although I do this quite a lot in many other ways, such as sending a ‘thank you’ note or blog, or by adding links to blogs for people, writing posts like this one and creating social bookmarks for others to see; I’ve never really applied it on LinkedIn – so I think this will be an activity I shall gladly take up.
Thanks Linda,
It’s really amazing what a simple gesture like saying thank you and publicly can do – a true affirmation of having done a good job. I hope all your readers take your advice and start doing this more regularly. It’s so much more valuable than the stock “I’ll give you a referral if you give me one” approach taken by so many on Linked In.
Keep up with all your FANTASTIC work Linda.
Michelle