Bob Fields

At the risk of offending anyone who has endorsed me on LinkedIn by using the “Skills & Expertise” selections, does anyone else find these endorsements lame, unthinking and worthless?  I should also add annoying since they clog up the LinkedIn update feed with nonsense such as so&so has been endorsed for CE.  What the heck does that really mean???

Just the other day a friend mentioned to me that someone had endorsed him with the skill/expertise of Operations Management.  This friend is a sales animal, but even he admits he is not an “ops guy” and he had nothing but negative to say about the joker who endorsed him.

I might agree these attributes would be of value if everyone doing the the endorsing truly knew the person receiving the endorsement, but there in lies the dilemma.  We ALL have connections we do not know as well as the next person (just as our real life relationships have differing intimacy levels), but to provide “point and click” categories for all to use simply does not reflect a thinking or sincere endorsement.

Clearly the written endorsement is of the most value to individuals, but it is difficult to quantify and from LinkedIn’s perspective more difficult to provide useful (and valuable) search results.  That said, these categories would be of more and real value if they were linked to written endorsements.  Most especially if the endorser were REQUIRED to write about each skill or expertise category selected.

Now there is an idea…

Trust me, if you wait to start networking until you need a job forget about it!

That ship has sailed, everyone already knows you need a job because why else would you be calling or emailing them now?  What you don’t understand is if they had a referral or reference for you they would have already told you about it!  Please don’t make matters worse and belittle yourself by asking for help now.

I mention jobs above purely because of the employment environment we have been in, but the same goes for any situation when you are overtly looking for “something from somebody” without investing the necessary time and sincerity into building a relationship with the person you are begging, err I mean asking for help.

Think about it, do you like to be used?  Of course not!  You want to feel like the person you are helping would help you if you needed, but unfortunately most people only have very shallow relationships.  After all we are too busy with our our thing, our own work and our own families.  We don’t have time for others, yet we expect others to take away from their time and commitments to help us because we are a “good person”.  Wake up, they view that as a SELFISH PERSON!

How many times have you seen the previous successful person falling from their lofty perch only to have everyone around him letting him fall to the ground without so much as a flinch of help?  Admit it, all the time!  This is because of the attitude above and frankly most people feel this way which is why someone who understands networking (or what I like to call “relationship building”) actually draw folks to them.

You have seen it.  A person like this walks into a room and they never seem to have a problem finding someone (or a group) wanting to “catch up” with them.  These people of understanding make people feel good about themselves.  They encourage or inspire others to do more or ignore what has been holding them back.  Face it, they are a pleasure to be around!

Well, I am here to tell you that you too can be that person!  But you must let go of selfishness, negative attitudes and be willing to stop talking once in a while!  Not an easy task I well know, but trust me you will gain understanding, feel better better for it and at the same time you will actually build deeper relationships with those around you.  You will also (eventually) become that “guy”!

We can’t discuss it all in one sitting, but this is something to be discussed in more detail and practiced all the time.  It is easy and you will be surprised at what you learn and what you earn, namely respect!  I look forward to discussing further and if you ever want to discuss or chat, you got my contact info!