Use recommendations to build credibility - LinkedIn Tutorial

- Credibility is defined as the quality of being trusted and believed in. Whether you're building a brand, telling your career story or owning your accomplishments, there's nothing more important than building the foundation of credibility. A great way to begin to build that foundation on your profile is through recommendations. A recommendation recognizes the great work you've done and also provides specific examples of how your skills, strengths, and experiences show up. Keep in mind, it's one thing for you to talk about the work you do, it's quite another for someone else to validate your experience and expertise by providing specific examples. So where do you begin with recommendations? First, think about who you want to request a recommendation from. Seek out people in your professional community like colleagues, managers, executives, senior leaders, partners. Those who have worked closely with you and can speak to your skills, strengths, impact, and experience. As a best practice, I always recommend customizing your recommendation request instead of using the generic template LinkedIn provides. Why? Because it's great to pinpoint exactly what you want another person to focus on when they write you a recommendation. So think about a project you collaborated on or a change initiative you led. Then, be clear about what you want them to highlight when writing your recommendation. Getting started is easy. Let's look at an example with our friend, Jahayra. Jahayra is an airline pilot and she wants to request a recommendation from Josh, another pilot who mentored and coached her in her career. To do this, she'll search for Josh on LinkedIn and then she'll simply select his name. Then, she'll click into the More button on his profile. She'll select Request a Recommendation, and that will bring her into the Recommendation Request Template. First, she'll have to select how she knows Josh. To do this, she'll simply go to the dropdown menu and select Josh taught her. Next, she'll select her position at the time. She was a student at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Then, she can click next. When requesting a recommendation from Josh, instead of using the template, she could write something like this. "Josh, you've been an incredible mentor and coach to me "as I've pursued my pilot's license "and joined American Airlines. "Could you please write me a recommendation "that speaks to my ability to pilot Boeing 757s "and create an excellent customer experience "for American Airline's passengers? "I'd really appreciate your recommendation "to validate my skills and experience. "Best, Jahayra." See how Jahayra is specific about where she wants Josh to focus? This will help her receive a recommendation that truly validates her career story. Then, she'll simply click send. And Josh will receive her request. Now, what if you're requesting a recommendation from a senior leader or executive? A best practice I always recommend is writing a draft of your recommendation for that senior leader or executive. Why? Because they don't have time. Ask to change anything they want and add their voice and tone. This may feel strange, but I promise, it's super helpful for executives and may even increase the chance that they'll write the recommendation. Let's look at an example with James. He's requesting a recommendation from an executive who he just completed a large project for. Since James is writing a draft, it's a good idea for him to first right it out on a separate document. Then, he'll take what he's written and he'll paste it in. Hi Rochelle! As I just completed and launched your new ecommerce website, I'm wondering if you'd be willing to write a recommendation for me. I know you have limited time, so I took a first pass below. Feel free to change anything and add your voice and overall tone. James is one of those rare people who's easy to work with and has the best interest of his customers at heart. I hired James and his company Red30 Design based on his extensive experience in ecommerce website design. James bought a multitude of expertise in his field. Scalable solutions for my unique challenges and he delivered a gorgeous, user-friendly website in four months. I'd hire him again in a heartbeat. See? Not so bad, right? From this example, you can see how James did all the work for Rochelle up front. In addition, he was specific in writing his recommendation. So, Rochelle knows exactly where to focus. This makes it easier for the Rochelles of the world to provide recommendations for awesome people like James. Once he's done, he'll simply click send and away it goes. Don't forget, credibility is key when it comes to telling the story of your career journey and providing validation of your experience, skills, and expertise. So go request that recommendation, you've got this.