LinkedIn Career Enhancer
Master LinkedIn for career success with tips on profile optimization, personal branding, and strategic connections. This episode dives into practical steps to make your profile stand out, increase visibility, and drive professional growth on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn Career Enhancer
Let’s dive deep into LinkedIn as a tool for career growth, exploring practical tips for creating a powerful, standout profile. LinkedIn isn’t just a networking platform—it’s an online résumé, a personal brand hub, and a way to connect strategically with industry leaders. By enhancing your profile, you can improve your visibility and credibility in your field, making your next career move or connection easier to achieve.
Key insights from this session include optimizing the profile header, using a professional background image, and ensuring your profile link is customized (no random numbers!). We discuss how these visual touches contribute to a strong first impression, drawing attention to your unique value.
We also cover crafting an impactful “About” section that clearly communicates what you do, for whom, and the results you drive. For example, detailing specific achievements—like generating a 15% increase in profitability for clients—transforms your profile from a list of roles to a showcase of results.
Finally, we explore the significance of including links to your website, publications, or portfolio in both the About and Featured sections. These additions provide a deeper look into your expertise and make it easy for viewers to engage further with your work.
Whether you’re new to LinkedIn or looking to enhance an already active profile, these actionable tips can help you make a stronger impression and connect meaningfully with professionals across industries. Tune in to the LinkedIn Career Enhancer session for a practical approach to making LinkedIn work for you.
Highlights:
00:00 Introduction to LinkedIn Deep Dive
01:46 Profile Review: First Impressions
04:45 Detailed Profile Analysis
08:16 Enhancing LinkedIn Engagement
11:45 Content Strategy and Posting Tips
19:37 Building Deeper Connections on LinkedIn
23:08 Auto-Liking on LinkedIn: Is It Worth It?
25:39 The Power of Support Groups on Social Media
27:06 Deep Commenting: A Strategy for Engagement
28:29 Short vs. Long Posts: Finding the Right Balance
32:16 The Importance of Consistency and Branding
38:35 LinkedIn Premium: Is It Worth the Investment?
43:20 The Impact of Professional Photos and Videos
45:38 Final Thoughts and Q&A
Transcript:
[00:00:00] Career Development, LinkedIn slash LinkedIn. So today we talk about LinkedIn and I wanted to do a deep dive, but a practical deep dive on LinkedIn, where we go into LinkedIn and have a look at LinkedIn.
So any one of you who would like to be the guinea pig from, uh, having a look at the profile. If not, then we use my profile. I'm fine with that as well. No, I'm happy with using mine so we can correct and change stuff. Okay, let me find you or first share my screen. Sarah is the guinea pig. Hey,
I can't share what's going on here.
Let me check. [00:01:00] Today, none of my technology stuff was working. So maybe, I don't know. You know, you think it's not mine too. Exactly. There's a thing. Yeah. Can you see it? Yes. Okay,
where are you?
How can it be that you're not the first, Zara? I don't know. Martos is my surname. Yeah. No, because like your email, you use your middle name in between. No, no, I don't have middle name. Just said on good. So LinkedIn, we start with number one thing. That's the link. I said that last time already, I think, but it's always worth it to repeat.
[00:02:00] LinkedIn in a way that you have your own link on top, not numbers. So this is already a very good example. Then, obviously, Zara has worked already on her profile, which is visible. Number one thing is she has a background picture and you are, yes, I work a lot with LinkedIn in the moment because I do reviews of profiles of, um, executives and I did this today for a call and executives running, just 200 million company, no background picture.
So this is good as well that the, the photo is zoomed in so that you can see the face and then you have colors that are matching, which is very, very good. And then as well, very clear, creative strategy consultant, people can think about what it is. [00:03:00] And then what she's doing, translating ideas into strategies that are 15 percent more profitable and more impactful.
Very good example, luckily. So why, why is this important? So people will understand that what she's doing, translating ideas into strategies. Everyone can think about this, but then it's a measurable outcome, 15 percent more profitable and impactful. So that means what she's doing is driving profit. So the people that look at her profile will understand that she is a creative strategy consultant, and then she's translating ideas into strategies with the focus on creating profit.
and impact. And then she added a facilitator design and innovation. Sorry, Sarah, when I'm talking to you in third person, that's okay. I [00:04:00] feel like very important. It's like these people that describe their persons. It's just easier for people to understand that. Watch the review. Uh, the video later on. So this is, this is extremely, extremely, extremely good.
And then of course you can see as well that she has her link, visit my website. I'm now clicking on that to see that we are ending up at her website. Which you might not be able to see or do you know, we see, we see it. Yeah. How do I go back to LinkedIn now? So, which is very good. So people get a very quick understanding of what she is about in just the upper section.
Then we go into the second part, which is the about. And what we see here is that she did another clever move to add her website on top. So people directly see, Oh, she has [00:05:00] a website. Even if they, let's say, if they oversee visit my website, they still see this in the about section. And then let's go back.
How do you do that? What you can see as well, before I clicked, you see the top skills, strategy, innovation, consulting, problem solving, and communication. You can change this top skills so that they are visible. Whatever you want to have there and then she has Her about section
and the first part, she talks about her, her why. So it's kind of very high level understanding of what she is about. And then she starts with her story. So that gives people understanding of what she is about. And then it goes deeper to that's what she is, who she is, and then what she's doing today. And then a trigger ready to explore more [00:06:00] let's connect.
So it's kind of a call to action. Yeah. Well done, Sarah. I don't know where I got all of this. I also don't know. Now this, it's really good. It's, it's really, really good. And of course, the, the, the colors and so on, this is all personal preferences, but of course, as well, looking into whom you want to attract to.
And then we have featured section, translate your ideas that are 15 percent more profitable impact for that's a link. And that goes to your website. Okay. One thing I, I see with this one, the photo might not be a hundred percent connected
from a look and feel. I mean, not from what is on the photos, like ideas. I get it [00:07:00] from the whiteboard behind you, but if you just, if you look at this and then you scroll down, it's different. Ah, but that's a good point because I was actually wondering, no, so maybe I should put just like a picture. It could be the same one, but with the background, the yellow background that I have.
Exactly. I'm now thinking truly a hundred percent branding. If you look at branding, then this will enable you to say, Oh, that's something designed because this looks like a normal post, you know? Yeah, definitely. I can just go to my example. So I have this, this blue background and this blue colors. And then you go down to my example, which is matching that a hundred percent.
Do you see that? So it's the same color language, at least not saying that's a must. It's just, [00:08:00] this is not really detailed already, but what
is good that you have the link there, because this is, this is an easy way to attract people to what, where you want them to go. And then we have the activities. And obviously then the experience,
what is directly good that you go more into bullet point format here. So it's easy for people to understand. Same here, this hard to read. Maybe what you could be doing is having like a, an empty space in between. I'm not sure even if that works, but do you, do you, do you see what I mean? It's kind of people might not read it because it's so much.
But, but there's valuable [00:09:00] information in it as well. Very good that you have the, the links down below here, like what are the things you did, the media connected to it, which people will click on and then look into details if they're interested in the details.
Here, you, you don't have like bullet points. I would stick with the same format if you, if that's possible. It's just easier to read, easier to understand. And one thing you, you could improve when it comes to this things is always putting, which you have done super well here, focusing on what is the outcome.
I would focus here on what, not just what you did is what, what is the outcome you created with all of it. That could be a good plan because I did that with my CV and the CV that it's on, on my website, but I didn't change it here. Maybe it's something I could [00:10:00] do that. It's really response as, as you have it on your website, responsibilities, marketing, communication, whatever.
And then achievements. Yeah. Yeah. That, that could be something to change.
Yeah. And then the rest is pretty much standard certifications. Yes. Projects is good. Volunteering is always good skills courses. Where do you have endorsement stuff? So you don't have anyone who gave feedback to you, right? Uh, you mean recommendations? No, maybe I should ask for them. Yeah. It just gives another level of like people that endorse you.
It's super detailed, but people look at that. I've heard. [00:11:00] Yeah, definitely. I was going to, uh, on the languages, it was interesting because I realized that, uh, if you have, I don't know, if you speak different languages, they, the order is alphabetical order. So for me, it wasn't that meaningful because I'm happy to speak Catalan, but it's not the first language I want to.
To highlight, so what I did is delete all the languages and added just as like you added as one unique language and you put all the languages you speak, then you can see all of them in a line. I found that useful. Very cool tip. Yeah.
Let's look at your posts.
So what I always do when I look at this, I, so this is how people will see it, not the details. So you, we see here. So you have a hook, [00:12:00] which is one of my client has launched a pilot to test her new business idea. That's a hook that grabs attention if people are interested in new business ideas and then that you'd get them in to define The service we designed we're diving into some key So that's kind of the second hook that gets people in and then you click deeper, which is very good example So I always look at these things first same here.
How can we live a life? And then second talk, and then you get people details. Obviously what you have here is the, the picture and then something in a different language that might be difficult for people. I mean, now you can click translation. It's, it's, it's just like you're writing in English and that's, that's Spanish.
Maybe what you could try next time. You just [00:13:00] write this year in Spanish. Yeah, I thought about that. This is a good tip because there, there was a, I was thinking like I followed this masterclass last week, it was in Spanish, but at the same time, the audience I'm talking to is mostly in English. I live abroad, I live in Amsterdam, uh, if I want to have opportunities, I want them to be able to understand.
So I was also thinking, or I could write it in English and Spanish. That could be another option. And in this case, first the Spanish text, maybe, or, yeah, I don't know. Yeah. For your text, I think it's, it's okay. It's, it's just, it's confusing because what they see is this, this, in the end, you want people to go into the, into, into this article.
At least that's how it looks like when you post this. Yeah. I mean, this is an amazing article and you want to share that article. That's why me, why you [00:14:00] share this. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, because they do these monthly masterclasses about different topics that I find interesting. So I attended one and those were my takeaways, but maybe it shouldn't be with every post.
It should just be a post by itself. Yeah. It might drive more engagement if you do that because it's, it's just two different languages and the people that are not speaking Spanish, they might even not look here what you've wrote. Can I say something? Oh, um, uh, in the past, I was using the same post in German, English and Spanish.
So maybe it can fit for you a strategy now. So, um, I took the test, the text all in Spanish, put the post and then I took the same post. And then I write in, in German and the last one was in English. So I, I, I found that it was like a scale for languages. First one, [00:15:00] Spanish, second one, German, and third one, English for me was working really well.
Maybe it's a good, uh, uh, idea to test for you. Yeah, definitely. Maybe it is a good idea to test. Even for you in Catalan, that's going to work because there's a lot of people in Barcelona or in Catalonia, they are really, uh, active on LinkedIn. Yes. And at least it's a possibility to test something.
Then this is very good. So you link to a blog post of yourself, right? Yes. Yes. I mean, it's not a blog post, that's a wrong saying how it's called, um, article on LinkedIn. Yes. Article. Sorry, I was blank. Super good.
This, this is, this is a good [00:16:00] example for people that want to go more into utilizing LinkedIn because you can write articles and then drag people into a deeper level of what this is about.
Now comes my system question. Do you have the same article on your website? Yes. Nice. I'm learning. Yes. And actually have another question on that because I realized that since I'm working with you, I'm doing this, uh, regular articles and putting them also on the website. But I also have articles from my previous life as a journalist.
And I started uploading those old articles to my. Website and I realized that they have nothing to do with this. articles that I'm posting now because of the topic, the style, the everything. So perhaps it makes sense to separate them, like have this as the article [00:17:00] section in the website and then open another section that is called stories or something like that where I upload my favorite articles.
I'm not sure. You, you can have it in the same block section if you talk about the website functionality and then just classify it differently. And then just create different sub buckets of that. I can show you, I can show you what I mean when it's maybe complicated to understand. So what I have, I have my blogs are podcasts.
So I have, this is my main podcast is the Jens Heidland show with all the different episodes. And then what I did here is leadership episodes. It's a subsection of my podcast. So it's all episodes that are connected to leadership. Oh, okay. So maybe that makes sense. Content wise, they're all in the [00:18:00] same structure.
I just built an extract of that and that's automated in Squarespace at least. Same with the, this episode, it's just the format. So it's still the same blog post. Now it goes back to, to the podcast. If you see the link here, podcast and then episode 228. It's just an easy way to do that. Then it's just, you don't need to have 500 different blogs.
You have one blog and you can just distribute it as you, as you like. And that might make more sense. So then, uh, because I also wanted people to see like all the articles kind of together, but not together, together, but not mixed. Yeah, so I might do that
now all in all super. I mean, here's again the Spanish English version What what you see here the engagement when [00:19:00] you share links is always lower like you see this is your original content And it's just first impression. I don't know in details. It's just, it's, it's lower than your article, but it's good.
Did you check your analytics? If your followers are growing since you have started regularly posting on LinkedIn? No, I haven't checked actually. Maybe that's something you could, could, could look into just, just curious. for yourself. Yeah. You don't need to share it. No, but I'll check. Maybe from, from your, from your learnings, what are the things that are working well for you on LinkedIn and what is, is kind of still question mark?
Uh, this part of the languages was a question mark, because as you see in the last week, I did it twice and before I didn't do it. So that was a question mark. Uh, then also the part of, does it make [00:20:00] sense to repost or just write my own thingy. And then, uh, just leave the link of the original thingy in the comment, which I think it's the best.
And what is working, uh, taking a bit of pressure on myself is working. Like, Not saying, Oh, you have to post every, every day. No, because that puts like a lot of pressure in it. And it's like, it's fine. If a couple of days, you don't post, but then try to also do things that help you to post. I explain myself, which things help me to post, uh, listening to a podcast, reading a book, attending a masterclass, going to a museum.
All these things help me, or even just going for a run. Why? Because in the end, what I'm thinking now, everything that I do, I try to maximize it. Like, I'm running, okay. Is there something from this [00:21:00] experience that I could talk about that is connected to my job? Before I was not thinking about this. And maybe there's nothing, maybe I'm just enjoying and that's perfect.
But maybe there is, actually, yeah, I'm in this museum and the way this is designed is very connected to a strategy and then I look up something and then I have something to read about, to write about. So this has changed a bit, you know, my mindset and it makes it now more, more enjoyable. Not like the pain of I have to post to, to be, to be like feasible, no?
It's more like, uh, what do I enjoy doing? And that's right about that. Yeah, that's cool. In the end, if you don't enjoy it, you are not going to keep doing it. That that's a critical part. Maybe I need to share the comment of the Snoop Dogg here. It's not about the money. It's about the love. [00:22:00] It is. It's an amazing post.
This is, this is sometimes, if you just look at LinkedIn or any other platform as an influencer, you're only about the money. It's not about the deeper connection to other people or what you want to express and who you are about. It's just what is the fastest way to money. And that's, that's working maybe short term, but never long term.
I'm with you. In this case, we, we agree in this stuff, go to the deeper connection because if you build a deeper and a healthy connection, the money is gonna come. That's, that's the consequence of this deeper work. For this reason, as for me, it's really important to go to the person, the money is gonna come and if we do this stuff, we do with love.
The love is going to pay back. The money is going to come. There's no, there's not [00:23:00] another end. The money is going to come. That's all. That's all what you need to know. I agree. 100%.
Questions on LinkedIn. I have one. What about auto liking? When you post something and the first her is coming from yourself. I mean yourself, like yourself. Yeah, I don't do it, but it's possible. Yeah, it's possible. Um, that is an open question for me because in the past I was putting one post and the first, uh, heard it was from myself and a good friend of mine told me, Hey man, that is really ugly.
Don't do that anymore.
Since that day, I don't, I don't, I don't auto like my post no more. I missed that. What was the answer? I got [00:24:00] disconnected. No, it's in the recording. Sorry. No!
No, I don't know. I don't do it. Like you just said, Frank, it feels awkward. Like people look at your post and you're the first person that liked and nobody else. It feels like weird for the people that look at it. Maybe if you have like 200 likes, it doesn't matter, but I don't know. He told me the first one is, it's, it's not for you, man.
Also, please go ahead, go away. I let the people like know yourself because my, uh, Sarah, my friend told me a day, Frank, that is really ugly. If you put the first, uh, hurt in your post. Yeah, no, I, I don't know. I have not tried if it makes any difference. I, I don't think it makes any difference because I, I've been trying different things just [00:25:00] to see if, I don't know, for example, uh, I don't like it the first one maybe, but, uh, I'm trying, I don't know if someone else liked it, then I wait and I see if I like it like eight hours later, if that makes like more people see it because it's like, there's an interaction, no?
And I don't think it makes any difference. And at the same time, it's what Frank says that at some stage. I mean, I, I, I've done it in the last, uh, post, but it feels weird, like to like your own post. That's really ugly. Tell my friend to me. What definitely works. I have been part of a group that is supporting each other.
So it's, it's, it's called, uh, PLC promote like. And comment, no post like and comment or something. So it's like a group of friends that are supporting each [00:26:00] other. So it's a separate WhatsApp group they have created and as soon that someone is posting, they just drop the link into the WhatsApp group and everyone is commenting and and liking.
So it's not yourself, but it's like a version of that where it is a group of five or 10 people. They're all commenting on each other. So to drive the posts up, that works. Definitely. That's a hype. Yeah, you get, you get the p Yeah. But it's, it is, it is more a question if people want to do that. Yeah. That's, that is a, that is an open comment that they have always.
So supporting is for free. If your friend is posting something, go put a, her share comment. Like, it's really easy, man, but the people don't understand that this a small action. Can have a big impact around the comment and that is really easy. No, it's not money. It's maybe one minute, 45 seconds. Like it. I like it.
Congrats. Well [00:27:00] done. Go ahead. Easy going. Good point. Commenting. So one of the things I have explored, I don't do it too often because everything what I do is scheduled. And I'm, it looks like I'm all the time on LinkedIn or any other platform, but I almost, I'm not. One of the things I have seen working extremely well, if I'm doing that consistently is commenting, but commenting deeply.
So it's not just, Hey, Well done, it's, it's contributing to the post, but contributing so that everyone who is inside of the post and is commenting or liking it has something, get something out of that. This is a, it's, it takes way more time, but it's, it's working super well. So when you do this with, I did this a couple of times with the UN.
So there was a post coming from the UN program or something. I commented, I [00:28:00] was in the first five comments, luckily. And my post got like 30, 50 likes. If you write something thoughtful. So that definitely works. If you have the time and, and, and do that, I'm pretty sure it works a hundred percent. If you, if you do this more and more often to bigger companies, the people you target, um, it definitely works.
I have another question. The, um, the length of the, of the post. And so for me, it works really well. Short post. No, something we are doing sustainability in that way. Green, green technology, green engineering and something like that for me is running really well, but I don't know if maybe I need to try longer post on my, on my, um, feed, uh, because for me now is, as I [00:29:00] said before, is running really well, maybe I don't, I don't know if I need to try another strategy going longer, uh, postings with the picture or something like that.
What do you think about that? You can always test, like you don't need to do 20 long form posts, just do one to test. I'm a big fan of testing things and evaluating over time. I got to this conclusion because from the beginning my posts, they were really long and I realized that people was Not able to read all the content for this reason.
I took the decision. Okay, maybe shorter one with the Hooks as you say before and or maybe a small um A summary about the posting in my case sustainability automotive and fashion That's the three topics. I I speak always on my Postings. Yeah Try, I mean, what you [00:30:00] can test is doing an article like, uh, Sarah was doing.
I did some of, some of them, they are on LinkedIn and on my, uh, personal website as well. Good. I was thinking Frank, I I I, I'm also like, with, with this question in mind, like. The good thing is that you post very consistently. Even if I don't want to see you, I see you every morning. I openly get it and there you are.
So you're in my thoughts always, which is good. So what you're doing is working because you are present, but at the same time, sometimes your hooks are, are interesting. And I would like to, to know more about what's your thought about that. Like, uh, it's sometimes it's, I think a bit short because I, I want to know more, but that could be good because it, maybe it invites me to check your website to see what you do.
So it has like a double, no, because on the other hand, in [00:31:00] my case, I think my issue is the other one. I read two long posts and I'm, I'm now thinking of maybe going shorter and just keeping the long reflections for articles. Um, and keeping the, the post way shorter, um, because it's true, people don't want to read that much.
They want to see three key ideas, and if they are interested, they will click to know more or just look it up on your website. So yeah, I'm also divided. That's a good point because, uh, in normally sustainability is, uh, uh, boring, uh, issue, you know, and the people don't want to read about the CO2 reduction, how many tons per year, how is the name of the company was in that, and that is so corporate.
And sometimes the people don't want to read or go deeper in these data. For this reason, I took the decision. Okay. Okay. Small summary, we are doing that, that, and [00:32:00] that, and now I got this idea. Maybe I put the link inside the post to go to my website to open the article. That's a good idea. Thank you. Okay.
Tested that the, the one thing we haven't talked about in this call is we focus way too much on the likes and stuff when it comes to LinkedIn. In the end, what really counts is how many people get onto your website. And that's so sounds always weird because LinkedIn, the algorithm and LinkedIn might support you today and tomorrow, not anymore.
And then you're like, shit, what I'm doing to, to your point, Sarah. If you, if you have this consistency, people will notice that you're there. And that's the, that's like, I always say the Coca Cola effect. It's kind of, you [00:33:00] know, Frank is there, Frank is there, which, which. It's a connection to, between you and him without you thinking about it.
And if you create the same thing with other people over time, they just take you, Oh, there he is again. You might not consume the content in detail, but you know it's there. And when you are looking for a solution that is connected to what he is doing, you know whom to talk to. Like you, the number one, if you think about sustainable fashion, you want to know more, you know, it's prime.
So that's, that's branding. That's long term branding. Everyone knows what you are about. Sustainable fashion, car. Like, like, like what you just said. Everyone knows that you are the person in, in, in my ecosystem. I don't know anyone who is into sustainable fashion linked to car industry. Nobody. You're the only [00:34:00] one person I know in the whole world and that's the same for everyone else that sees you.
You are the only person that is this and that's, that's you. And when they need something that goes into that direction, they will ask you. And that, like you said, that might take 10 years, but they know it's you. Now it's coming a new trend about sustainability, but no link with, with the, with the cars, even, um,
You're on mute.
Um, okay. Um, I just, uh, I was saying that now the trend is sustainability.
You're on mute. I don't know why. Wasn't me. Like he talks too much.[00:35:00]
Really?
There might be something automatic, like somewhere, like on the headphones. I don't know. And now it's working now. Um, okay.
Okay. I got the prize from NYU about sustainability in fashion. I got the stuff the last week and for me, it's a big honor because I never know that someone in the U. S. were looking for the stuff we are doing here. Um. This is a good point. There is no more, there's no people doing what we, what I do. And yesterday I discovered a guy here in Berlin, he's doing something similar, but it's not the same.
And we are really different. We work with leather, but he works with another kind of leather, with another kind of sourcing. And we can, we can co live, [00:36:00] co live, we can co live in together. Uh, because this is space for, for booth and we are really differentiated about the material, about the products, about the publicum, about the ecosystem itself.
And the only difference now is that I do my homework every day. And I got that since I met Jens, uh, time ago. And I implemented the system. It's consistency every day doing the stuff. If you, if you don't want to be every day doing the stuff, take the Sunday, take the Saturday, the day you want to do that and you can program all the stuff, but you need to have the content before, because if not, you're going to lose a lot of time thinking what to post.
Because it was my big mistake in the past. Okay, now I got the inspiration. Okay, [00:37:00] cars, fashion, uh, design. What? No. You need to be done. The job must be done before you start to post. What one thing I would like to add to what you said is you you mentioned the the other guy in in Berlin He could be doing hundred percent exactly the same leather and everything you do.
It's still different because it's you Yeah, he's not like you. It's totally different and On Saturday, no on Friday I got the invitation to another event and then I discovered another niche and inside the fashion here in Berlin. Uh, it's a niche with the 3D accessories, accessoires for, for male and for female.
Uh, for me, um, it's a new start because I'm focused, I'm focusing only on leather because leather is the material I have. If I start exploring another way, maybe I can lose [00:38:00] this trend or my inertia to still developing the project. For this reason, the letter for me is the number one, um, I'm going to still overturn.
Maybe another trend is going to come, um, another guy can take this stuff and we collaborate in the future. The collaboration is another big key in, in, in the business itself. Agreed. Good. Let, let's, let's get to an end. Any more questions on LinkedIn? Nothing.
Uh, yes, I do have questions. Sorry, I couldn't unmute myself, I'm the other way around. Uh, no, I was, um, wondering because some friends asked me, does it make, um, does it make a difference to have premium? Is it worth it to have premium if you're looking for a new job?
I would say it might not make a [00:39:00] huge difference. It's just, it enables you to see more. I, I'm not sure if the algorithm is truly changing on how many people see your post, to be honest.
But definitely when it comes to seeing more of the other people, like who, what, who looked at your profile and all of that things. And maybe perhaps, I don't know if you have normal LinkedIn, you cannot send emails, not to people. You cannot contact people that you don't have in your network. And like this, I can send messages to people that haven't accepted my request, for example.
But then also I realized that I don't know if it makes a change because they haven't accepted accepted me and they don't reply to those messages either. So I wonder, does it make a difference? And maybe when, with the positions, it says, uh, you're in the top 20 percent of applicants, but I, I, I wonder [00:40:00] how real that is.
Where does this come from? These stats, not that place you, or they offer you jobs that they say you would be a top applicant. And then you check the requirements due to an engineer. And it's like, there's no. Not a word. Like there's not the keyword engineer in my profile anywhere. I'm not an engineer. I have nothing to do with engineers.
So it's, it's a bit funny. And that's why also I wonder if it actually makes sense to, yeah, to pay the subscription. It really depends what you're after. I think if you have the job search, you have certain functionalities. If you have sales, you have certain functionalities. But on, if, if we look at an individual post, I don't know if that makes the difference, depending on what you want to do with it, you have experience with sales.
I know. Yeah. So, um, I responded to Sarah, um, activating the LinkedIn for the hiring. It's more [00:41:00] working with, if you are working in the HR, but it was very beneficial to me. And we can cut this, please, from the, uh, the video to see Jens post for asking for assistance because he's out of my reach. Like he's out of my country.
He's out of my, um, Middle East. I live in Cairo, Egypt. So there is no way to get any posts in Netherlands, but it opens when it comes to the LinkedIn feature for them. Um, um, searching for a job. This is exactly what they can do, but they cannot. Secure you a job. They can open other areas in the world that you cannot reach with your, because the algorithm in LinkedIn, this is by experience, they show you what's in your circle, what's in your country, what's in the countries around you and so on.
But reflecting the posts and everything, no, it doesn't do that. But if you are working in HR and you are [00:42:00] targeting people like. You are posting something and you want to get more people from different countries, you can do that through the LinkedIn premium. Also, it can open windows to you, um, to different countries if you are searching for a job.
When it comes to sales, seriously, they are booming because they remove all the restrictions, like all the restrictions when it comes to sales, but it costs more money to be honest. So I didn't do it anymore. But yeah, I can say that the LinkedIn premium was one of the, like, my luckiest reasons to meet Tien's Highland.
And this is not because he's here. Seriously. We cut this out. No, we keep that. No, keep that. Keep the last one.
So, yeah. Any, any more questions on LinkedIn? Any, anything to cover [00:43:00] the background, the contacts, maybe the, the name over during the link we spoke about that. The quality of the pictures, they shall be professional. It can be like, I don't know, more efficiency, like no coloring background or something like that.
What do you recommend, Jens? Because I have tons of different pictures with different backgrounds in different places. And believe me, I don't filter the pictures. I would test. What I see as higher the quality of the picture, as better the post performs. Okay. As, as, as, and that's why, why I'm, I'm doing a photo shooting in two weeks for myself again with a professional photographer.
It's just that one of the reasons I want to have different photos that I'm posting. The other thing is I want to have high-quality photos for myself and I do this now or I'm [00:44:00] going to do it every three months. Because then we can just use different photos and you can reuse them all the time, but it's just you do half a year this kind of photos, then you do half a year that kind of photos, but test it.
I would just test it. If you have so many photos, test it. I have tons of that. And that is a good idea because, uh, during the year we are transforming our physical, uh, appearance, no? Even we can be more fitter. Maybe we can use, uh, another kind of style. That's good. That is really good. Uh, now I got, I got really lucky to meet, uh, the, the mo now he's, uh, our photographer, videographer and he's doing amazing stuff and he proposed to me to do like a documentary to, to go ahead to, to YouTube with the history behind and all this kind of new communication staff.
[00:45:00] Because, believe me, with the cameras, I have the camera of my phone and that's all. I have serious skills doing editing. Yeah. This makes a huge difference. Like professional videos and professional photos is a game changer. Okay. You will see directly a different impact. I saw the stuff on Instagram because he was using his, uh, camera.
Wow. It's totally different. Yeah, and the interaction of the people as well. Yeah,
good questions.
That's it. Thank you very much. Do we need to do photo? Oh, yes, of course.
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Transcript:
Personal development masterclass. One of the topics that's dear to my heart, because of what I have seen over the last 15 years is that personal development is quite seldom in organizations. It's not really taken, uh, in a proper way, at least in my eyes. So that's why I'm really keen on sharing this today.
So we have two. main perspectives. One or two topics for today. One is personal development talk versus performance evaluation. And then we do a deep dive into how I'm doing personal development talks. And then we do questions in the end. Personal development. So we have one part, which is the personal development talk, and then we have the performance evaluation.
And a lot of organizations, focus on performance evaluation. And the difference between those two is that the performance evaluation, the main part they are focusing on, or the main source of that is the company. So the company is on the top. And from there, it goes into, the individuals and the different tasks that need to be done to accomplish what's happening in the company, what is required to do to be done in the company.
And the individual that is doing the task is the last point. And then inside of the performance evaluation, you're looking backward. So you look, how did this person perform in the past? The development talk is the opposite. So the most important part of the. Development talk is the future. Where does the person want to be in the future?
And it has nothing to do with the outcome of the company or where the company wants to be. The goal of this is, and why, why do this personal development talk? I believe that if we are developing people in organizations beyond what the organization needs, they will contribute more to the company. They will contribute better.
So the goal of what I'm doing with development talks is finding out what the people desire and going deeper into that. And we will have a look at that in the next couple of slides. And then look, what are the different tasks of the organizations that fit the person and what the person wants to be. And then you marry these two things.
And then it works as well from a performance evaluation perspective. So that's my perspective on development talk and performance evaluation. Let's go into personal development talk a couple of, I think it's almost two years ago or something. I've developed this in as, as a worksheet. So if anyone is interested in getting this worksheet as a PDF.
Happy to share that. So, the starting point of a development talk is really a setup of the atmosphere and the place. So you are going to do a development talk with another person. So you are the manager and the, the other person is like reporting to you and then you're meeting up. So what you need to make sure of is that you have, an appropriate place.
The best case is always doing this outside of the office environment in a. In a place where people feel well, the atmosphere is super important. The time of the day is important, not doing it on Friday afternoon, for example, when people want to go on the weekend, of course, you need to be aware of your relationship with the other person, depending on how deep your relationship is.
You of course have then a perspective on how deep you can go. And how much that is. And then what is important as well is that you put the note-taking responsibility to the person that is inside the room or is working with you. So me as a leader, I always give the note taking responsibility for the other person because then you see what they understand and what they get out of that.
And then I always do as well. A version in front of us so that people understand this. So printing out this worksheet as an example, if you do that in a physical space, then you print it out and then you go into the development talk. And the starting point of the development talk goes really wide.
Looking into what's the personal vision like. I always ask these as open questions without showing them the worksheet in the beginning. Who do you want to be? And that's very, very, very wide. Like, who do you want to be? What does it mean? Some people who have never had a conversation like this, struggle with this.
So they start with, yeah, I want to be a manager. I want to be something specific. So they go very, very, very specific and they don't really look into the future. So the first round of this, I just, Help them to find out who they want to be and they write down, they write down a manager. I want to be a good father.
I want to be whatever they come up with. And then I go to the next question and I show them the next question, not before. So why do you want to be that person? So then they're reflecting on the answers they have given and then they go back and refine who they want to go to be. And that's an interesting process because what.
You as the manager that is holding this development talk are doing, you're literally shutting up and just asking open questions to tell me more. How, how does that feel? What does that look like? What would that look like in the future? So you only ask open ended question when that gets the person talking and reflecting.
So if you're saying this, what does it mean? So, and then they're explaining, explaining, and they go in a loop between who am I going to be? And why do I want to be that person? So until they have clarity, and the first loop is always. The starting point where they don't know what's going to come, then who am I going to be?
They come up with high-level topics and then they go, Why do I want to be that person? Then they go back to Who am I going to be? And then they go deeper. And I always then give them a perspective. Okay, think about five years, 10 years from now, who do you want to be? And then they go more particular in all of these things.
And then we go, we don't close this, we keep it, we put it aside. And then we go to the next sheet, which is a personal development map. So I want them again to reflect on certain questions. And it doesn't matter in the order, I just take them clockwise right now. But it's really going and answering the specific questions.
What do I want to learn? So you're asking this, the person that is in front of you. So what do you want to learn to be that person? So linking it back to that person of the future. And then you're asking, what do you want to improve? And then they come up with things. So it's, it's like writing down the, all the different topics and then what do I want to leave behind?
And then they come back with topics that they want to leave behind. Another question is what excites you? Yeah. And then going deeper into this, who is important to them? And then what is important to them? And when you have done this circle, you go around it and they were deeper in this topic.
What quite often happens then if you ask them, so how, if we go back to the other one, is that still the same thing you want to be? Because they have now clarified what they want to be. and answer the question, they go back to this one and then clarify, no, no, no, I want to be this, I want to be this. What I always ask them, in this part is to paint a picture.
So when, when we have finished with this one, I go back to this one. And say, from a personal vision perspective, imagine a picture and describe the picture that you see on the wall. And then they describe to me who they want to be and who they are going to strive to be inside of a picture and explain everything that is around them.
I've had, for example, a person that told me where they are going to live, what, how it feels, um, in this picture, where the kids in this picture, where the wife or husband and, and going really into details and then linking this to. A job perspective as well, because in the end, we are at least this part is in a job environment.
So they are linking that to the job environment of who they're going to be working with as well. So these two are super powerful. And then you go into the next step, which is a goal perspective. So it starts with the staircase. So in the top right corner, we have what is the goal. And the starting point is really, um, defining that goal.
So if you want to be this person in five years, what is the goal for the next year for you to be very specific? And of course, you can do smart goal setting and all of that, but it's in the end, What does feel right for that person? What is the development goal they want to reach in one year from now?
And then they formulate that goal. And then you go to the bottom of this page where you look into where do you stand today on a scale from one to 10. So they're rating themselves on how close are they to that goal. If they're close, then they're at 10 or 9. If they're far away, then they're at 1. And what always happens is they're somewhere in between, obviously.
So when they have rated that, then you look into what are the things that get you closer to that goal, meaning moving your scale from 5 to 10. And that's what they are writing down above the stairs. So, above the stairs are the things that are getting them closer to their goal. And then they're defining this in bullet points and formulating that out.
And [you do that obviously all in a conversation. You ask the person who is doing the development talk, you are asking them questions to get them moving. You're asking them clarifying questions about the topics that are put, into the sheet. And then the next part is, what are the things that getting you further away from that goal?
So downstairs, if you think at it from a staircase perspective, and then they're writing these things down and then they have a clear picture of a goal staircase where they, they know they want, where they want to be linking that to the vision that's five years from now and the goal picture, and then they rate themselves.
And have then clear understanding of that are the things I need to do to get to my goal and that are the things I should not be doing. And then the last step of the development talk is getting specific. So now we zoom into one year and actionable goals that help them or tasks that get them towards the one-year perspective.
So what are the things they're going to do? When are they going to do this? What do they need to make happen to be able to do this? What are the things they need help with and how I'm, how they going to measure them? So it's a very, very simple setup where they write down literally the different steps that help them to get there.
And they're putting measurable goals towards the goal. And this is roughly. I would say one and a half hours, even if we go through this right now in a theoretical setting in, let's say 15 minutes in a real conversation, in a coaching style, where you ask the manager or coach the other person to find out what they are desiring and where they want to be.
It takes roughly one and a half hours if you do that well, sometimes it's faster depending on the relationship as well. The fascinating thing with this is it has zero to do with the company you work in and one hundred percent to do with who they want to be. And as well as zero to do with you as their manager, if you're their manager, like your perspective, your opinion on anything of that.
Um, just to give you a couple of examples, I've had people that told me that they want to be. building their own company in the next five years and they worked in the company and I was their manager they told me because they trusted me that they wanted to build their own company and we built a plan for how they were going to build their own company and I've had situations where people told me that they want to get married in the next five years and then we built a plan to get them towards marriage getting married and looked into how that does that work with the career perspective same with kids and all the other things so this is a development tool you That I use with everyone that is working with me over time because I believe that as further we as managers and organizations help people to develop as better it is.