Why Senior Leaders Need a Strong Online Brand NOW –
and Why It’s In their Company’s Best Interest to See That They Get One
As a consequence of the COVID pandemic, the world of work has been turned upside down. Given the necessity of working from home, an unprecedented number of talented employees have become disaffected and disengaged from their companies. They are leaving in massive numbers, or contemplating leaving within the year, in a phenomenon dubbed the Great Resignation. In the hiring and retention process, job candidates and employees now have the upper hand.
Generally, talented people who are contemplating change are not interested in settling for just any position that will provide them a paycheck. They already have that. Instead, they are looking to work for leaders who have a passion for what they do. They are looking for leaders who elevate their direct reports, who help them to grow and advance in their careers, and who mentor and coach them. And of course, they are looking for great leaders at great companies.
You may already be that passionate kind of leader – and if so, bravo! But unless your online presence shows that, no one outside your immediate circle will know. If you have only a skeletal LinkedIn profile, the talent you seek to hire will be unimpressed rather than attracted to you, and will look elsewhere.
In the past, your company may have considered that improvements to a leader’s LinkedIn profile were an indicator that they were about to depart. But NOW, astute corporate leaders recognize that a leader’s great online presence is a company asset. Here’s why:
- One of the primary ways candidates vet a company and an open position (remember they have the upper hand, now) is by looking at the company’s leadership online on LinkedIn.
- They’ll be scrutinizing leaders’ ABOUT sections looking for clues about how they lead, the principles that guide them, and their areas of passion. They will be trying to size up the leaders to determine if they would enjoy working for them. They’ll be looking for leaders who are authentic and transparent. A two-sentence synopsis won’t do.
- They’ll look to leaders’ EXPERIENCE sections to see about what accomplishments they’ve listed and how they talk about them. For example, does the leader acknowledge their team or take full credit for accomplishments that obviously were not an individual effort?
- They’ll look at leaders’ HONORS and AWARDS section as an indicator of how the company recognizes its existing talent.
- They’ll be hunting for leaders’ VOLUNTEER activities. They want to know that leaders in the company have a life of meaning outside the company, and that they give back to the community. They’ll want to see that leaders are making time for family and volunteering.
How does knowing these things about how available talent evaluates leaders’ profiles help you?
If you are a C-Suite executive, use the bullet points above to audit your own LinkedIn profile. Does your profile provide the kind of information job candidates are looking for? Is your profile a talent magnet, or is it, because of its sparseness, the kind of profile that might it actually repel the talent considering your company? Next, take a look at the profiles of the other members of your company’s leadership team. If your company’s leaders are solid but their LinkedIn profiles don’t reflect that, LinkedIn makeovers are in order. Make them available at company expense.
Remember, the talent your company wants to hire is evaluating your company’s desirability based on what they read on your leaders’ LinkedIn profiles. Make your leaders’ profiles a company asset.
From Fortune 500 companies to Silicon Valley start-ups, clients around the country have passed initial muster, raised capital, and bought or sold what they wanted to buy or sell by using LinkedIn to their best advantage. If you are a C-suite executive or senior leader, I can make this easy for you. Before a customer or M&A team examines your team’s LinkedIn profiles, based on my knowledge of how LinkedIn works and how people respond to what they see there, I can ensure everything is ready and your profiles convey exactly the message and impression you’re aiming for.
Over the past ten years, I’ve helped countless C-level clients and senior executives use LinkedIn to frame conversations, impress suitors and customers, and introduce themselves before their first conversation takes place.
Along the way, I wrote the award-winning book, LinkedIn for the Savvy Executive-2nd Edition. It’s received BookAuthority’s “Best LinkedIn Books of All Time” award, and is a featured selection of the C-Suite Book Club. For your author-inscribed and signed book or quantity discounts, order at: https://carolkaemmerer.com/books
Let me help you use this essential business tool effectively. Contact me through my website: www.carolkaemmerer.com or profile: www.linkedin.com/in/carolkaemmerer.
Book me to speak either virtually or in person on the topic of personal branding via LinkedIn. I am a member of the National Speakers Association, a Certified Virtual Presenter, and an Advisor to the C-Suite Network.
For DIY instruction on improving your LinkedIn profile, register for my self-paced, online course: How to be Found on LinkedIn: Key Strategies for Attracting Ideal-for-You Opportunities, https://carolkaemmerer.com/onlinecourse
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Other Articles by Carol Kaemmerer
7 Ways to Elevate Your Online Brand So You Can Love Your LinkedIn Profile
What is a Personal Brand – And How Can You Take Charge of Yours?
Twelve Changes You Can Make in About an Hour to Improve Your LinkedIn Profile
Why Is My LinkedIn Profile Getting So Few Views?
How Can LinkedIn Be Part of Your Company’s Strategy for Responding to the Great Resignation?
Is Your LinkedIn Profile Missing the Mark?
Comfortable in Your Job? Uncomfortable Life Lessons to Safeguard Your Career
How to Be Found on LinkedIn: Ten Top Strategies to Rank Well on a LinkedIn Keyword Search
Why Are You Playing Small on LinkedIn?
If You’re Not “Writing to the Margins” on LinkedIn, You’re Missing Out
Don’t Be Hooked Through a Big Phish: Recognize and Avoid Phishing Scams on LinkedIn:
A Small Omission That Undermines Your Credibility on LinkedIn