If a thing is worth doing, it’s worth doing well.
I’m a great believer in asking for endorsements as a way of building evidence of our credibility, value and trustworthiness in this recommendation economy that we are now living in.
I’m also a fan of many of the outsourced tools that are available to us in business and how they combine feedback and recommendations.
However, I received this the other day from LinkedIn. Now, I know this person but I have covered up all of their details as their identity is not important to this post.
So, when this landed in my inbox and after reading it, it felt….
- Wrong
- Like spam
- A mistake
…and it caused me to ask: What is LinkedIn?
I asked this question at a seminar that I was talking at the other day and I got a number of answers:
- Professional network
- Personal website
- Contact book
- Source of learning and knowledge
- Way to find and connect with like minded people
- Way to network and build better relationships with your network and contacts
- Your window on the world
For me, it’s a way to connect with and keep up with people that I have worked with, worked for, met or have been lucky enough to bump into along the way
But, overall it’s personal.
Therefore, this type of unsegmented, outsourced approach just feels wrong. It’s akin to outsourcing the updating of your Facebook page to someone that does not treat your friends or family any differently from each other.
How would your friends feel if you sent them this type of generic request that effectively says that we don’t know anything about you and we haven’t taken the time to find out what sort of relationship you have with this person so we are going to treat you all the same.
Oh, and we’ve got someone else to do it for us as it’s not worthy of our time.
It’s just not right. I think when we ask for recommendations we need to think carefully about how we do it and how it comes across from the other person’s perspective.
The idea of asking for recommendations and endorsements is a good one and one that we should all try and do more of. But, implemented badly it can cause more damage than any benefit it has tried to create.
Am I right or am I ranting?
I know this person so I will be bringing this up with them personally.
It’s about time somebody talks about this! An impersonal request for a recommendation is rude, honestly. It degrades the respect you have for the person as well as the personal relationship.
As a current graduate student at NYU, I thought long and hard about who I should ask to write a recommendation for me. I thought about people (mostly professors) who I had a relationship with and who I did extensive and meaningful work with. I didn’t ask my professor from and freshman year Intro course because he probably didn’t remember me or my name.
Writing an impersonal request for a recommendation is one thing, but having someone else do it for you it another story. I agree with you. If he/she is not willing to take the time to ask for a recommendation, why should you take the time the write one?
Just a few thoughts – I hope I wasn’t too honest.
Hi Leah,
Thank you for your comment and honesty. I love it because it means it not just me that thinks like this and thinks that this type of approach to online/social networking is just plain wrong and can, potentially, do more damage than good.
Thanks for chipping in.
Here’s an idea that you could use….rather than just asking for recommendations why don’t you write some for other people. They’ll usually be hugely grateful. Then you can ask them if they’d be happy to reciprocate. Can work really well.
Adrian
Adrian,
I think you get out of life what you put in.
So I don’t think the request was “wrong” just “lazy”
I have in the past been guilty of the same approach in the past, what I learnt was that “lazy” requests result in “lazy” responses.
Maybe your contact will learn the same lesson I did
James
PS I do hope it wasn’t me
Attention to detail is another failing
But only in the past
Hi James,
I would agree with you in part. Yes, a lazy approach is most likely going to generate a lazy return. However, it’s the overall approach to trying to generate recommendations that I find in the wrong…..no segmentation, no personalisation, no apparent belief that this really matters etc. Obviously, it matters enough for it to be outsourced but not enough for it to be done well. This is what I would say is wrong. This same argument applies to any type of outsourcing. For me, it’s not good enough to blame it on the outsourced provider when they are representing you.
Another rant over
Adrian
Ps. It wasn’t you.
I agree with some of the comments; the request is lazy and very impersonal.
The least one can do is personally put fingers to keyboard and construct an email to the said individual or organisation, which should be one they have acutally worked for or with, to request a recommendation; seeing that the requestee will be using this said recommendation for advancement – connections, business e.t.c?
Hi Remi,
I couldn’t agree more. Basic courtesy and manners I would suggest.
Thanks for dropping by and adding your voice to the damning of this sort of thing.
Adrian
Just a smiling visitant here to share the love (:, btw outstanding design . web hosting | web hosting |
Wow, superb blog layout! How long have you been blogging for? you make blogging look easy. The overall look of your site is great, let alone the content!. Thanks For Your article about Asking for recommendations is great but not like this | Adrian Swinscoe .
Thank you for your kind words. Been blogging since 2009. It’s a fun thing to do.
Hope to see you back here again,
Adrian