That’s what a coaching client recently told me. So you say. I have to disagree. If you didn’t, who did place it there?
Do you suspect someone has your sign-in credentials to LinkedIn? It’s possible, but an unlikely event. You can change the ID and/or password to your profile (and you should also install two-step authentication, like yesterday!).
But I have to tell you: in all likelihood, you did place that language there. Perhaps you forgot? Sorry, that excuse is not going to work for me.
That means we hold you responsible, completely and unequivocally, for all that appears on your profile:
- Everything you write about yourself and your career is being judged by prospective clients, employers, colleagues, so you WANT to have a great profile, written by you, about “why you do what you do,” the best you can offer. No one else can add that high quality material to your profile. Only you, by ID and password access, at a minimum, in your own way, your story from your own lens. Not a resume, please!
- Passively allowing people to endorse you for skills they do not know you possess is also not excusable. You have the easy ability, and duty, to remove them as endorsers. Keep current with this responsibility, as you are notified upon each endorsement as it happens in 2 ways: by LinkedIn messaging you and also by email. (Listen up, attorneys and financial professionals who have ethics and compliance considerations, adhere to this requirement!)
- Recommendations do not just “appear” on your profile, although some people have tried to convince me of that. Either you asked for a recommendation and once they sent it back to you, you purposely published it to you profile, OR someone was kind enough to recommend you without your asking, and you published it to your profile. In both cases. actually publishing it means you agreed to it. Now if you don’t recall doing this, or in retrospect you want it changed, you have to backtrack to the recommender and ask them to write a new one, publish it only when satisfied (and you can ask them to tweak it), and then hide the old one. (Heed this too, my legal and financial folks, as no one should say that the miracle you performed for them, and what they are recommending you for, can be replicated in any or all cases for others.)
In LinkedIn, it’s all about you, and what you show about yourself. It’s on your shoulders too, to keep it accurate and current.
Be very careful and make it a conscious effort to ensure your profile shows you as the best you can be. Only you are responsible for you, and only you can add or amend something about you. Period.
