As I think about the LinkedIn game of business life, I meet a lot of good sports(persons), and I meet cheaters.

Good sports ask open-ended questions, infuse your answer into their next logical discussion points, are interested in your needs, follow up, expect you to return the favor of being interested in them, and hone their choice of words to the conversation with respect and intelligence.

Cheaters (and you meet them all the time like I do) jump into your screen without context or reference point, take the easy way out, do not research you ahead of time to make the discussion meaningful, expect you to buy irrespective of your needs, offer you too much so as to seem overeager, and show themselves overbearingly dense without digesting what you answered.

I know you, my reader, play the LinkedIn game honestly and honorably. Associate with others who do too.

Invest in the long game that LinkedIn is, with your sustained energy in all 4 quarters, or nine innings, knowing business is awarded based on earned merit and cerebral–and emotional– impressions.

Fill the jar in the graphic above.

Show why you, how you earned your stripes in your LinkedIn profile, as a starting point. Then you can make the ongoing conversations more meaningful for both sides to reach a win-win.