I am proud enough to admit I sometimes “connect” in an emotional intelligent way with those I meet in business. It’s sporadic and not an all-the-time obligatory rule. We might bond over a topic, say gardening, or our shared marketing commitment to clients as coaches, or our firm adherence to serious, quality discussion/networking.

Not “promiscuous linking” as I call it that so many others do, collecting people they do not know or ever intend to nurture. I am not cheap like that. OK, I said it.

  • I require deeper conversation and richer vocabulary to flick the switch, to continue the conversations in another week or month, and then schedule regular repetition.
  • I commit to square away an hour, as does my partner-in-conversation, set in our schedules.
  • Yes you have to be flexible to reschedule, recognizing something more pressing may have arisen.
  • I invest brain cells to have no specific agenda yet accomplish from the meeting a feeling we have had a marked effect on each other.

“Next meeting?” I ask.

The more we meet, the more we benefit.

Sometimes it’s not meant to be and we exit stage right. Or left. But remain connected, occasionally commenting in words about a topic the other has posted into their LinkedIn content.

I always use words. Others may use emojis and you already know my stance on that! Perhaps their use of emojis indicates why we decided to discontinue the weekly/monthly dance card.

Maybe it’s simple wording–they’re assuming a new career position to which I say, “Bravo, they are fortunate to have you with them.” So much betetr than “thumbs-up.”

Or a new client waxing eloquently, to which I always add another few lines to encourage, query, or add my three cents (inflation) to their comment to prolong the conversation.

The undercurrent today in this post: make LinkedIn your social medium of choice, use it well to “network up,” i.e., to engage with others in ways you want to be perceived as a thought leader to your connections and to theirs (because both august groups can see this interchange, you know!)

Invite the best of the best to surround you, regularly. Someone has to initiate, and it may as well be you to select those who deserve you and you them.

Drumroll for the title “Letters for LinkedIn learning”? Here are a few alliterative aphorisms I’ll add:

Continue concisely, cogently, committedly, compellingly. Curate a collection of collaborators.

Feed the flock.

Encourage enlightenment. Educate and elucidate.

Reward with relevance, reliably, refer.

As the graphic suggests, and worth repeating:  Plant the seeds, start somehow, aim high, nourish to flourish.