FINDING PURPOSE: What my first year working at LinkedIn meant to me.

Well, for those who had the chance to read my previous article DREAM BIG!, this might be a follow-up. For those who hadn’t, I invite you to do it, but here it goes a very quick recap.

After a very inspirational event back in July, I expanded my own perspective of what it means to have a purpose in life and maybe found what’s mine: to inspire others to become their own best version. Not because I’m better than anyone, but because by sharing and engaging, I learn more myself and push others to keep moving the chain forward.

Here at LinkedIn, where I just reached my first year as an employee, culture and values are lived and experienced everyday. The core value of the company is “Our Members Come First”. 

This might seem a little cliche if put out of context, you might say: “Well, there it goes another company saying that they are customer-centric, what’s new?”.

LinkedIn is for the third year in a row the most trusted social platform in the world. Among a lot of criticism about the misuse of personal data within social networks, we remain trusted.

Our core value is the basis upon which our executive team drive our mission, always putting the interest and security of every one of our +650 millions of members across the globe first.

NETWORK GAPS & THE PLUS ONE PLEDGE 

I first heard Jeff Weiner, LinkedIn’s CEO, talk about the concept of network gap during SK20 in July. It is a concern coming from the company’s highest level regarding the reach and extent of the job opportunities that are generated through our platform. 

Think of it this way: if you are a person with certain skills, experience and good contacts, you might not have so many difficulties to find a new job opportunity, right? What if you have certain skills and experience, but do not have a good network of contacts? It gets a little harder, referrals remain a very strong way to create trust between a company and the job candidate. The ones who have it, start ahead of others who don’t. That’s a network gap. 

Network gaps are natural, social inequalities are all over the world and they are reflected on LinkedIn. This is a huge challenge and it is one of those that hides itself behind natural behaviors. After all, most members are seeking their own benefit within the platform, so their network is made up based on their own interest. You usually do not accept someone that you don’t know or that work in a very different industry/role than yours, for various reasons. This natural behavior also reinforces these gaps.

So Jeff proposed an idea, to LinkedIn’s employees, other big companies full of talented employees and every person who sees the value in helping others: The Plus One Pledge. Help someone outside of your network. Not superficially, truly help someone. Imagine the impact on millions of lives it this gets viral. 

All of this made me see how well positioned I am to help others. I’ve been a young boy with few contacts before and many people on my way helped me. Therefore, during the past months I have been trying to participate in voluntary educational initiatives, somewhat out of my role, that might cost me time and energy, wouldn’t bring me any direct results to my work, but that would help our members with their own goals within LinkedIn.

ROCK YOUR PROFILE CERTIFICATION: PARTICIPANT AND FACILITATOR

In order to help others, you kind of need to prepare yourself first, right? The Rock Your Profile certification is offered to employees with some online material and a 3-hour workshop with a leader’s facilitation. 

Yes, facilitation. Not a presentation. What’s the difference? The idea is not to present fixed concepts and equations on how to create and leverage profiles, but encourage all the participants to express their own ideas of what LinkedIn is to them, what kind of doubts they have on features, tricky questions on interactions and different perspectives according to different goals. All of this in a very informal atmosphere and a safe space for everyone to express themselves as they wish.

I first got internally certified back in March, but still wasn’t sure of myself to take on a role to facilitate a RYP session to external audiences. I was looking for a second step preparation and the opportunity came when our local RYP project leader and CSM manager sent out an email asking for volunteers to help her facilitate the next sessions for employees. I instantly raised my hand.

A couple of weeks later, there I was, with around 8 months at LinkedIn, preparing myself for a facilitation of leveraging LinkedIn profiles to employees who’ve been there for years before me. I thought, if I could help them leverage their knowledge (probably bigger than mine) of best practices to their customers and friends, I’d learn a lot more and would be better prepared for external sessions.

Not only I was able to get to know people from different divisions, areas and seniority, but I also learned a lot from what they had to say and what our facilitation's dynamics provoked, besides the improvement of oratory and facilitation skills.

That was a great afternoon.

TIME TO SHARE: “CAFé COM LINKEDIN” AND TECH BUSINESS WEEK FIAP

Our LATAM communications team came up with a project in August, called Café com LinkedIn.

A two-day opportunity for our local brazilian members to have a 20-min free profile consultative talk with LinkedIn employees, in order to improve their profiles, get tips on how to create their network based on their goals, etc.

All of this at a coffee spot, with free photography session for their profiles and a very informal atmosphere. People talking to other people. That’s all it was, in fact. 

I spent some hours there and talked to 10 people, most of them were seeking market relocation. Some knew more and some less about LinkedIn’s features, some were more enthusiastic and some shyer, but I tried to understand their context and help them in the best way I could. After connecting with them, I actually saw one person posting that she had found a new job through LinkedIn.

The Rock Your Profile ambassadors receive quite a lot of requests from companies, universities and other institutions to speak about how LinkedIn can help people find economic opportunities. One of these requests came from FIAP, a modern university based in Sao Paulo. 

Me and Gabriel Raupp, an internal colleague, joined forces to facilitate this RYP session for 80 students in September, as part of their Tech Business Week activities.

We scheduled our auditorium and received them on a rainy morning in our Sao Paulo office. We had some delays (crazy traffic!) and had to adapt our facilitation to a shorter time than we had prepared.

At the beginning, we prepared a quiz about some data and fun facts of LinkedIn, through Kahoot, which is an app for that kind of activity. I had never heard of Kahoot before joining LinkedIn, I thought it was going to be a surprise to them, but just as they heard Kahoot’s initial sounds, they started laughing and told us that they teacher also uses it, apparently quite often. That wasn’t a surprise, but the game itself broke the ice and let us to a fun atmosphere.

I tried my best not to present fixed concepts and facilitate a broader conversation, including everyone, to understand their real doubts, difficulties and goals. I gave personal examples of good and bad strategies, trying to make them feel safe about being wrong, this is where we actually learn. I think it ended-up being a helpful session to everyone, including the teachers, besides getting to know LinkedIn’s cool office, I felt that they went home feeling a little more empowered to chase their dreams.

CLOSING 2019, LOOKING FORWARD TO 2020

My first year at LinkedIn taught me that we need to be committed to our roles and targets, especially if you play a sales role like myself. Results are expected from what your company invests in you, which includes not only compensation, but all the resources, opportunities and development.

But chasing numbers alone can become a systematic and stressful process, implicating on performance in the long-term. Aligning personal and professional motivations is not easy at all. That’s why I feel so privileged to be part of a team that doesn’t only seek to close corporate projects and grow revenue year over year, but focuses on bringing real value to our customers and members.

How? By following a drumbeat. Jeff Weiner said it during a recent episode of Masters of Scale podcast with LinkedIn’s founder Reid Hoffmann. What does a leader need to have/make for an environment or team to be inspired?

• Clarity of vision
• Courage of one's conviction
• Ability to communicate those two previous things

To spread inspiration within an organization so huge such as LinkedIn, it has to be authentic. We follow an authentic drumbeat called Compassion.

If I felt it during this first year, if it inspired me to go beyond to some extent and impact other people’s lives, I can’t wait to see where it will take me within the next few years! 

Inspiration -> Purpose -> Transformation. Maybe in a different order.

Thank you, 2019. Looking forward, 2020!