LinkedInamorata

[My "obnoxious acrostic" contribution to National Poetry Month, it's a whittled-down edition of my LinkedIn presentation for the next wave of college graduates.]

Ask for advice instead of opinions

Accomplices are nice and better than minions

Be found be known be liked trusted then referred

Be giving be prone to be psyched to be heard

Beware bullsh*t bingo and adjectives amok

Be you but be bite-sized; else branding will suck

Complex problem solving, crit thinking, create

Coordinate with others, cognitive flexing is great

Chunking your content is also advised

Curiosity, not pomposity, lest you be despised

Delivery delightful; ditch defaults and dare

Deeds done deliberately determine who cares

Emotional literacy evokes empathy clues

Email address in the first line or two

Feel your fears and face them anyway [*Susan Jeffers]

Face-forward portraits and, face-to-face, say

Go where your targets are, not where you sit

Get it in your head that they needn’t give a sh*t

Have them on hand, your cards and your pitches

Headlines are your friends, through-lines are your bitches

Ikigai simply means your convergence of strengths

Interdependencies go any lengths

Justify claims and jettison jargon

Jump on tech trends and drive a hard bargain

Keep up with gurus who aren’t self-proclaimed

Learn how to listen for what’s not yet named

Mobilize, globalize, master your craft

Negotiate, associate, necessitate asks

Objects in mirrors are closer than they appear

Preserve your perspective but hold it not dear

Question your assumptions and biases a lot

Referrals and recommendations are all that you’ve got

Remain responsive and repeat requests

Study what sells (servant leadership’s best)

Tie themes together with narrative threads

Understand people, their hearts, guts, and heads

Visuals vivify verbs’ value vividly

Who knows what you know is what’s trusted implicitly

X-factor means the intangibles you bring

Y asked five times gets to root cause of things

Z get-to-know generation, internet-old,

Mighty forces will come to your Aid, Goethe wrote, so: Be Bold.