On your profile page, under Contacts at top, click Add Connections. Go to the right box titled Enter E-mail Addresses. All you need to invite someone to join your network is his or her e-mail. That’s it. Type 1 or 100 at a time in the box. Then click Send Invitations.
Your Challenge: Where do you dig up these connections? Where do they hide? Do you need to contact Homeland Security or Dog the Bounty Hunter to track them down? Pretty much!
TRADITIONAL SOURCES
Start with what you know: your current resources. Where do you store the names of your professional colleagues, friends, associates, and livestock?
Back to ‘ole basic traditional sources:
1. Old faded business cards held together with broken rubber bands
2. Rolodex® cards
3. Print & online directories (your institution, association, conferences)
4. iPhone/PDA directories
5. Other
Tap all of these previous sources. That could be a fairly long list or a tiny one based on the season of your career and your interpersonal skills. Once you have sent out the invitations, be patient. If they’re academicians, expect a very low response rate. Don’t take it personally. Most are not familiar with LinkedIn. Just persevere.
What’s Next? Beyond your current lists of potential invitees, my next blog will suggest 13 other sources I have used to build my network. That could conceivably be my most useful blog of 2010. Just wait for the nominations to come out. You can start on those sources over the holidays and during your break. I hope you get a break.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
I know many of you have “pick Halloween costume” on your to-do list somewhere in the next 2 weeks. Since this blog is a service-provider to faculty, I thought you might like to know what costumes are flying off the shelves into professors little coffee/tea-stained hands. Then you can decide whether to
1. Pick the “hot” costume
2. Pick something totally different
3. Do business-as-usual with NO costume
Here are the Top 10 picks from the home office in Milledgeville, GA, at "Costumes for Profs" national chain, usually next door to Walmart, except where noted:
TOP 10
10. KNIGHT (Full suit of armor with chainmail and sword, available in 42–48 regular only at Men’s Warehouse)
9. GORILLA (Nothing says “high student ratings” like the “Teaching Gorilla”)
8. GEICO GECKO (Find out what it’s like being green, unless you’re dressing up as Kermit the Frog)
7. CAPITAL ONE “VIKING” (Your chance to be acceptably uncouth and crude)
6. LADY GAGA (Don't hurt yourself with the costume; it would help if you could sing "Telephone")
5. DOG THE BOUNTY HUNTER (You might need a wig and a truck)
4. BABY “BOOMER” (With diaper, bib, rattle, pacifier)
3. PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (Add a chandelier for effect)
2. CORDUROY SUIT & BOWTIE (WAIT! That's regular apparel)
2. SHERLOCK HOLMES (As much as I like Robert Downey, Jr., I still prefer Basil Rathbone with Inverness cape, deer stalker, and calabash pipe)
AND THE NUMBER 1 COSTUME:
1. PUMPKIN (With leather headband and music to perform “Gourd of the Dance”)
Tell me what costume you picked. I bet it will be creative. Your students will go nuts.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
While the substantive foundation of the mentor-mentee relationship is the experience, knowledge, skills, and/or wisdom of the mentor, it’s the unique personal connection or chemistry between mentor and mentee that is critical to the success and longevity of the relationship, regardless of the communication form. That element is essential for most all in-depth, meaningful relationships; it’s not essential for superficial, fly-by-night, or popular, short-term, illicit celebrity relationships.
What Happens When the Chemistry Is Missing?
If the mentee is (a) intimidated, frightened, or uncomfortable in any way in the relationship, (b) gulps down an anti-nausea medication before each meeting, or (c) simply ends up with a mentor resembling Freddy Krueger or Dog the Bounty Hunter, the relationship is DOOMED! In other words, it’s dead in the water or some other fluid, regardless of the substantive expertise the mentor could provide. The emotional intelligence, especially interpersonal skills, of both mentor and mentee is a crucial determinant of the chemistry. That’s why relationships are non-formulaic and often quite messy.
I strongly recommend that you consider the “chemistry” in the matching strategy you use to build the relationships in your program. Of course, you must also take into account the substantive content and demographic characteristics of the participants.
I recently completed a manuscript that described a technique for matching mentees with mentors that addresses all of these criteria. It’s now in review. I’ll let you know when it’s available at later date. Stick around my blogs. Your comments are always welcome.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
