It takes a certain strength and conviction to express yourself in direct opposition to your high-powered spouse. Yet strength and conviction doesn’t seem to be what Cindy McCain has.
Just as we were about to describe Cindy McCain’s engagement of her whole self at work as she took a clear stand against “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”–a policy her husband John McCain supports–see video above, she logged into her Twitter and reclaimed her privilege as a U.S. Senator’s wife. She tweeted, “I fully support the NOH8 campaign and all it stands for and am proud to be a part of it. But I stand by my husband’s stance on DADT.”
How possible is it to support one and simultaneously stand by the other? We wonder what she truly believes.
She makes being forthright look very difficult. Well, because it is.
Have you contradicted yourself at work? What happened?
LinkedIn can seem to be a dry and sometimes less than interesting place. Why?
We understand the need for LinkedIn to pass through strict business firewalls so employees in more conservative organizations can access profiles and update their statuses during the workday. And it makes sense for there to exist a social media site specifically for professionals to connect with one another. The main problem lies in our collective definition of what “professional” means.
Just as many people can be shy about referencing the books they read, we fear that joining an extra-curricular group or posting an update with more personal feeling may demonstrate a lack of professionalism. The problem with categorizing life into “personal” and “professional” buckets is that we miss out on the beauty that emerges from integrating the two. And splitting the personal from the professional takes precious energy away from managing work tasks, and strips us of our human nature.
So go ahead: join KnitLinked, a group “for anyone who loves to knit and crochet;” attach the link to an article you read about endangered coral reef in the Gulf of Mexico; and broadcast that extra set of tickets you have to Saturday’s football game. Upon careful analysis, you’ll see there are valuable attributes these details indicate about you as a professional.
Now consider: if we collectively revealed more of ourselves via our LinkedIn profiles, the resulting network could be a much more interesting place.
Is there something you’ve considered including in your LinkedIn profile, but which you continue to hold back?
We teach a course on how to leverage LinkedIn for research and marketing purposes in the job search, and one of our favorite parts of the program is the discussion on posting to your profile the books you’ve read. Participants often fear what their reading preferences may reveal about them, and to their detriment they tend to omit these details.
Yet accessing the Reading List by Amazon app and clicking on the books you’ve read — or simply want to read — is an elegant way of expressing who you are, without using many words. And that’s a key to communicating online: using as few words as possible.
We’ve recently read the books depicted above. Which ones will we link amidst our work experience and education on LinkedIn? Let’s think about this.
What you read reveals so much about your interests, your dreams, and how you think. Interestingly, David Rakoff discusses how we judge people based on their reading material in this month’s GQ. If you’ve read, say, Lips Unsealed by Belinda Carlisle, what meaning can viewers of your profile project onto you? At the very least:
1. You read, and thus you can concentrate
Reading books may be a dying pastime, and that you can read tens of pages on one subject indicates your ability to focus your attention for stretches at a time.
2. As one who reads, you know how to manage stress
Have you ever seen a person stressed-out and reading a book? We once saw a guy read a book, listen to his iPod, and walk to the train probably while chewing gum, yet he’s an exception. The memoir of a pop artist necessarily is pleasure reading, so when you reference that you’ve read this book, you tell everyone you know how to relax.
3. You’re curious about the world
Reading is a process of digesting ideas and information related to our world. Your pursuit of knowledge demonstrates your wish to know more about the universe.
These are 3 marketable attributes about you, so go ahead and talk about the books you read. You will attract some people to you, and you may repel some folks by your reading choices as well. Those whom you attract will be drawn to something within you, which can be the basis for a formidable relationship. And strong relationships go hand-in-hand with your professional development.
So which books will we be posting on our LinkedIn? All of them, natch.
What does your reading list say about you? Add your comments below.
Just as we were about to describe Cindy McCain’s engagement of her whole self at work as she took a clear stand against “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”–a policy her husband John McCain supports–see video above, she logged into her Twitter and reclaimed her privilege as a U.S. Senator’s wife. She tweeted, “I fully support the NOH8 campaign and all it stands for and am proud to be a part of it. But I stand by my husband’s stance on DADT.”
