Have you always wondered why your messages often get ignored by hiring managers or someone in your network? Perhaps you need to switch your approach when it comes to building a relationship with people, especially if you want to be of service to them.
When you’re reaching out to a hiring manager, or a recruiter, or a respected peer in your field who you want to build a relationship with, it’s important that you do so with a “sharing” mentality and NOT a “begging” mentality.
What’s the difference?
The “begging” mindset shows itself when you send an email or LinkedIn message to someone you don’t know in order to ask for something.
It’s something you implicitly communicate.
You might reach out in the same way and say more or less the same thing, but your words will “leak” neediness and, in some cases, desperation.
Needless to say, chances are they’ll ignore your messages.
On the other hand, you exude a “sharing” mentality when you reach out to someone in order to offer them something valuable.
And I’m not talking about bribes or gifts!
If you’re like most of the folks I coach, you have a lot of value to offer in many different forms — specialist skills, decades of experience, useful connections, knowledge about solutions and caveats younger managers might not even be aware of (i.e. things they don’t know they don’t know), anecdotes, etc.
It is possible that you’re not even aware of how valuable your strengths and skills are! If this is the case, now’s the perfect time to evaluate what you can offer to the table to get to know more about your skill set and how you can attract more hiring managers than ever before.
In fact, I’m willing to bet that you have a LOT more value to offer to your new connections than you even realize right now.
