Juan Carlos Ruz Morales

Here I would suggest two different approaches: - Long game: connect with a short message in your invitation, where you can simply state that it would be interesting to be in contact. After they accept, follow up with a thanks message, and maybe a brief introduction of yourself. Ask about them: what they do, their current challenges... But be respectful of their time and don't expect instant replies! Once you're engaged in actual conversation, you can explain why you contacted them in the first place and see if they can assist you. - Direct: there's nothing wrong with being straight to the point! In your invite message, you can already explain why do you think it would be interesting to be in contact and follow up with more details.

A great way to start is by clarifying your target people: do you want to approach professionals from a specific field? make a list of top companies in it. Are you looking for professionals with a certain experience? Research job titles and add them to your list. ChatGPT and other AI tools can help you define these lists, combine them and even turn them into booleans that you can then use in LinkedIn to find relevant people.

As always, a "rule of thumb" before you start measuring data is, "will I need this?" We tend to hoard information that we often don't need or simply doesn't add enough value, so start from the ground up: clarify what's your goal and what will you need to measure in order to answer questions like: "Did we reach our goal? Are we being efficient?" Some of these metrics will come directly from your recruitment and hiring goals, like Time to hire, Applicants/Screenings/Interviews per hire, Posting costs per hire, Posting costs per applicant, etc.

Did you learn a new skill? Or started using a new tool? Make it part of your daily routine to use it! Plan your daily (or weekly) tasks keeping this in mind, slotting some extra time to get comfortable with the new skill/tool. If it's not something you can apply on a daily basis, don't be scared of going out of your normal path and "comfort zone" in order to practice. For example with social skills, seek more contact with colleagues, opportunities to practice, etc.

Have you ever felt outside of the trend? Or see your colleagues developing in areas of which you never thought before? The fear of "obsolescence" is real, and the best way to tackle it is head-on: make a list of your areas of interest and find trainings on them to learn new techniques, skills, and tools that you can apply. LinkedIn Learning is a great solution for this, but you can also find great (and free) webinars in Udemy, Coursera, edX... But don't stay in the theory: apply what you learn! Practice with these new tools or skills, implement them on your daily or weekly work schedule.

Knowing your strengths and weaknesses is crucial to your performance. By using tools like LinkedIn Skill Assessment you can find your own areas of development and focus on those, applying technical solutions. For example, if you find yourself struggling to keep a good grasp on multiple projects, project management tools can be of particular interest. The same goes for time management, not only for planning a daily agenda but also for managing mid and long term projects without losing engagement.