What do the LinkedIn buzzwords say about us?

What do our LinkedIn buzzwords really mean?

The day we learned about ourselves from a social network

Today was the annual day that job hunting and the unhappily employed scour their online profiles, resumes and social media posts for overused and seemingly cliched adjectives used to describe themselves; Linked In has revealed the most commonly used words in user profiles for 2012.

"Responsible" was the most often used descriptor and "driven" has somehow replaced motivated in our lexicon.

I am sure that lots of folks have already recognized that "creative" and "effective" will probably always rise to the top of any annual list when describing professionals. Just as I am going to guess that in the next two years the word strategic will more than likely fall off the list; eventually the pendulum is going to swing the other way. We are all craving safety via laws and policies after the failure of the auto industry, the banking system and most recently the budgeting abilities of our federal government. But the increase of regulation and NSA eavesdropping will lead to an eventual desire to cut the apron strings...see the Roaring 20's for more on pendulum swinging.

The thing that surprises me the most though is that "patient" is the most commonly used word in the USA. I am not shocked that we perceive patience as an important virtue at this moment in time. If you want to deepen and develop relationships with stakeholders and customers, if you are trying to make an impact in your community, if you are responsible for healthy product development you need to be possess patience to be successful in the long term. Putting the word in my Linked In description or my resume doesn't jump out at me though as a no-brainer.

Most employers want to know what objectives you will be carrying out, when you are going to do them and they want you to do it before your competitors do. We can fast forward though television commercials. We scroll through Twitter feeds in moments and see all of the day's headlines. Our complete financial information fits on the four inch screen of our smart phones. I am not saying that I support the culture of ever increasing progress but often times folks just don't allow for plateaus and pauses. The world just has a lot of demands and competition is fierce everywhere.

So what do we think about the pressure?

When you walk into some one's office and they are staring out the window while chewing on their pen cap do you think they are working hard? It's quite possible that they are taking the time to make an incredible important decision for their professional company or department. But usually our response to a scene like this is, "get to work. There isn't time to sit around and stare out windows." Being patient can often be mistaken for lack of initiative. We live in an instant gratification world. Patience does not always jive with online shopping and next day delivery.

Most futurists and economists agree that our future workforce will be based on the information and knowledge sectors. In a recent article on Bloomberg.com, a senior consultant was quoted as saying,

"“There’s an assumption that you can do it in one to two years but we have not tested this out to see if the mangers can actually do it,” Roi said. “They have to mature, they have to develop business judgment, integrity, competence, leadership in a very short period of time.”


It takes time to allow people to learn, to make mistakes, to figure things out for themselves. Quite often this process leads to ownership and feelings of investment. While I am surprised to see patience as a commonly perceived attribute in the world of Linked In I am happy to see us embrace a slower world and one where taking the time to build relationships, businesses and quality results is accepted.

For more information on patience and slowness, check out the following links:

http://www.ted.com/talks/carl_honore_praises_slowness.html

http://www.slowmovement.com/

http://www.slowfoodusa.org/