Why LinkedIn Recommendations Matter More Than Most Senior Leaders Realise

LEADERSHIP VISIBILITY

Before a board chair books a call, before a search consultant makes an introduction, before a potential partner decides whether to reach out, they look at your recommendations. Not as an afterthought. Often as one of the first things they check.

Recommendations are one of the most underused sections on a senior leader's LinkedIn profile. They sit quietly beneath the fold, rarely updated, sometimes dated by years, while everything else on the profile has been carefully crafted. That gap is more visible than most people realise.

Here is why they matter and how to make them work properly.

What recommendations actually do for senior leaders

A well-written recommendation does something your profile cannot do for itself. It provides third-party confirmation of your expertise, your character, and what it is actually like to work with you. It answers the question every decision-maker is asking before they reach out: can I trust this person and do others who have worked with her vouch for her?

At senior level, recommendations are trust signals. They validate the skills and experience listed on your profile with real voices from real people. They showcase the quality of your professional relationships. And they build a portfolio of social proof that compounds over time, each new recommendation adding another layer of credibility to the one before it.

If your most recent recommendation is from 2018, that gap is the first thing a sharp-eyed recruiter or board director will notice. It does not matter how strong the rest of your profile is. An outdated recommendations section creates a question mark that your content and credentials cannot answer.

The difference between a recommendation that works and one that does not

Not all recommendations carry equal weight. Generic, vague endorsements add very little to a senior profile. Consider the difference between these two.

Weak

"David is professional and helps contribute to a positive experience at work."

Strong

"David hosted a genuinely thought-provoking session on AI. He demonstrated different technologies, inspired real discussion about transforming our customer service response, and led the group with humour and warmth. I walked away feeling confident about integrating AI into our daily operations. I cannot recommend him highly enough."

The first tells us nothing. The second tells us exactly what David does, how he does it, and what the outcome felt like. That specificity is what makes a recommendation worth having on a senior profile.

How to build a strong recommendations section

Request at least one new recommendation every month.

The best time to request a recommendation is immediately after a piece of work has gone well, when the experience is fresh and the person is most motivated to write something meaningful. Do not wait until you are refreshing your profile. Build requesting recommendations into your regular professional practice.

Make it easy for people to write something specific.

Most people genuinely want to write a good recommendation but do not know where to start. When you request one, give them a steer. Remind them of the specific project you worked on together, the outcome it delivered, or the particular skill you demonstrated. That context makes the difference between a warm but vague endorsement and something genuinely useful.

Write recommendations for others generously and specifically.

One of the first things I ask new clients to do is write three recommendations for people they have genuinely valued working with. It is an act of professional generosity that is almost always reciprocated, and it signals something important about your character to everyone who reads your profile. Leaders who celebrate others are the ones people trust.

A final thought

Your recommendations section is not decoration. At senior level it is one of the most powerful trust-building tools on your entire profile, and one of the most consistently neglected. A strong, current, specific set of recommendations tells the right people everything they need to know about what it is like to work with you, before they have even said hello.

Laura Taylor is an executive LinkedIn strategist and ghostwriter working with senior women and C-suite leaders on visibility, reputation and authority. Based in Liverpool, working globally. ©️