Dave Gowel - The Power in a Link: Open Doors, Close Deals, and Change the Way You Do Business Using Linkedin

Copyright by David Gowel. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Gowel, Dave, 1980

The power of a link: open doors, close deals, and change the way you do business using LinkedIn/Dave Gowel.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-118-13467-2 (pbk.); ISBN 978-1-118-17594-1 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-17595-8 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-17596-5 (ebk)

1. LinkedIn (Electronic resource) 2. Business networksComputer network resources. I. Title.

HD69.S8G69 2012

658.8 072dc23

2011029145

To the woman who taught me the power of earning social capital
through leading by example, seeking first to give, and then to receive.
Mom, thank you for all that you've done and all that you are.

Foreword

I Have Made several significant career changes in my life, including the transition from being a civilian to serving in the military; from the military to the NFL; and from the NFL to commercial real estate. Throughout these diverse careers, I've noticed a common trend relevant to any industry: exceptional relationships lead to exceptional success.

A naval officer is ineffective without his sailors executing tactically. A quarterback cannot score touchdowns without seamless teamwork between linemen who block and receivers who catch. And a broker does not close deals if he does not provide the best service to his clients. The success of these professional relationships is also influenced by the caliber of the players involved. To achieve more than mediocrity, one can hope to be surrounded by remarkable professionals who also perform beyond the call of duty. However, I've found that it is unwise to simply hope you will always join teams of remarkable performers who work well together to consistently achieve superior results. Such successful relationships require proactivity, a challenge that the best teams overcome together.

While building exceptional relationships or achieving peak performance once you find them, hoping is a common practice many professionals deploy. Dave Gowel has shown me that when used properly, LinkedIn allows professionals to replace hope with decisive action in this context. This tool lets people find key contacts in a mutually beneficial manner, making the resultant business relationships more productive.

I met Dave through his company's work with Jones Lang LaSalle, a firm for which I am currently the executive chairman for the Americas. At the time we met, I was interested in his military background and entrepreneurial spirit. I did not fully appreciate the value that social technologies would play in business. However, I've now learned how Dave's company, RockTech, is helping the world understand how these new technologies make relationship building and management more efficient than ever.

Some believe that our tech-savvy youth are becoming introvertedas they spend more and more time interacting with their peers online. However, Dave shows us that the art of communicating and building relationships is now actually more effective than any methods my generation had the chance to use, thanks to these new technologies.

In this book, you will learn both the potential power that your current network already contains, as well as how to turn that power into tangible opportunities and warm introductions with the help of LinkedIn.

From one football player, corporate leader, military officer, entrepreneur, chairman, board member, and avid reader to another, this book is well worth the read.

Roger Staubach
NFL Hall of Fame Quarterback and
Executive Chairman, Americas,
Jones Lang LaSalle

Preface

My story starts as a West Point cadet looking to serve my country, become an Army Ranger, see the world, and learn what it really means to be a leader. After leaving the military, I found myself on the unexpected path of watching a social media revolution explode in front of me while teaching on the subject of leadership as an assistant professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). This allowed me to transition from a West Point graduate and Army Ranger serving in a tank platoon in Baghdad, to a young educator at a world-renowned academic institution, to the CEO of RockTech, a company I cofounded with Mark Rockefeller. All of this occurred in less than six years, in the worst economy of my life, and all before I turned 30. This confluence of learning from the brilliant young minds at Facebook's ground zero (I liaised with Harvard's faculty and administrators from my position at MIT to support the Harvard students participating in our courses), the intellectual curiosity surrounding this revolution at an academic powerhouse, and my entrepreneurial desire to start and lead a civilian enterprise have made me comfortable speaking authoritatively on the currency that made this new power possible: social capital.

Having reached my thirtieth birthday while finishing up this book, I don't purport to have decades of industry experience that allow me to sit atop a mountain in the lotus position, posing riddles to my visitors. However, it is because my professional life has been spent between the social media generation and corporate America's current leaders that I can see both perspectives on how each is using these new technologiesand see as well what each is lacking. The latter group struggles to understand why the former so readily shares so much information about themselves publicly and substitutes face-to-face interaction with texting or wall posts. The former group hasn't had as much opportunity to experience the powerful impact that a warm introduction or sage bit of social business intelligence can have on a business deal, career transition, or personal challenge.