The conversations that will change your career

Ready to elevate your communication skills? Whether it’s nailing meetings, sparking brainstorm sessions, or acing interviews, your ability to share ideas is a career superpower. It’s the key to unlocking creativity, productivity, and those game-changing connections that take your career to the next level. For today’s newsletter, we’ve asked experts from across LinkedIn to share their tips on overcoming awkward silences, sweaty palms, and imposter syndrome in situations like:

• Making intergenerational connections

• Conducting salary negotiations

• Sharing creative ideas

• Speaking up for sustainability

Crush the generational communication gap

Most people work in a multi-generational environment, but research shows that nearly 1 in 5 professionals in the UK don’t know how to approach colleagues of other age groups. This is a problem because, despite operating with different roles, priorities, and cultural references, different generations can learn a lot from each other—especially when it comes to advancing in your career. What can we gain from closing this gap? Higher productivity, fresh perspectives and valuable workplace skills. 

While only communicating with colleagues of your generation creates echo chambers of similar ideas, LinkedIn is a place to break down barriers by connecting members of all ages with free resources, networking opportunities, and career know-how. Career Expert @Charlotte Davies has the following tips for professionals looking to make new connections with coworkers outside their peer group:

• Seek opportunities to communicate with other generations: Release your preconceptions and encourage yourself to engage with other generations in the workplace. Actively listening to these colleagues can help you avoid assumptions about different generations and their attitudes to work, build trust, and allow you to learn from each others' experiences. There are plenty of free resources available to help you prep for these conversations, including Communication Foundations from LinkedIn Learning.

• Find a mentor: If you are earlier in your career, consider asking your manager for a mentor from an older generation. More experienced professionals can also benefit from reverse mentoring with younger generations. A good mentor can further your professional growth by helping you develop specific skills, set career goals and connect you to people and opportunities. Mentoring can bridge generational differences in the workplace and help those who are decades apart better understand each other. 

• Lean into your online professional network for support: Tap into your LinkedIn community for career know-how and advice on growing your career by building connections and following people you want to learn from. You can also take advantage of LinkedIn’s Collaborative Articles to tap into expert voices and diverse perspectives on a wide range of professional topics. 

Get the salary you deserve

Salary negotiations can be one of the trickiest conversations you’ll have at work. Whether you're asking for a raise or trying to lock in a starting salary for a new job, the key is to show up prepared. Give yourself enough time before the conversation to research salary ranges and benefits for your role and industry. Then, build a strong case for your desired number by gathering recent examples of project successes and positive coworker feedback that you can point to. 

Now that you’ve done your due diligence, hop over to the Get Hired newsletter for additional tips from five career experts as they go through the rest of the negotiation and offer process. Here, you’ll also find deeper #KnowHowOnLinkedIn as leading professionals share the best general career advice they ever received. 

Nurture your inner creative with PepsiCo’s Mauro Porcini

The new LinkedIn Live series "Work in Progress" explores the evolving nature of work and the skills needed to face this change head on. In the debut episode, LinkedIn’s Scott Rising was joined by Mauro Porcini, Chief Design Officer at PepsiCo, to discuss how creativity can lead to innovation, improve problem-solving, and bolster leadership abilities.

Mauro shared how he uses design thinking to approach life as a never ending learning journey. While every human is inherently creative, one must listen to their intuition and invest in developing their imagination. Using every experience as an opportunity to grow and become more creative will empower you to grow in your career and contribute in fresh ways. As Mauro tells it: “each of us has the power to change the game—to introduce a different perspective, a different way of thinking, to initiate a different conversation.”

Tune into the full conversation for more practical strategies for integrating creative thinking into your daily work life: 

Celebrate Earth Day by making sustainable changes 

These same skills of communication, creativity, and coalition-building can be powerful assets in the global fight against climate change. Current data shows that 7 in 8 workers lack even a single green skill, so this Earth Day (April 22) LinkedIn is working to empower members with the knowledge they need to make sustainability a part of their everyday work. Join the movement by exploring the Environmental Sustainability homepage.

Here, you can jumpstart your own green transformation with LinkedIn Learning courses on sustainability skills (unlocked through May 15), as well as find professional and volunteer opportunities that align with your values. Expand your impact with resources for creating or advancing a corporate sustainability program that will inspire your coworkers and change your organization's culture for good. 

What communication tactics have you used to make a positive change at work? 💬 Keep the dialogue going by subscribing to future editions of In the Loop.