27 Jan Anatomy of … an Effective Recommendation Letter

Leverage Your Network

A powerful letter of recommendation can propel a woman on the path to the C-suite.

The recommendation reinforces the narrative she offers and the answers she provides in her interview or performance review (if seeking a promotion), says Kathleen Quinn Votaw, CEO of Denver-based recruitment firm TalenTrust. If you want to write a recommendation for a rock-star mentee, here’s how to paint her in the best possible light.

Ask yourself if you’re the right fit.

The best candidates to provide a letter of recommendation are a coach, a boss, a mentor, or someone who has achieved much and experienced the candidate in action via a committee or association, says Quinn Votaw. “Make sure you can speak to the person’s attributes and style.”

Include three key elements.

A hiring manager will expect the letter to reveal the following:

• your relationship with the person you are recommending

• the duration of time you have known the person

• what stands out to you about this person’s unique qualities

Highlight skills and experiences.

Be specific about the candidate’s capabilities. “Highlight the attributes that you admire, why you would work with the person again, a memory of a great experience working together, and what you believe the person is capable of, moving forward,” says Quinn Votaw.

Use technology.

You don’t have to wait until a mentee is looking for a job to write a recommendation letter. More than 97,000 companies in the United States use LinkedIn as a recruitment tool, and public recommendations have come to be expected on the site. Capturing your thoughts about a colleague’s capabilities and adding them to her LinkedIn profile now can help a mentee score a position she wasn’t even looking for.

Keep it brief.

Hiring managers are often short on time. “Get to the point and provide a few paragraphs,” Quinn Votaw says.