Does your LinkedIn Profile need help – but you’re not sure how to make it stronger?
Nearly every executive I speak with laments the lack of time and ideas for creating an engaging, interesting LinkedIn presence reflecting their personal brand.
However, it takes just a few minutes to change your LinkedIn Profile to paint a better picture of your leadership skills.
Try these strategies for building a more relevant portrait of your executive competencies on LinkedIn:
Tune Your LinkedIn Headline for the RIGHT Executive Level.
Don’t settle for LinkedIn’s default (your current job title). Instead, provide a keyword-rich descriptor that positions you for the role you hold now, plus a step up in the future.
As an example, Physician Executive implies skills in compliance and healthcare outcomes, while Healthcare Executive Focused on System Expansion, Patient Access, Safety, & Performance. New Care Quality, Patient-Centric Operational Improvements, & Accreditation at Community & Nonprofit Hospital Systems tells readers about your drive for excellence and the environments in which you excel.
This type of Headline change is crucial for telling your story on LinkedIn! Your Headline is attached to every part of your activity on the site and when you populate it with keywords, you’re helping employers and recruiters search for you based on the skills that you specified.
Out of ideas for your Headline? Start with your career level (CEO, Director of IT, etc.), then add key skills, such as New Service Lines or Technology Strategy. Make reference to a result, such as New Quality Rankings or AI-Based Improvements.
Read A Fast Formula for a Powerful LinkedIn Headline for more ideas. And last of all, keep the Headline to 220 characters or less – and road test it by asking trusted contacts for feedback.
Write an Engaging LinkedIn About Section.
Your LinkedIn About section is one of the BEST places to feature a strong executive brand message. Yet, many leaders leave it blank or worse yet, write it in third-person (much like a boring, too-formal biography).
No one wants to read “Steve is a visionary leader who leads healthcare teams…” because you probably don’t speak that way in person!
Instead, employ a conversational tone, much like you would when interviewing, in your About section. Interject keywords and job titles that show your stature, as this allows you to imply that you might be open to a new opportunity (rather than giving away your intentions).
As an example, your Summary might open with:
Chief Operating Officer & Chief Medical Officer
Regional and Academic Hospital Systems
As COO and Associate CMO, I maintain a focus on efficiency and patient outcomes that has enabled BJC Healthcare to improve safety, clinical pathways, and accreditation. By expanding Heart and Transplant service lines, while putting our patients first with improved scheduling, quality, and access, we’ve raised patient satisfaction scores 11% in 2025 alone.
My continued focus is on strengthening the patient experience, pulling together core areas of improvement reflected in physician engagement, system-level change, and healthcare facilities projects that reflect important quality and satifaction benchmarks, while meeting the needs of our community.
Note how this Summary uses first-person language to build rapport with the reader, pulling in a strong suite of keywords (Patient Satisfaction, Safety, Clinical Pathways, Service Lines, Quality, Physician Engagement, etc.) that describe this executive’s skills and commitment to excellence.
Quit Ignoring Your Skills Section.
Learn to use LinkedIn’s Skills section as a key part of your leadership brand. A notable factor in your traffic because these entries are searchable by companies who need your expertise, this list of competencies can draw MORE employer and recruiter eyeballs to your Profile.
Here’s how it works: you specify skills related to your field, such as Chief Medical Officer, KPIs, Academic Hospitals, IT Strategy, or Operations in this section. These skills may appear under each of your job entries, depending on the sections viewed by other users.
It has also been thought that when others endorse your skills, this also raises your visibility.
In other words, your Skills section is an important, and often underused, feature of your LinkedIn Profile.
Put Your Best Professional Self Forward on LinkedIn.
Be sure to engage with others on LinkedIn, even if all you’re doing is following others of interest to you, commenting on articles in your line of work, or taking another (critical) look at your LinkedIn headshot and deciding to update it.
Small changes on LinkedIn can add up to a more interesting and impressive portrait of your skills, credibility, and stature in your field. These steps will also help catch the attention of others who see your activity, especially if you engage in professional discourse on topics crucial to your industry.
If you’ve neglected to add a photo on LinkedIn, take a look around at professionals and executives in similar roles. Are they wearing a traditional, conservative suit, or using a headshot from a more relaxed setting? You can gain clues from looking at what others use in your field.
To summarize, there’s no time like the present to update your LinkedIn Profile to match your executive leadership skills and support your job search.
Trade blank or little-used areas of LinkedIn for information and activity in closer alignment with your career goals.
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