LinkedIn recommendations are an important part of building your professional brand and credibility on the platform. Having glowing recommendations from colleagues, managers, or clients can help showcase your skills, experience, and work ethic. However, sometimes recommendations may no longer be relevant, appropriate, or wanted. In these cases, you may want to know how to delete a LinkedIn recommendation.
Overview of LinkedIn Recommendations
LinkedIn recommendations are written statements of endorsement added to your profile by connections. They highlight positive attributes like skills, work, ethics, and more. Recommendations can give you credibility and help you stand out to recruiters or potential clients.
Some key things to know about LinkedIn recommendations:
– Anyone can write a recommendation for you if they are a 1st-degree connection. You can also request recommendations.
– You must approve recommendations before they are published on your profile.
– You can choose where recommendations appear in your profile sections.
– You can comment on, edit, rearrange, hide, or delete recommendations.
– You receive a notification when someone recommends you.
– Recommendations you’ve written for others appear on your profile too.
Can You Delete a LinkedIn Recommendation?
Yes, LinkedIn allows you to delete a recommendation that’s been published to your profile. However, there are a few things to note about the process:
– Only you can delete recommendations written for you. The original author cannot withdraw or delete their recommendation without your consent.
– When you delete a recommendation, it’s permanently removed from your profile. The endorser will not be notified or have the ability to withdraw it themselves.
– You should let the person who recommended you know that you plan to remove it. This maintains open communication.
– The endorser’s name still appears under the “Recommendations Received” section, even once their recommendation is deleted. Their name will remain until they eventually delete their LinkedIn account.
So in summary – yes, you have full control to remove recommendations on your LinkedIn profile. But it’s courteous to loop in the endorser on your plans.
How to Delete a LinkedIn Recommendation
Deleting a LinkedIn recommendation is easy to do through the LinkedIn website:
1. Go to your profile and click on the “Recommendations” section.
2. Hover over the recommendation you want to remove and click the three dots icon.
3. Select “Delete recommendation” from the dropdown menu.
4. Confirm you want to delete the recommendation by clicking “Yes, delete”.
The recommendation will immediately be removed from your profile. As mentioned, the endorser’s name will still appear under “Recommendations Received” until they delete their LinkedIn account.
Here is a summary of the steps:
| Step 1 | Go to your LinkedIn profile and click “Recommendations” |
| Step 2 | Hover over the recommendation and click the three dots |
| Step 3 | Select “Delete recommendation” |
| Step 4 | Confirm by clicking “Yes, delete” |
What Happens When You Delete a Recommendation?
When you decide to delete a LinkedIn recommendation, here’s what happens:
– The recommendation is permanently removed from your profile and cannot be retrieved.
– The endorsement and their name remains under “Recommendations Received”.
– Your connections are not notified of the removal. It occurs discreetly.
– The endorser is not notified or asked to withdraw the recommendation themselves.
– There is no impact to the endorser’s profile or history of recommendations given.
– You should notify the endorser out of courtesy and to maintain the relationship.
– Deleted recommendations cannot be added back. A new recommendation would need to be written.
So in summary, deleting a recommendation only impacts your profile. The change occurs silently without notifications. But advising the endorser is recommended if possible.
Considerations Before Deleting a LinkedIn Recommendation
Before you decide to delete a LinkedIn recommendation, think through these considerations:
– Why do you want to remove it? Is it outdated, irrelevant to your current goals, inappropriate, or damaging to your brand? Make sure you have a sound reason.
– Is there an alternative to deleting, like hiding the recommendation or moving it to a less prominent position?
– Have you spoken to the endorser about your intentions and rationale? Get on the same page.
– Is the relationship with the endorser important to maintain? Handle the removal sensitively.
– Does removing the recommendation significantly impact your credibility or endorsement quantity? Keep the broader context in mind.
– Is there any way to remedy the situation other than deleting the entire recommendation? Could you ask for an edited revision?
Taking these factors into account will help ensure you make the right decision for your goals and relationships.
Best Practices Around Deleting LinkedIn Recommendations
Follow these best practices if you have decided it’s best to delete a recommendation:
– Be proactive and communicate directly with the endorser before deleting. Explain why it no longer suits your profile.
– Thank the endorser sincerely for their time and endorsement, even if needing to remove it.
– If relevant, ask the endorser if they’d be willing to revise the recommendation to better fit your current profile.
– Only delete as a last resort if there is no way to improve or update the recommendation constructively.
– Remove recommendations discreetly and avoid broadcasting the removal to your wider network.
– Consider revising your profile to minimize gaps left by a deleted recommendation. Refresh other sections to deemphasize the removal.
Following these practices helps maintain positive relationships and an appropriate online presence even after deleting a LinkedIn recommendation.
Mistakes to Avoid When Removing Recommendations
There are some mistakes to avoid when deleting a LinkedIn recommendation:
– Don’t delete hastily or emotionally. Make level-headed decisions.
– Don’t call out the removal publicly or share why you deleted the recommendation.
– Don’t leave the endorser in the dark – advise them before deleting.
– Don’t assume deleting is your only option without exploring alternatives.
– Don’t leave unexplained gaps or holes in your recommendations section after removing one.
– Don’t let your profile remain stagnant. Refresh other areas to compensate.
– Don’t burn bridges. Preserve relationships, even if deleting the recommendation itself.
Thinking through the removal carefully and handling it maturely will keep your reputation and relationships intact.
Alternatives to Deleting LinkedIn Recommendations
Instead of deleting a recommendation entirely, consider these alternative actions:
– Conceal the recommendation from your profile views by toggling it to “Visible to Me”.
– Move the recommendation to your least important profile section so it’s less prominent.
– Edit the recommendation yourself to adjust any inappropriate or irrelevant content.
– Provide feedback to the endorser on how to revise their wording or focus.
– Request a new, replacement recommendation that better suits your current goals.
– Hide overly enthusiastic recommendations that don’t seem credible.
– Ask connections to write you new recommendations to bury the one you want to minimize.
– Simply let outdated recommendations naturally shift down as you add new ones.
More moderate approaches like these can often achieve the same goals as deleting, without permanently removing endorsements.
How to Handle When Someone Deletes Your Recommendation
It can be disappointing if a connection deletes a recommendation you wrote for them. Here’s how to handle it gracefully:
– Remember it’s their prerogative to curate recommendations on their own profile.
– Assume positive intent and that they likely had a practical reason for removing it.
– Don’t take it personally or let it damage your relationship.
– Consider if you should revise the recommendation content to be more relevant when possible.
– Focus on other productive connections and opportunities to showcase your endorsement.
– Reflect on if the recommendation really made sense for their brand and goals.
– Avoid calling them out publicly or expressing resentment about the removal.
– Continue to support their career journey in more appropriate ways.
With empathy and maturity, a deleted recommendation doesn’t have to negatively impact your working relationship. Focus on the positives.
Advice For Writing Recommendations That Won’t Get Deleted
To reduce the chances of a LinkedIn recommendation being removed, follow this advice:
– Ensure your recommendation aligns closely with their current brand and goals.
– Keep it concise, sincere, specific, and professional. No fluff or exaggeration.
– Focus on skills, achievements, and attributes you’ve directly witnessed.
– Gear it towards their target audience like recruiters or clients.
– Avoid overly personal comments and inside jokes.
– Talk about their work ethic, contributions, and potential.
– Highlight unique strengths and qualities that set them apart.
– Envision how you would want to be endorsed.
– Update stale recommendations when they’ve taken on new roles or skills.
Great recommendations are genuine, relevant, and thoughtful. This minimizes the motivation someone would have to remove it.
Conclusion
In summary, LinkedIn does enable you to permanently delete recommendations from your profile if needed. However, it’s best practice to handle removals tactfully by advising the endorser and considering alternatives. With care and communication, deleting a recommendation doesn’t have to damage relationships. Focus on cultivating great endorsements aligned to your brand, and you likely won’t need removals.