What do you dream about? What is it that you would like to achieve? What have you been searching for, longing for in your professional life?

In my consulting practice I am thrilled when a client asks me how to reach a higher level. It’s exciting to me because it’s one of the most rewarding things that I do – to have the opportunity to help those who ask the question, to watch them blossom, to help them on a different path ramping up to a higher level.

Recently I was coaching a chief financial officer of a major manufacturing concern in Minneapolis. I’ll call him Henry. Henry had been exploring his career situation and what he should do about it. As a senior executive he had been enjoying a six figure salary, bonus, stock options and executive perquisites. But he felt he was still lacking something. He wanted a leadership position, but not necessarily in finance. He was weary of closing the fiscal month / quarter / year, over and over. It was the same routine, and now he felt under-challenged, under-utilized. I asked Henry a simple question: “Henry, let’s say that it’s a Tuesday afternoon in November, five years from today, the year is 2014. What are you doing? What do you envision you will be doing on a Tuesday afternoon five years from now?” I waited for his response. He said, “I would be the chief strategy officer for the company.”

This caught me by surprise. I found myself scrambling a bit, trying not to look surprised. I asked him a few roundabout questions as I prepared mentally for the question that I really wanted to ask him. I finally found an opening in his remarks. I was very respectful and diplomatic, and I asked him: “Henry, I have one more question about your dream position for 2014. Is it big enough?”

Now he was the one who was surprised – at himself. Henry realized instantly what I meant. He had not reached out far enough; he had not thought big enough, he was shortchanging himself from the outset. I then said: “You know, this doesn’t mean that you should want to be the CEO. It’s not that kind of size I’m referring to. Instead, have you thought about being on your own, putting together a great idea backed up by some capital, which I’m sure you can raise?” I continued, “Or maybe in a completely different arena, you could start a 501(c3) not for profit organization to lead a mission you’ve always wanted to pursue.” Henry became very contemplative. He hadn’t thought quite like that. “Henry, I see all that you are, all that you have in potential, and, may I have your permission?” He said, “Sure!” I continued, “You have a lot more to offer your business community, your family, yourself. You now have an opportunity – to leave a legacy.”

If you are longing for something different, something bigger in your professional life, in your personal life, then take time to think about it, visualize it, write it down, express your dream. Try discussing it with trusted friends, with loved ones. Do you have informal advisors, or a mentor, or a coach? Tell them what your idea is and ask them this: Is your dream big enough? Do they see you reaching out to the extent of your full potential? Are you driving your very best race just to finish – or to win?

Every day I am introduced to people who are in search of a job or making a career change, or deciding to start a business.  After all the pleasantries and friendly banter, the business aspects of the conversation usually start with where those person has been working, what they’ve done, their education, their skills and experience.  That’s only natural.  This is useful information and it’s right at hand; it’s information easily reached on the mental shelf, at eye level – no reaching or stretching, no turning over stuff searching around for data.  That’s what they know, that’s what’s been reflected back to them by their managers, colleagues, friends and family.  It’s their history, easily writ.

But is that their value?

Let’s examine this question.  I am confident we can all agree that skills and experience are necessary.  Every rocket scientist must study rocket science.   Every certified public accountant has passed rigorous examinations, such that we can trust that they have a body of knowledge which they can apply to resolve thorny, complex accountancy issues. When you visit your physician you assume, given the copious parchments framed on the wall, that s/he has the skills and experience necessary for diagnosis and treatment of your malady.  But let’s be honest here: what is it that we all talk about with our friends and family after we leave the doctor’s office?  Do we discuss their ability to efficiently and safely perform a laparoscopic cholocystectomy?   Are we really cognizant of what s/he was doing when we were heavily anesthetized and they carried on merrily with saws and hammers in a total hip replacement?  No, indeed, we have no way, we have no qualifications necessary to evaluate their skills and experience.

But we are, each of us, exquisitely qualified to evaluate their attributes.

That’s what we talk about when we leave the doctor’s office – their attributes.  After we leave the professionals office we discuss with our friends and neighbors how nice, or not nice, the doctor / dentist / attorney / CPA / career coach was.  This is a fact of human nature.  Nothing wrong with it.  Let’s just put this to work.

It is my contention that if you present yourself for an interview, you are being evaluated, not for your skills and experience, but for your attributes, which is your value. Your skills and experience are the commodity.  Think about it – would you have been invited to an interview if you did not demonstrate via you resume or other means, that you had the requisite skills and experience?   If you say you are an expert in electronic medical records, then your resume will support your affirmation.  If you are corporate counsel, then your work history backs it up.  Your skills then are a commodity.  Why?  Because others can meet or beat yours skills, but no one is exactly like you.  Your value is in your attributes.  Your skills can be deduced by the hiring manager from your resume or your LinkedIn profile, or your website, or maybe even your profiles on Facebook or MySpace.  But before the interview they don’t know your value.  Your true value is framed by your attributes, and your attributes are not evidenced until you show up for the interview.   Are you still skeptical?  Think about this – if you and several other candidates are fundamentally equivalent in terms of skills and experience, what is the hiring manager going to use to make a hiring determination?  Your attributes.  Because in the final analysis, that is your long term value.

Your attributes are what you really bring to the table.  They are, in the long run, more valuable than your current skills which will evanesce with time.  Your skills will disappear and become obsolete as technology and processes evolve.  That’s inexorable.  But the hiring manager knows, whether consciously or not – that your attributes are likely to remain, and in fact get stronger over time.

Do you know your attributes?  Do you know the value you bring to the interview?

One phenomenon that has grown rapidly since the first edition of my book is networking using social media, also referred to as Web 2.0 (web-two-point-o). While young college students and recent graduates are very familiar with Facebook, Twitter and MySpace media for social networking, more experienced professionals and business-only networkers appreciate the power of business networking tools like LinkedIn.

LinkedIn has grown exponentially in recent years. When I joined LinkedIn in 2004, I often had to explain what it was to my business peers in Xerox, Corp.; I had to show my friends and family why I found it valuable. Interestingly, many of my peers inside and outside Xerox at the time thought that networking tools like LinkedIn were a distraction. They didn’t see the value, particularly since they were comfortable in their jobs, and perceived networking as something to do only if you became unemployed. But I used it as a very effective (and free) networking research tool. For example, if I wanted to look up the chief human resources officer (CHRO) of a specific company, I could use the Search tool in LinkedIn to find exactly that individual. Since a significant part of my job was to find and establish business relationships with thought leaders in human resources all over the nation on behalf of Xerox, I found LinkedIn to be an invaluable tool. LinkedIn cuts across geographical and organizational boundaries. Over time, I was even able to persuade many of our internal recruiters that they could search for and approach ‘passive’ candidates (those who were employed and not actively looking for work) who were leaders in their field. By approaching passive candidates, they could comb organizations for their best talent and inform them about our value proposition.

That was years ago.

Today, LinkedIn is recognized as the single most often used vehicle in job search for professionals, and the most reliable and economical tool in any recruiter’s tool box.

Ironically, many of the people who often ignored my invitations to join my list on LinkedIn – while they were comfortably employed – have changed their minds and are now ever so eager to invite me to their lists because they became unemployed during the financial crisis of 2008-2009. They could all have been networking while they were still employed, but many waited until they had a pink slip before they reluctantly accepted networking as a necessary part of life.

So if you are currently employed and want to meet influential people who can assist you with your career, or if you are unemployed and looking for a job, business networking tools like LinkedIn can be used to conduct searches of people in certain companies or industries. It can be used to track down persons in your work history who may hold the key to a potential opportunity for introduction or advancement.

I encourage you to find out how social networking tools like LinkedIn work. LinkedIn is free for you and me. Just fill out your profile and reach out to people you know. Nowadays, all recruiters realize its value, and some of them pay a fee to take advantage of its powerful search, job posting, and advanced networking capabilities.

If you want to be ‘found’, then you have to go to where the recruiters go – LinkedIn.