Personal branding blogger Dan Schawbel is bezig om personal branding in ´global perspective´ te plaatsen. Hij vroeg me om te beschrijven wat ´de status´ van personal branding in NL is. Maar wie ben ik om dat objectief te beschrijven. Hier mijn tekst, aanvullingen of opmerkingen zijn uiteraard welkom.
During the past couple of years personal branding has increased in popularity in the Netherlands. The process of positioning and marketing yourself for professional development and career success has become accepted and practiced by a lot of people. The Dutch culture has a character of ´being good is good enough´. Working ‘hard’ instead of ´strategic´ was seen as the best way for success. Putting effort in performance and communication of being very good, the best or distinctive is not generally promoted in Dutch education and organizations.
The increasing popularity of personal branding is shown by the rising number of personal branding strategists, trainers and mentors. These personal branding specialists provide open and in company workshops, training programs and individual coaching. During the last year a number of Dutch books have been published about personal branding and self promotion for career success. There are three other developments that show the rising need, relevance and practice of personal branding in the Netherlands.
The Dutch live online. The percentage of home broadband connections is the highest in Europe. Mobile internet on PDA’s, phones and laptops is also used by a growing number of people. The large and cheap internet access facilitates the usage of social media tools like Hyves (The Dutch ‘Facebook’), LinkedIn, Blogs and YouTube. Millions of people are visible online. The limited hierarchical structures and open Dutch communication culture might be one of the reasons that a lot of people, at first, do not really think about the consequences, risks and possibilities of their online presence. Now that they are online people they start asking questions about how to leverage their online visibility for personal and professional success.
The second aspect which emphasizes the practice of personal branding is the rising whish of being authentic, making choices and striving for self defined success. A lot of young professionals, men and women prefer to work part time so they can spend time for study or family matters. The separation line between working and private live is disappearing. Professional do not want to play ‘a role’ at work and being themselves after work. Private calls, mails, profile updates are made during working hours. And business mails are sent in the evenings and weekends.
The third aspect in which we see the rising need of personal branding is the changed organization of work. The lifetime employability is finished, work is ‘interim’ or project oriented. Professionals have to prove they are the best person for a vacancy or project more often. It is necessary to build a strong position based on experience, credibility, a social professional network and distinctiveness to be noticed and chosen. The availability of free and easy to use social media tools facilitate professionals in building and maintaining their network and communicating their ambitions and competences.