‘The risk is that people begin spending more time signalling progress than making it’: Report claims many workers now spend more time staying visible than learning new skills
- Report finds adults are spending four hours a week on reputation management, compared with 2.5 hours on developing skills
- This seems to be a response to the belief that professional opportunities increasingly favour people who communicate confidence publicly
- Workers think they need to not just be capable, but also demonstrate their abilities
Research from MyIQ has uncovered a new trend: establishing professional credibility requires regular reputation management on social media, and is becoming more important than actually developing new skills.
From LinkedIn profile updates to posts promoting new roles, responsibilities, qualifications and sharing thoughts on the relevant industry events, workers are finding that they need to not just be capable, but also demonstrate their abilities with regular social media posts.
A survey of 11,742 adults, almost 6 in 10 admitted that their “professional visibility” took up more of time every week than learning new skills. They’re using around 4 hours per week to polish profiles, update live resumes, and develop thought leadership posts, compared with just 2.5 hours working on new skills.
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Skills vs. shares
While there may be some interpretation of these figures as a trend towards people attempting to become thought leaders and public figures, this trend isn’t limited to those with an eye on guesting on a podcast or called in as an expert on a televised discussion. It isn’t all about TED Talks – this trend is being followed by people who just don’t want to be left behind.
Over half (57%) of those surveyed feel pressure to post content, share ideas, and maintain a public profile, even if they have little interest in doing so. Worryingly, 49% feel they would be seem less accomplished than colleagues by limiting their activity on sites like LinkedIn.
Yet skills remain more important, both in hiring and as a personal achievement. Reputation management is not something that can ever be completed, observes MyIQ, whereas learning new skills feels like a step forward been achieved.
Visibility is changing
“Visibility was once a by-product of good work. Increasingly, it is treated as proof that good work is happening at all,” noted Sarah Meyer, the Managing Director of MyIQ.
“The risk is that people begin spending more time signalling progress than making it. At that point, professional reputation stops being the result of a career and becomes a separate workload within it.”
In short, visibility is changing – it is not longer a consequence of professional success, but has become perceived as a key requirement, something that need to be permanently managed. This is reflected in the response to this visibility, where achievements are celebrated on LinkedIn, and long-form posts are shared, commented on, and portray that person as an expert.
With the 64% believing that confident communication favors promotion over developing in-work skills and expertise, this trend of LinkedIn-focused reputation management seems likely to continue.
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