Building Your Network in The Netherlands (February 2024)
Renée Tentori
International Business Lecturer & Mentor / AI & Tech Trainer / Journalist & Editor / Community (Co)Creator & Leader / (Neuro)diversity & Inclusion Advocate
On 29 February 2024, I very much enjoyed giving a workshop to a fabulous group at the 荷兰代尔夫特理工大学
Thanks to the Coming to Delft Service for organising and hosting these sessions, wonderful to have you with us this time:
This great service supports international employees and their partners, with a wide range of services and workshops:
For this workshop, it was great to also have international employees and partners join us from 荷兰莱顿大学 and 荷兰鹿特丹大学 .
"Labels" in Networking & Personal Branding
The first activity we did was to discuss and experiment with the labels we give ourselves, and each other in networking situations.
Firstly, you are generally labelled with your name, and a name tag. Even just on this, others will often make assumptions about you, and where you're from.
I used myself as the "guinea pig" to demonstrate that within minutes (well, actually seconds) of meeting others, we tend to judge their personality, nationality and more.
With the exception of one member of the Coming to Delft team, everyone had met me for the first time just minutes earlier, and I gave them a post it note, pen and 60 seconds to come up with one word to describe me.
They also had my full name, so could Google me as well to find more information.
As you'll see, the majority of the impact we tend to make on people in networking is with our personality - or other's perception of it.
We talked about that we gather the information in person via so many cues that we may or may not be conscious of - eye contact, facial expression, body language, accent, clothes...and also online with LinkedIn, blogs, websites, articles and more.
Career, job title and industry are also common labels or anchors for us to get to know each other.
Personal branding is a topic to look more into here - as people will always allocate us labels in their mind, but we also have quite a lot of influence over this.
I've done this exercise so many times, and always enjoy seeing which points others find the one word/phrase that hits them first....energetic, friendly, enthusiastic, mother, happy, Australian, lecturer. Oh an a nice one that I didn't include in the photo "jovial". I've not seen that word used for a long time but I like it. Overall, I feel their impressions in such a short time did represent me well.
This time I got a very unique new one that I love...."Jusy (Juicy) Strawberry!". When I asked her to describe what she meant, she explained that I seemed just so full of knowledge and information that it would just squeeze out! I love it. (Also, I realised later, I was wearing red, which may have contributed...)
Wonderfully diverse group
We did an intro round and the standard "networking pitch" with the group. What a wonderfully diverse group on so many levels.
I asked them all to "give themselves labels" including their name, country of origin, how long they'd been in NL and what else they'd like us to know.
After this round we talked about how it's impossible to remember this information but that our brains are often looking for "hooks" or similarities to connect with...but that it's also great to actively look at networking with others who may not be "like minded" but very different to us, which we can learn from.
To all the wonderful participants...they have given me permission to tag them here, especially as they are working on building their network in NL! Please take a look at their profiles and reach out if you wish. They are a very diverse group:
领英推荐
Seongbak Jin (Jaime)
Marina Morgenstern (will add link soon)
Of course we all connected to each other in the workshop - but a few didn't yet have the LinkedIn app, so this list is also way you can all (re)connect with each other. If you were there and I've missed you, please send me a message and I'll add you.
Intercultural networking in The Netherlands
I'm trying to remember all the countries everyone was from....and as is common, several people who have grown up /worked in several different countries...
Especially due to this international nature of networking in The Netherlands, I build in quite an extensive section on culture.
We talk about "do's and don'ts" of networking, and it's always really interesting to compare this between the home countries - and then discuss what it's like in The Netherlands. Of course, doing so means you're often using stereotypes, so we acknowledge and are aware of this, but it's a good starting point.
We talked about things like hierarchy, sharing food and drink, personal vs professional, humour, expectations, tools and much more. I always learn something from these sessions. I particularly enjoyed the point made by one of the participants this time - he told us that if networking in Italy - one absolute NO was....pineapple on pizza!
It's also worth noting that it's incredibly brave for so many people to network in a language that is not their native one.
Neurodiversity
I also highlighted how neurodiversity can influence the way we network and perceive others, and learning a little more about this can be a huge help, whether you are neurodiverse or not. I'll be writing more on this topic and there are lots of great resources out there, so message me if you'd like to know more.
Communities
One of the really nice thing about networking in The Netherlands is that there are already a lot of established communities waiting to welcome newcomers. From sporting groups to Delft MaMa for parents, to professional communities and so much more, I shared some ideas with the group in the slides...and encouraged them to consider starting their own community if they couldn't find the right one!
Would you like a workshop for your organisation?
If you're reading this and would like a workshop for your organisation on #networking #interculturalcommunication or several other topics, please visit www.zestee.com for more information. You can also send me a message directly to me via LinkedIn.
This is a video I recorded just before the workshop...
Data Management Consultant specializing in Data Governance and Quality
1 年Well done Renée Tentori Thank you for sharing this post. It is a great reminder that networking isn't just about exchanging business cards; it's about weaving a rich tapestry of connections that stretch across the globe.?