Long ago, a virus – very similar to COVID – ravaged the world. It was a pandemic so bad that they named it “The Black Death”. Between 1330 to 1352, an estimated 30% to 60% of the European population died. People were stuck home alone, frightened, and evaluating what was truly meaningful in their lives. 

Its ashes gave birth to the rise of an educated middle class and an accompanying interest in science, the arts, global exploration, and new theologies and ideologies. It was literally a re-naissance (rebirth).

Similarly, COVID exacerbated an already confusing situation when millions suddenly found themselves working from home. Many people did not even know what this meant. Where did the professional person end – and the private person begin? The physical space “home/ office” space was as chaotic as the mental space, and I don’t think we ever really emerged out the other side.

Although it’s now officially post-COVID and it feels like everything is being wrenched to “back to normal”, we have nonetheless retained many of those lessons we learned during isolation. 

In fact, the COVID-conundrum has, in many ways, revived the spirit of the Renaissance.\\

THE PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD 

The ideal of the “Renaissance Man” was to embrace all knowledge and develop one’s own capacities as fully as possible - whether in the sciences, arts, music, invention, sports, writing – and yes, also in social accomplishments. 

Literacy rates at the beginning of the Renaissance were about 5 -10%, but merchants in urban areas (men) might have had a literacy rate of up to 40%. There was a significant increase in literacy because of the plague and the desperate need it created to stay connected. By the end of the 16th century, at least one third of the male population could read, and hooray – one in ten women. 

The letter – personal, handwritten correspondence – was the single most important genre of the Renaissance. This required turning goose feathers into quills, the transformation of iron gall nuts into ink, the procurement of costly paper, a seal matrix, and innumerable other supplies, never mind the skill to execute cursive writing and the mental faculties with which to compose prose.

This can be compared to getting a new operating system for your laptop and a ton of new software; learning how to use video technology and myriad other new ways of working during the pandemic. 

Having worked remotely and online since 1993, it was a revelation to me to discover how many people were still conducting business via just face-to-face meetings and email, and for whom remote working and the affiliated technology was confusing, challenging, and frustrating. 

The pen (quill, actually!) was wielded like the sword for personal branding by the elite powers even before the Black Plague brought literacy to the masses. Let’s take a deeper dive.

LETTER-WRITING LEGACY 

An absolute anomaly for her time (well – ANY time, really) was the founder of scientific natural history – Hildegard von Bingen, a woman. She was a German abbess and thus one of the few women in the 1100’s to have access to literacy

She wrote to influence Popes, Emperors, and Archbishops; to women healers; to unknown recipients of her “Lingua ignotica” – a secret code that she used when she wanted no one literate in either German or Latin to understand – which certainly protected her abbey and the women who lived and worked there.

She was just eight years old when she was “enclosed” (literally imprisoned alive) as an oblate (a nun). Imagine what she must have undergone in order to be able to position herself as a woman of power and authority with the influence to move both the Roman Catholic Church (Pope Eugene III) and secular leaders such as the German Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa – first among equals.

As a polymath, she wrote prolifically: in addition to theology, hymns, and letters, Hildegard also wrote a number of botanical and medicinal works that are still influencing us today. “The Letters of Hildegard von Bingen” have been (re-) published by The Oxford University Press as recently as 1998. 

Historians and other academics use the sum of letter-writing legacies as a way to reconstruct actual happenings; to understand what was going on behind the scenes. How did a theory or invention really come about? And what were the true personalities of the masterminds behind them? 

The handwritten letters of the monarchy and those in incredible positions of power are irreplaceable in terms of our ability to truly understand how the events of the past continue to influence the possibilities and constraints of today. The letter exchanges between Sigmund Freud and C.G. Jung is just one of many fascinating examples. (The Freud/Jung Letters: The Correspondence between Sigmund Freud and C. G. Jung, Mc Guire W., Princeton University Press, 1974).

Personal correspondence “... put letters into the hands of many kinds of people, inspiring them to see reading, writing, receiving, and sending letters as an essential feature of their identity”. (The Renaissance of Letters, Finden P., and Sutherland S., Eds., Routledge, 2020). Individual thought and expression – separating oneself from the crowd in terms of ideas and creations – was the focus of great attention and effort. 

Sound familiar? It should be.

(RE-) INVENT YOURSELF

It’s uncannily similar to our present day, where we attempt to construct the appearance of ourselves through social media. Personal branding is about how we conceive and communicate the signs and signals of credibility and belonging. The “corporate” world, back in the day, would have been the monks and priests; the merchants; the mathematicians and scientists; the poets and philosophers; and the nobility. 

But how could the lowly serf expect to be taken into the servitude of one of these great men? There wasn’t much opportunity for upward mobility as one was largely born into a social class and stayed there. Hence surnames such as “Cooper”, “Smith”, “Brewer, “Fletcher”, “Weaver” and so on.  

To a certain extent, the opportunity to change one’s socio-economic status has increased via virtual connectivity – and to an acute degree, it has been influenced by globalization and migration. 

Today, it is possible to invent a persona. But beware! Personal branding can reflect your in-real-life values, or it can make a mockery of them. Personal branding can be just smoke and mirrors of a “wannabe” – or a sincere representation of what you stand for, your service or product, and your unique value. 

So now we have the “invented personality” and the “invented persona”; the belief in “fake it till you make it”; the erosion of trust in media, educational institutions, and the rise of what the Germans called the “Ich AG” (in other words, “Me, Ltd.” – or self-promotion, side hustle, “influencers” and solopreneurship).

Yet information and facts are meaningless without interpretation. Statisticians and digital analysts look for the stories behind the data. It’s no wonder that Power BI & Co. burst onto the scene with such a bang.

The problem starts when people make up the data, fabricate the stories and invent the “evidence” to prop them up. They invent personas, businesses and brands that look slick, but have nothing but wily marketing and AI behind them. I’ve seen many a job candidate “tailor” their resume into what the job posting wants to hear, believing they’ll just be able to “catch on / catch up” … and then wonder why they don’t pass the probation period. 

And I’ve encountered absolutely genius businessmen who are unable to tell a good story – something that puts their facts and technical abilities into a framework and scenario that the average Joe can understand.

There have always been heroes and cowards; humans of morals and honour – and those driven by the dark side. We must all imagine our future selves in order to go forth with confidence and hope. Yet doing so with conscience seems to be the challenge, and online branding must be value-driven. 

Once again, from the ashes, the renaissance of the moral, ethical, creative and emotional is dawning.

About the Author

Anna is an organizational psychologist and executive coach, with a special interest in all things technology. We’re part of the team at Garleff Coaching and Consulting Group. If this article has struck a chord, please let us know.
Anna Garleff Cell: +1 587 224 3793 / anna@garleffcoaching.com
www.garleffcoaching.com