Hello! Welcome to Tuesday, week 10.

Today, I can report on a first time experience! One that actually matches a surprising amount of PLOs for the Self Managing Professional parts. PLO 3, 4, 5, were addressed today.

Today, I met up with a new LinkedIn connection that I made a couple of months back. This connection was made, and he explained that he loves to meet up for coffee with new connections to truly know who he is talking to and how this new person fits in his network. For introverted – not good with new one-on-one encounters- me, this is as far out of my comfort zone as I can probably be. I would rather approach complete strangers on the street all day, than to meet up with a man, quite a bit older than me, for a one-on-one coffee sit down. Even during the meet up, I could FEEL the eyes of the waiters burning into me while they were wondering what kind of meet up this was… If you know… You know…

Now! No disrespect to him! This is very normal in the management and networking life, but simply something that I am not used to! Which is exactly why I said yes.
If I want to grow as a human, I will have to adjust my own inhibitions.
Of course, being careful is very wise, especially as a young woman. But I should not shun the idea, just because the world is a weird place. Fortune favours the bold, after all.

We ended up meeting a bit later in the afternoon at a local restaurant in my home town.
Looking back at it now, I cannot fathom what I was so worried about anymore. It was a lovely experience! An incredibly sweet guy with true interest in who he was talking to. Very experienced in his field (Industrial power supply, for those of you who are interested), and simply a fun person to talk to!
We laughed, we discussed issues we faced on the departments that we have worked and how we looked at certain issues.

One topic that was very interesting was the topic of “when you are a manager, you are expected to do more than just manage”. We spoke about what it is like to also need to be able to fire employees who no longer can stay in a company.
Him being an introvert as well expressed how difficult it was to him to have such a conversation, while I feel like I would not struggle with it like he does.

We were able to discuss this difficult type of conversation and see each other’s perspectives in it. It was, on very small scale, a good connection to PLO 3 (Formulating a position on ethical and social responsibility in a business).

Overall, this first time experience was an enrichment of my own abilities and a way to expand my own horizons.

Now, do not get me wrong! I will not be meeting people non stop, now. This was a very good experience, but it was nerve wracking to me. The threshold will simply be lower next time, and maybe some day I will be able to initiate something like this myself when I truly wish to know someone better.

Even though I am still struggling with a lot of my own, mentally and physically. I was able to enjoy this “intense” situation, and truly find value in it. Which I cherish.