“Great to Meet You”

I’ve been very lucky in my professional career. I’ve worked for exceptional agencies with exceptional leaders who I have learned what to do from, and less than exceptional leaders who taught me what not to do.

I’ve also been able to reawaken my love of writing over the last five years. Whether through blogging for myself, or others, or even writing a book, I’ve been able to speak to both an audience of one, and audiences of more.

While I have no expectations for my writing (other than to help me reflect), I’m happy that my writing has spurred others to reach out to me. And, when people do reach out, I’m just as happy to return that reach.

Because, in my opinion, if someone is reaching out with a request, question, or idea, based on work that we’ve done, we should honor them by listening and offering our feedback.

So, it was nice to connect with someone this week who has read some of my writing and wants to discuss the ideas further. Along with a nice phone conversation, we’ll be meeting in a few weeks to chat a bit about professional learning and ideas for the future. There are no expectations for this meeting, just an opportunity for interested learners and leaders to connect.

A large part of what I do in my current work is fostering connections. So, it gives me great joy to make new connections, and hopefully help others build their own networks. The success of others is important to me, so I look forward to helping others reach whatever goals they have.

Meeting others is something that is necessary for us to be as good at learning and leading as possible. After all, the more perspectives we can include in our own work, the more likely we are to become truly informed.

And the best leaders and learners? They are happily informed, and informed enough to trust the decisions they must make for themselves, and for others.