Pomodoro (Networking upside down?)

Where do you focus your networking energy?

Sometime you meet someone and the creative sparks fly. Sounds corny but the conversation I had yesterday was richer than Pomodoro’s orzo. I think of myself as a seasoned professional with a long list of accomplishments and people I have developed. Johanna Hassan-Hollowich is equally or more accomplished in her field (founder/president of Potencium Limited, adjunct facility of UCLA , internationally recognized consultant, etc). I added an engineering, supply chain and technology element to the potential undertaking that she valued, while her expertise in learning and education, business needs assessment and standards of content development and delivery were way beyond anything I had experienced.

So – exactly how did this connection happen? Did we “link in” by joining virtual networks? Did we find our faces in the virtual social media world? Did we network with other accomplished executives and professionals to cross paths? No. None of these created this exciting event. We each independently focused on developing entry level people for our respective “organizations” and cultivated those relationships. It was an entry level engineer she taught at UCLA and I mentored professionally that introduced us (thank you Brandon). There is a lot to be said for how we used virtual technologies once the connection was made, but I was reminded again yesterday that real people at the bottom of the pecking order can influence your network as much as anything else.

Have you limited your network to looking upward? What are you doing to network with those starting in their careers?