Networking for New Perspectives: Personal Growth
When you look around your network, what do you see? Do you see people who:
- Look like you?
- Think like you?
- Have a similar education, background, and experiences?
Most people do. It’s comfortable to be in a space where people are like us – and it’s nice to have our ideas and opinions validated. Nevertheless, it’s always advantageous to break out of those comfort zones and start meeting and networking with people who don’t look, think, or have the same background as us. Over the next two blogs, we’ll dive into why it’s both personally and professionally beneficial to seek out new perspectives and people to add to your network – even if it might seem intimidating at first.
Being able to understand another’s perspective or position on a topic or issue is very valuable for everyone’s personal growth. It helps you learn and develop skills which help you:
- have conversations with anyone, regardless of background or life experiences
- better empathize with others
- talk about ideas and concepts through healthy debates or better conversations
- practice being open to meeting new people
- growing and evolving in some of your ideas or opinions
- learning how to safely manage disagreement or minor conflicts
Important: It isn’t about changing your opinion or life experiences to meet new people nor is it that you have to talk to someone if they are similar or different from you. It can be good to try to expand your network outside of its current structure and learn from connecting with others. We recognize that this doesn’t look the same for everyone, and that pushing outside of your comfort zone shouldn’t come at the expense of your mental or physical safety. Put your wellbeing first.
If, for you, it is safe to do so, being open to new ideas and perspectives can lead to a great amount of personal growth through the self-reflection it might spark. Our connections with others are full of opportunity!
This, in turn, can lead to new ideas, new collaborations, and possibly meeting even more people with different experiences and perspectives. As your network expands:
Take the challenge of meeting new people.
Start the conversation with someone new to your circle.
Ask questions so you can connect more deeply with people and learn new things.
It won’t always be successful, or easy, but it might lead you in a new direction or broaden your field of vision. Give it a try before our next blog and let us know how it went! We’d love to hear from you in the comments!
