This time last year, if I had suggested a coffee chat to you, you would have automatically thought I meant meeting up in a chain or independent coffee house, sitting down on ridiculously uncomfortable sofas or designer stools and certainly not 2m apart, chatting away about anything and everything work related… and in a more social context, chatting about anything at all.
Fast forward 12 months and a coffee chat means making a cup of coffee (or two; one in a thermos mug, or my personal favourite, the Nespresso Travel Mug – never has a cup of coffee stayed so warm for so long!) and logging on to your computer, arranging or accepting a Zoom, Team or Whereby invite and dreading what the autumn light makes your skin tone look like on screen.
There is a more technical meaning behind the term ‘coffee chat’ especially in the professional world. A coffee chat in the real professional world was usually, and I say ‘was’ for a reason, a meeting. Over coffee, you set up with someone you wanted to add to your network. It was the more sensible side of growing your network. It wasn’t at an event where alcoholic lemonades were flowing and people drifted around like butterflies only hovering for a few moments before moving on, it was at a specific time and place, for a specific reason, without the distraction of a room full of other people trying to get your or your contacts attention. In our ‘new normal’ world, where almost everything is virtual, coffee chats are now even more important and filled with far more pressure.
When you agree to a coffee chat now you can’t just pretend to see someone across the room or have an office emergency that you have to attend to and make your excuses and walk away, you are on screen, you have to make a good, strong first impression and you have to stay. You can only fake a bad internet connection so many times… You need to remember that the person you are meeting with has made time to dial in, meet you and talk to you. It does not matter if the scheduled meeting is for 5 or 50 minutes, they made time and this coffee chat could impact your life. You need to treat this time like you would have a scheduled meeting in a big glass skyscraper; important. You need to be prepared, clear and intentional. You don’t want to waste your time so you have to know what you want to get out of it and the only way to know this is by knowing what you are bringing to the conversation. Be confident. Be prepared.
Coffee chats are there for many important reasons; building relationships, improving connections, growing your support networks or even giving you an insider view to a company or even a role that you want to apply for or client you want to work with. Which ever way you look at it, coffee chats give you an advantage as the person you wanted to connect with has agreed to chatting with you one to one, with no distractions. Make the most of that time. As an Integrator – I find them so important to growing my business.
The next time you offer or someone offers to have a coffee chat with you, be happy, be gracious and be grateful for the opportunity, as networking and getting to know anyone, professionally or personally is now very hard, and virtual coffee chats, when respected and not taken for granted, can open minds and doors. They may just win you that new client or make you realise you need that new contact as an employee or contractor.
If you would like to have a coffee chat with me – here is the link.
