Read "The Captain's Daughter" and "Serpents Among the Ruins". They take Harriman past that awkward first meeting. He was fighting several things: overdomineering Admiral dad pulling strings to get John the Enterprise when the latter knew he wasn't ready yet; outfitting delays interfering with the slated launch date, which Starfleet didn't want to budge on, but he didn't want to take his ship out until everything was onboard and installed; and how many of us stutter and stammer and look like idiots in front of our heroes when we meet them?