Evaluations and Reflections

I had a meeting with my supervisor for my performance review.  It was the fist time I was doing such a review with my new supervisor and in my new role as a project manager.  So, I was not sure of his style and assessment. I also was not sure how well I am doing in this new role.  I submitted my input in the same old format and template I used to in previous years to my old supervisor.  I had listed accomplishments; Tangible things I had achieved. I was surprised that my supervisor had noted and was expecting to see other comments: how I had to negotiate with several people to come to an agreement; How they were some discrepancies in some reports and I was interested, passionate, and persistent enough to get to the bottom of it and learn the cause of those discrepancies.  How I handled the difficult Program Manager at Headquarters.  All things I had considered as means of achieving a final goal, were considered achievements themselves by my supervisor.  It made sense. I was no longer an engineer developing code and tangible milestones, rather enabling others to do so.  Overcoming obstacles and making impacts was my job and I was getting recognized for it.

My supervisor suggested I may want to consider taking some systems engineering training. He mentioned down the road that may become the next career growth opportunity and wondered how I felt about it.  The look on my face did not seem enthusiastic about becoming a systems engineer.  Yet, I was so happy to have a boss who cares about my growth and future.  I was happier than before for having made this recent career move.  My pervious boss not only did not care about my future career goals, he hardly knew what I was working on.  While we were on the subject of training, I asked his idea about leadership classes.  I guess I personally am more interested in having and practicing leadership qualities.  He said you have natural leadership tendencies, and thought I may benefit more from systems engineering.  It was good to hear from my new boss in my new role that I am doing okay in leadership and am a natural, what I often feared to be the most challenging part of this job. I am glad he identified a weaker skill set in me that was not obvious to myself.  Paying more attention to systems engineering principles will make me a better project manager and I have to act on his constructive feedback.

Then, he warned me to watch for how much work I take on.  That the program manager is difficult to work with.  He said "you have a tendency to please", no kidding I thought.  At some point you have to define a clear boundary around your system and refuse to take on more responsibilities, he said.
My boss warning me not to do too much work?  I can handle that!

I am so grateful to have such a wise and caring supervisor!