What's the best feedback you've received from a manager?

As I’m digging into my role here at Liquibase as the Technical Community Manager, I want to get to know the folks who make up this community better. I’ve found that one of the best ways to foster new connections with people and build professional networks is to ask questions, especially ones that contain nuggets of joy that might help someone else. So, to that end…

What is the most valuable feedback you’ve ever received from a manager?

I don’t have anything earth-shattering to share, but one of the best bits of feedback I’ve had from a supervisor was that I needed to work on my poker face. Apparently, when an annoying coworker would do the things they did that made them annoying, it was very clear on my face. None of what either of us was doing was worthy of disciplinary actions, it was just a minor personality conflict, but that advice reminded me that in a professional environment, someone is always watching, and I should work to project the persona I want to be instead of letting my grumpy gus face out. I don’t know how effective my efforts have been, though.

Ask yourself what the difference is between 7:30 pm on a Friday and 9 am on a Monday. Sometimes the extra stress (and lower quality work as a result) isn’t worth it. Is it really urgent?

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