Date: Thursday, July 10, 2025
Hi everyone! My name is Élyse McCall-Thomas and I have been an evaluation manager for just over four years. One of the biggest challenges I experienced early-on was overcoming my imposter syndrome and trusting that I could be an effective manager. I was excited by the opportunity and hoped to help shape evaluation practice and find more opportunities to leverage evaluation across the organization. At the same time, I worried that I was not a strong enough evaluator to mentor others and lacked the strategic and leadership skills to be a good manager. While I am sure I still have much to discover, I am looking back on the beginning of this phase of my career and the practices I would do again and what I have learned.
Learn from and lean on others with more experience
Trust your instincts, but take time to think things through
Be prepared to adapt, and adapt again
I hope my story is helpful for anyone new to management, or who is thinking about pursuing such a role. Feelings of uncertainty are common, but they may not be reflective of and do not have to define your abilities. The best I can suggest is to surround yourself with good people and seek their advice, stay curious, and give yourself permission to make mistakes.
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