Evaluation Managers and Supervisors TIG Week: Building Leadership Skills: Advice for New and Aspiring Evaluation Managers by Elyse McCall-Thomas

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.

Lessons Learned

Learn from and lean on others with more experience

• I reached out to other evaluation managers, some of whom I had the pleasure of working with and asked them for advice. It was helpful to hear their management philosophies and how they developed their skills. Some also shared the fears and insecurities they experienced when starting as manager, which normalized my own feelings. 

• I listened to audiobooks about management and leadership when I was able to find the time (e.g., walking my dogs, driving). Integrating this learning into my regular routine made it an easier process.
  • Rad Resources:
    • The Making of a Manager by Julie Zhuo
    • Start with Why by Simon Sinek

• I continue to ask questions from other managers, my superiors, and my team. Sometimes the best way to know if you are doing a good job is to hear directly from those you work with. Honest feedback, even when difficult to hear, can be extremely valuable.

Trust your instincts, but take time to think things through

• Early in my role, I would either jump into a decision with very little thought or second-guess myself creating delays. It was all instincts or none. What I realized after a while is that even in cases when my instincts would point us in the right direction, it was good to take a beat and look at the bigger picture. Taking this step back helped me to make better and more informed decisions.

Be prepared to adapt, and adapt again

• Early on, I believed that the key to good management was having a solid and detailed plan for my team and our evaluations. However, I quickly learned that as priorities change and unexpected challenges arise, I was now responsible to recognize and address these situations. This sometimes meant that I would have to abandon or adapt my plans, which could be difficult after having put so much time and effort into their development. Additionally, there were times when the adaptations I proposed were not the right answer to the situation and led to further challenges. These moments were humbling, but also very instructive. I learned that being a good manager doesn’t mean always having the best plan or the perfect response. Instead, it is about being willing to make a decision, reflect on its impact, and adjust when needed.

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.

The American Evaluation Association is hosting Evaluation Managers and SupervisorsTIG Week with our colleagues in the Evaluation Managers and Supervisors Topical Interest Group. The contributions all this week to AEA365 come from our Gov’t Eval TIG members. Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this AEA365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the AEA365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an AEA365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to AEA365@eval.org. AEA365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators. The views and opinions expressed on the AEA365 blog are solely those of the original authors and other contributors. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of the American Evaluation Association, and/or any/all contributors to this site.