Today I'm thankful for: the way Ed Machuga gave positive feedback

Today (and every day) I'm thankful for the way Ed Machuga gave positive feedback.

I am someone who responds well to positive feedback.  If someone tells me I did a good job doing something, I want to do that thing over and over and over again.  I think this aspect of my personality explains my Toastmasters career: whenever I did something for Toastmasters, people (as good Toastmasters do) would tell me how great my work was and how much they appreciated me, in a way that the world of research never did, so I wanted to spend more and more time and energy on Toastmasters, and less and less on research.

When I started at FDA two and a half years ago, my supervisor was Ed Machuga.  Before ever sending anything (such as an email) to the outside world, I would send it to him first to make sure it was ok.  It was never just ok.  He usually wrote back to say "Looks good!" or "Great!"  This is not to say he rubber-stamped: if I made a mistake, he caught it, and told me (in a kind and encouraging way) how to fix it.  I would fix it and send it back to him again for his review, and then he would say, "PERFECT!!!"

I've only been an acting supervisor a couple of times, and no one has yet consulted me in a supervisory capacity, but when they do, I plan to implement enthusiastic positive feedback, the way Ed did.  Maybe not everyone responds to it to the same extent I do, but it doesn't cost anything.

I felt Ed brought out my best work and enabled me to do a good job, and doing a good job is extremely important to me.  Ed's positive feedback empowered me to do good work, and I am thankful.