For a period in my humble career, I found myself wondering why I was left feeling unappreciated for striving to be thorough with my work and its delivery.

Sometimes I have had to query work several times before endorsing it. If the sometimes-painstaking exercise was about interrogating or proofing my own work, I would not face any difficulty.

The dynamics may, however, be different, when the task is being done under the auspices of a team structure. Different personalities and approaches to matters may be at play.

I have experienced instances where, as a leader, I was in a position to identify areas of development for my team members and embarked on an exercise to coach them to attain certain levels of competence and skill. I reckoned that with the right push and pull, the objective could be met.

Of the attributes I committed to assist develop was that of being thorough with research, presentation and delivery of tasks. The methodology entailed that I examined the work presented for my endorsement with a fine-tooth comb and invited the team member for a discussion. I requested for the officer to give me a summary of their presentation so that I could get a second understanding of the submission and ask questions. After agreeing that the work needed to be revised, I would then reduce to writing my observations for an appropriate revert. The process could conclude after the first revert but sometimes there would be a back and forth between us.  In the latter situation, tensions could build as both parties may experience exhaustion or irritation at the fact that the task is not concluding. That is the point for potential misunderstandings and feelings of not being appreciated.

I found that in the early stages of our relationships, I was understood as “difficult to please”, “particular”, “sparing with trust” and the list could be endless! The good news is that it is not a sob story…After relationships were established and missions and expectations exchanged, it was understood that the reasoning for the exercise was a mutual growth trajectory. I am happy to say that after all the blood, sweat and tears, the team was able to deliver a clinical product which we were all satisfied with and ready to defend, so to speak.

The lesson I learned is that sometimes you will be seen as the villain when the feat you have embarked on is heroic. Being aware of yourself, how you communicate to others while being equally attentive to the responses from your team will assist you in your quest to be thorough and be understood to be coming from a good place.

Let’s continue sharing and learning from each other so that we can be the best versions of ourselves and our organizations!