Hi, It's been a while

Sorry to have been quiet for so long. I participated in a detail opportunity and didn't offload any of my regular work. I was already quite busy managing 9 projects under the Special Nutrition Programs, and then add to that the acting chief of a new branch here, the Operations and Maintenance Branch. Trust me, I had a full plate. The interesting thing about this assignment was the fact that I was the acting chief during an interesting time.

I started the week before the end of the fiscal year (last week in September) and finished the week before Thanksgiving. So I was the chief for about 8 weeks. The part that made this interesting for me was that I had the opportunity to manage people during the most difficult time, annual performance reviews. I know, everyone always says how much they hate that process, and anyone who has been a manager probably complains about going through it. For me though, that was the exact experience that I asked for.

You have heard me harp on IDP's over and over again. I often say that IDP's are more than just training, they are a map to get you from where you are today to where you want to be tomorrow. For me, I have the leading people, I have the communications, I need the management experience. I need to be able to answer the interview question, Have you performed annual performance reviews for government employees? Now I can answer "Yes" to that question and that helps me to stay on track, and will eventually get me onto the next stepping stone.

So I'll write more about the great experiences I had later, I just wanted to take a moment to say I'm back.