"When I first started out as a project manager, I was kind of married to my checklists. I had this tunnel vision toward checking off everything on my to-do list. For instance, during project meetings, I'd strictly follow the agenda down to the number of minutes spent on each item. Unfortunately, this didn't give everyone the chance to express their ideas, and they would leave the meeting feeling unheard. It didn't give the team a chance to validate our action plan, either.

After receiving the feedback, I realized that my job wasn't to enforce deadlines; it was to facilitate a smooth workflow for everyone and ultimately get the best results out of every task. I learned to be more flexible in meetings. Instead of getting fixated on getting more done every single time, I focused on getting clear, actionable steps and corresponding task commitments from the team. Now, my goal after every meeting is to ensure the project results are better than we initially planned."