Ah, these notes so totally make my day

I got this from someone I consider an ally at work, whose promotion attempt I strongly supported:

I've received the happy news that my promo was accepted, and I wanted to thank you for taking the time to write feedback for me -- I reached out to you not only because I thought you'd be familiar with my work, but because I admire yours. It means the world to me to enjoy the esteem of a colleague like you.

As is and will always be the case, I still have a wealth of learning and development to do, and I'm excited to have co-workers like you around to learn from. :)

Thanks also for all of your management advice -- I'm trying particularly to make sure that [my group] is a safe place for engineers of all backgrounds, and I think you have a knack for combining that with high standards.

:D

It's funny, because some people think I'm kicking too much ass on the manager front and should actually switch away from the software track and to the management track. To those people I say NO. It's kind of the point, isn't it, that I don't have to choose, and that it is possible to combine. Can't please everyone.