I let Morgan puzzle for a while. I had just questioned the Holy Grail of management processes, the annual performance review.

Finally, I broke the silence. “Tell, me, do you really look forward to this annual tennis match all based around this form you bought at the office supply store?”

Morgan had begrudgingly conducted performance reviews for 15 years. He had never considered that this process might be counter-productive to performance.

“Not really,” he replied. “I just thought it came with the territory of being a manager.”

“You are right, it does come with the territory, but I want you to think about a whole new way of conducting this conversation.” -TF