Helen’s face dropped. Her smile disappeared.

“Sounds like manipulation,” I said.

“But, but, what do you mean?” she gasped, not in desperation, but surprise.

“I mean, most of the things we do, as managers, fall in line with manipulation. We create expectations of performance, we get the performance, the team member gets a reward. Or more clearly, we create expectations, if we don’t get the performance, the team member gets reprimanded. Either way you look at it, most of what we do as managers, is manipulation.”