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Regardless of what employees want, the manager’s responsibility is to steer employees toward roles where they have the greatest chance of success.

Great managers envision a company where there are multiple routes toward respect and prestige…

…the broad range in pay encourages the person to refine his talents and so become world-class. Great managers advise us to apply the same logic to all roles.

The best managers… can level the playing field. They can be the ones to hold up the mirror. And they can create a safety net.

…great managers [make] a point of giving their feedback in private, one on one.

…a great manager must get to know his employees.

…if, after pulling out all the stops to manage around his nontalents, an employee still underperforms, the most likely explanation is that his talents do not match his role.

…the tough love mindset enables a great manager to keep two contradictory thoughts in mind at the same time – the need to maintain high performance standards and the need to care – and still function effectively.

Great managers dislike the complexity of most company-sponsored performance appraisal schemes.

These four characteristics – simplicity, frequent interaction, focus on the future and self-tracking – are the foundation for a successful performance management routine.