I had the opportunity over the weekend to learn some valuable and important lessons about how important leader support is from my 12 year old son. Youth in my church are often asked to prepare a 3-5 minute talk to deliver to our congregation of about 300 on any given Sunday. Through the years I have appreciated this opportunity for my children because of the challenge involved, the opportunity to immerse themselves in an assigned topic and a chance to improve their public speaking skills.

You better ensure you can answer questions like “what could I have done different this year to get a higher rating? What can I do next year to get a better rating?” If you can’t answer these types questions then you have failed the employee you are doing the review with.

In an old and wonderful Aesop fairy tale, the only thing that stood between a house full of mice and their complete happiness was the cat. The mice got together one evening and came up with various plans to deal with the danger of the cat. They all voted on one brilliant idea; they would hang a bell around the cat’s neck. Then wherever it went, the bell would warn them of danger if it got closer. All of the mice jumped and clapped at the idea. The only problem was getting volunteers to hang the bell around the cat’s neck!