As some of you know, I'm an organizational development consultant and leadership coach. Many of my projects aim at ramping up the quality of communication between employees and their supervisors. This usually includes making sure people are aimed in the same direction (or "aligned" in biz speak), communicating clearly about expectations and obstacles, and how to evaluate performance.

Bosses generally hate doing performance evaluations. Besides the natural social awkwardness of balancing clarity and tact, they're often afraid of being clumsy and getting a bad reaction from the employee. Or they play it safe and inflate the rating while softpedaling any deficiencies, after which there is a full twelve-month period in which to kick oneself for being a wimp. But it can be an excellent opportunity to do something genuinely constructive.

I was reminded of this when I came across Lisa's blog. She met with her boss for her 6-month review and, "For the first time in 6 months, I feel like a motivated person again."

A miracle? Hah. Not even rocket science. To wit: (1) He asked good questions, (2) she answered honestly, (3) he listened to what she said, and (4) he responded with an action.

It doesn't get much better than that. I'm verklempt.