A manager can also exert high leverage by engaging in an activity that takes him only a short time, but that affects another person’s performance over a long time. A performance review represents a good example of this. With the few hours’ work that a manager spends preparing and delivering the review, he can affect the work of its recipient enormously. Here too a manager can exert either positive or negative leverage. A subordinate can be motivated and even redirected in his efforts, or the review can discourage and demoralize him for who knows how long.
