One clue to what is wrong was contained in an advertisement of a new book on management which talked of the appraisal interview as “the most distasteful job” of the superior.
Dirty jobs / kanban
It's really up to the job-holder himself to keep track of his accomplishments and how they stack up against the job requirements, overall departmental and corporate goals, etc. The job-holder must demand clear expectations of his superiors just as much as the reverse.
How can a manager possibly know everything that a subordinate had accomplished? Sure, the big items are visible, but this doesn't create anything more than a highlight reel or thumbnail sketch of the subordinate. It's incumbent on the subordinate to provide enough detail—organized into themes, stories, or likewise—to enable the manager to get a richer picture of the man under him.
