Hopefully yearly goal setting and then regular checkups will help reduce the amount of deadwood they accumulate. I believe that most people have great potentia

Hopefully yearly goal setting and then regular checkups will help reduce the amount of deadwood they accumulate. I believe that most people have great potential if properly motivated. A few years of growth associated with being thoughtfully mentored might not be enough to bring deadwood back to life, but it could save a lot of employees from heading down that path. Also, having regular checkins makes it a lot more obvious when someone isn't performing, which means the deadwood is more likely to be let go. I realize this is overly optimistic, due to faults in the managers themselves. For example, kingdom builders will keep deadwood since it increases their headcount. The yearly performance reviews at a previous job were a waste of time. I'd be interested to hear if anyone has had good experiences with them either as a manager or as an employee.