People are people. You can do yourself a thousand favors by hiring "A" players. But even if they're exactly the right ones for your job, eventually they'll act like people, and you need to be prepared. You want them to be superhuman - never make mistakes, lose focus, or get tired. But they won't.

Whether their eventual lapse into humanity turns into a hiccup or an earthquake depends in large part on how you manage it.

Between 70-80% of all job failure is directly related to a lack of clarity about expectations or a lack of specific, timely feedback, and if you're waiting for them to figure it out for themselves, they will...but it will never match the picture in your head.

What if you had some meat-and-potatoes simple tools that would open up conversations and allow you to set and review goals? Then your tough issues - especially those involving conduct or performance - would be easily avoided and simpler to manage.