The process should begin with the firm sending to each palmer the quantitative information it keeps on partner performance (preferably including financial and nonfinancial scorecards, as described above) with a note saying

Please prepare a self-evaluation of your accomplishments this year. As you prepare your review, please examine the enclosed quantitative formation on your activities. If you believe any of this is in error, or are in any way misleading, please feel free to comment.

The firm should include the “official” statistics that it collects on that partner (perhaps also a listing of new business that the partner assisted in winning). It is important that data he provided not only for the latest year, but also for at least one preceding year. This is necessary to ensure that “good performance” is taken to mean improvement and not just sustaining a given level of result. To do otherwise will only encourage “cruising.” Counseling discussions should focus upon year-on-year changes, not just the latest year.

The firm should also send the goals and action plans from the partner’s previous counseling session. It is remarkable how frequently past plans are filed and forgotten. This undercuts the credibility of the performance counseling process. The simple gesture of saying “We haven’t forgotten the goals you set two years ago, here’s what you said and what we agreed to” conveys a powerful message about the seriousness of the process.

Excerpted from ‘Managing the Professional Service Firm’ by David Maister, page 249