Managing technical professionals: bottom performers in an organization

AS we reach mid-year, most organizations will begin reviews with employees. During these reviews, managers discuss the technical and professional performance with individuals in their organizations. These employee reviews are based on performance metrics established earlier in the year. Whether the individual's performance has been strong or needs improvement is determined based on these metrics. If the manager has been providing timely feedback to the employee, these mid-year reviews should not require a great deal of time and there should be no surprises. As an example, I have weekly meetings with my direct reports and I provide feedback to them about the wonderful things they do, and identify issues where they can improve, so the mid-year review meetings with my direct reports are usually done very quickly and there are no surprises, unless something happened since our last weekly meeting.