I can't think of any interviews that were bad. I have had some tough evaluations where I've had to tell people that they were not getting their merit increase. It's not fun, but it's necessary. As a manager, if you don't help somebody overcome their flaws, if you don't hold the mirror out to show them what their performance has been, they aren't going to get any better. It's incumbent on you as a manager to help them get better and help them know what the steps are to get better. Talking about it is the difficult part.

We came close to that one time, but in the end I decided not to hire the person. It was absolutely for the best. I had to take a step back and force myself to listen to the team. You don't always want to hear something different from what you're thinking.

I don't necessarily think of it as dissention. I think of it as everyone having an opportunity to talk about what they observed. It's a sorting-through process. There are times every week that one of the deputies will say to me, "Do you really want to do that?" And I appreciate that because they are not serving me well and they are not serving the state if they aren't willing to tell me when they think I'm wrong.