No answer is ever that clear. You may think you know what you are doing, that you a 100% believe with your way of acting, but that isn't true. We think we know what we are doing, but we are mostly playing it by ear. We do what we think is best, but that doesn't mean that it is. We are drivers trying to drive through the fog; we can't see anything, but we trust our instincts to do the best we can. There is no path that we can see and follow; it's just our decision-making skills and luck what's guiding us through the world and in our lives.
Is funny how, without knowing for a fact that what we do is correct, we still fight for what we think and believe is the best option. It may not be, but it is fighting against our instincts not to follow our gut to what we think is the best path. That's what happened with this manager. He wasn't a thousand percent sure that he was doing the right thing by changing the alarming performance review into a normal chat to fix the error. But he did it anyway. Was he sure that it was going to turn out as it did? Of course not, but he had a feeling that this was the best way to work with this employee, and it paid off.
That's why we need to trust ourselves; we need to follow our instinct, fight for what we believe is the right path. Nobody knows for a fact that what they are doing is okay. Life is doubt and error, but sometimes we hit a jackpot. And you will never discover what you are capable of until your believe in yourself and your decision-making skills to mark your path. Life is full of mysteries; don't let it stay like that, see what you can do and try it. After all, the most important part of life is to stay true to yourself, and no, this doesn't apply particularly to managers, just to everyone.