Why bother with performance appraisal? --
Goal-setting --
Determining key job responsibilities --
Identifying and using competencies --
Providing day-to-day coaching --
Evaluating the quality of an individual's performance --
Using your appraisal form --
Preparing for the appraisal discussion --
Conducting the appraisal discussion --
Hot button issues.

Overview: Do you supervise people? If so, this book is for you. One of a manager's toughest - and most important - responsibilities is to evaluate an employee's performance, providing honest feedback and clarifying what they've done well and where they need to improve. In How to Be Good at Performance Appraisals, Dick Grote provides a concise, hands-on guide to succeeding at every step of the performance appraisal process - no matter what performance management system your organization uses. Through step-by-step instructions, examples, do-and-don't bullet lists, sample dialogues, and suggested scripts, he shows you how to handle every appraisal activity from setting goals and defining job responsibilities to evaluating performance quality and discussing the performance evaluation face-to-face. Based on decades of experience guiding managers through their biggest challenges, Grote helps answer the questions he hears most often: How do I set goals effectively? How many goals should someone set?; How do I evaluate a person's behaviors? Which counts more, behaviors or results?; How do I determine the right performance appraisal rating? How do I explain my rating to a skeptical employee?; How do I tell someone she's not meeting my expectations? How do I deliver bad news?; Grote also explains how to tackle other thorny performance management tasks, including determining compensation and terminating poor performers. In accessible and useful language, How to Be Good at Performance Appraisals will help you handle performance appraisals confidently and successfully, no matter the size or culture of your organization. It's the one book you need to excel at this daunting yet critical task.

If you're an executive, manager, or team leader, one of your toughest responsibilities is managing your people's performance. How do you appraise just how well a direct report has carried out her job? What do you do if informal coaching fails to improve mediocre performance? In "How to be Good at Performance Appraisals" Dick Grote provides a concise, hands-on guide to succeeding at every task required by your company's performance appraisal and management process. Through step-by-step instructions, examples, sample dialogues, and suggested scripts, he shows you how to handle appraisal activities ranging from setting goals, defining job responsibilities, and coaching to providing recognition, assessing performance and discussing it with employees, and creating development plans. Grote also explains how to tackle other performance management activities your company requires, such as determining compensation, developing and retaining star performers, and solving people problems. This book is so accessible and practical that you won't just read it once and put it away. Instead, you'll be sure to keep it within arm's reach, referring to particular chapters each time you face a performance management task.