The Performance Appraisal Question and Answer Book: A Survival Guide for Managers

Although this book was first published in 2002, I only recently read it and, as my rating correctly indicates, I think it is an outstanding piece of work. Performance measurement is one of the most important and yet least understood business subjects and it is certain to become even more important during the next several years as organizations become more "virtual" and many of those involved with them become "free agents" or are at least more independent. Also, on average, people now make 7-9 job changes during a career. The average for those in my generation is half of that, if not less. Grote wrote this book primarily for managers who are responsible for measuring the performance of others. A relatively recent and (in my opinion) promising trend is that, increasingly, one of the metrics used for evaluating the performance of a manager is how well she or he measures the performance of others. That is the subject for another book which Grote, perhaps, will one day write. Given the substance of the material in this book and how Grote wishes to organize and then present it, the Q & A format seems eminently appropriate. He adds a clever variation: The inclusion of "Tell Me More" comments after his initial response to each core question. I greatly appreciate the personal, conversational tone which Grote establishes and then sustain in each of his three books, the other two being Discipline Without Punishment and Forced Ranking. He comes about as close as a business thinker/writer can to seeming to interact directly with his reader. Obviously, this book will be of primary interest and value to supervisors but I also highly recommend it to those who are supervised. Now more than ever before, it is imperative to make crystal clear what expectations are and how performance relative to those expectations is measured, especially during interviews of candidates and then, once hired, during their orientation...which few organizations do well. (That is another book awaiting someone to produce it.) As Grote would be among the first to point out, the results of countless research studies which examine employee satisfaction concur that feeling appreciated, believing in the value of the work done, and having one's performance evaluated fairly and consistently are among the attributes which participants in the research studies considered to be most important. Also revealing is the fact that, depending upon which results are consulted, compensation was ranked anywhere from #9 and #14 in importance. Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out Grote's other two as well as Michael Ray's The Highest Goal and The Oz Principle co-authored by Craig Hickman, Tom Smith, and Roger Connors; also Mark Samuel's Creating the Accountable Organization and The Power Of Personal Accountability, co-authored with Sophie Chiche.

I work for a dept. with a state government and Grote's comprehensive performance management system was implemented several years ago. It works! Takes the indecision, inconsistency, and the bias/subjectivity out of perform. mgt. It is systematic. This text is excellent & thorough. Addresses in practical ways MANY of the problems that mgrs. run into when doing performance evals. (your ratings are defensible when you have a difficult employee). I found that it was easy to read and to apply. It gives you knowledge & confidence. I have "highlighted" throughout this book and refer to it often. It is my Performance Eval. "bible". We also use Grote's Discipline Without Punishment (DWOP) system also. I recommend his book of the same title also. Excellent system. Definitely not "wimpy"! Takes the indecision, inconsistency, and the bias/subjectivity out of office discipline. It is systematic and defensible also.

I found the book very easy to follow, and the principles and concepts were down-to-earth. The author gives a no-nonsense approach in performance appraisals, using common-sense and throws out all the other HR mumbo-jumbo. He also lays out a good argument for tying the PA to the company's objectives and missions, ideas on employee motivation (forget the "employee of the month" ideas), how to deal with difficult reviewees (those who just don't understand how their performance is bad), and the best way to handle performance planning meetings at the beginning of the year and the importance of these.

Mr. Grote tells it like it is, and I loved his approach in this book. It's presented in a question & answer format where he presents a question that is just about everyone's mind who conducts performance appraisals for employees, and he answers it with a short answer then a longer and more detailed answer. The best line is when he says, "Supervisors put up with too much [stuff]otherwise writes very well and straightforward, and strongly pushed the responsibility for improvement back to the employee, not the manager. Thank you for liberating me! He spends a good deal of the book on performance planning as well, an often underutilized tool to set an employee up for success.