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 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 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? and How do I deliver bad news? Grote also explains how to tackle other thorny performance management tasks, including determining compensation and terminating poor performers.