Improving Employee Performance Through Appraisal And Coaching

272 Pages·2006·0.82 MB·English

by  Donald L. Kirkpatrick

IMPROVING
EMPLOYEE
PERFORMANCE
THROUGH
APPRAISAL
COACHING
AND
Second Edition
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IMPROVING
EMPLOYEE
PERFORMANCE
THROUGH
APPRAISAL
COACHING
AND
Second Edition
Donald L. Kirkpatrick
Foreword by Dick Grote
American ManagementAssociation
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LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Kirkpatrick,DonaldL.
Improvingemployeeperformancethroughappraisalandcoaching/
DonaldL.Kirkpatrick;forewordbyDickGrote.—2nded.
p. cm.
Rev.ed.of:Howtoimproveperformancethroughappraisalandcoaching.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN0-8144-0876-1
1.Employees—Ratingof. I. Kirkpatrick,DonaldL.Howtoimprove
performancethroughappraisalandcoaching. II. Title.
HF5549.5.R3K54 2006
658.3(cid:2)125—dc22
2005025643
(cid:2)2006DonaldL.Kirkpatrick.
Allrightsreserved.
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica.
Thefirsteditionofthisbookwaspublishedin1982
underthetitleHowtoImprovePerformanceThrough
AppraisalandCoaching.
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ortransmittedinwholeorinpart,
inanyformorbyanymeans,electronic,
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Contents
Foreword vii
Preface xiii
Acknowledgments xv
A Conceptual Framework for the Appraisal/Coaching
Process 1
Pretest
1. Introduction and Overview 5
How to Get Maximum Performance from Employees
The Performance Review Program
2. The Basis for Appraisal 25
Significant Job Segments
Standards of Performance
3. The Appraisal and the Interview 49
The Appraisal Process
Preparing for the Appraisal Interview
Conducting the Appraisal Interview
v
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PAGEv
vi CONTENTS
4. The Performance Improvement Plan 66
Preparing an Effective Plan
5. On-the-Job Coaching 79
The Effective Coach
Coaching Approaches and Techniques
6. Five Program Requirements 104
An Effective Performance Review Program
Posttest
Test Answers and Reasons for Them
7. Leaders Who Coach Create Coaching Cultures 118
The Benefits of Integrating Coaching for Leaders
Evoking the Coach Within
The Elements of a Coaching Approach
Creating a Coaching Culture
Conclusion
8. Evaluating a Training Course on Performance Appraisal
and Coaching 128
9. Case Study: Carilion Health System 142
10. Notes from the Field 163
The Accenture Philosophy
Managing Performance
A Performance Management System
Seven Coaching Principles
Manager as Coach
Coach as Facilitator
Coaching Managers Through the Appraisal Process
11. Sample Forms 179
A Final Word 243
Selected References 245
Index 247
About the Author 000
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Foreword
I
was going through the attic recently, sorting through some ancient
files. In a pile of old magazines I ran across a tattered copy of ASTD’s
Training and Development Journal from 1971. I had saved it because in
it was the first article I ever wrote about performance management. As
I thumbed through it, I noticed that the masthead listed ASTD’s re-
gional vice presidents. There was Don Kirkpatrick’s name.
At that time, thirty-five years ago, Don was already one of the most
significantfiguresinthefieldoftraininganddevelopment.Today,noth-
ing’schanged. DonKirkpatrick remainsoneof themost influentialand
thought-provoking thinkers and writers in the field of performance
management and the development of human talent in organizations.
Most human resource management professionals are familiar with
Don’scontributiontothefieldoftraininganddevelopmentthroughhis
development of what now is commonly referred to as ‘‘Kirkpatrick’s
FourLevelsofEvaluation.’’Donobservedthattheevaluationofatrain-
ingprogram’seffectivenessbeginswithLevelOne—Reaction.Howwell
did the participants like the program? But too many evaluation efforts
don’tgoany furtherthanasmilesheet.Moreimportantthanhowpeo-
ple felt about the program, Don told us, was Level Two—Learning. Did
the participants learn the skills the program was designed to teach?
Didtheydobetterontheposttestthantheydidonthepretest?Regard-
vii
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viii FOREWORD
less of how much they liked the program, did they actually acquire the
skills the program intended to teach them?
Butthat’s stillnotenough. Whileusers mayhaveliked theprogram
and scored high on the final exam, the next level—Behavior—is much
more important. Are the participants using what they learned back on
the job? Have the trainees transferred their new skills and learnings to
their everyday environment?
Finally—and here comes the bottom-line question—has all this ef-
fort made any difference? Yes, the salesmen liked the program. Yes,
they learned all of the selling skills we taught them and, yes, they’re
using those skills when they call on their customers. But has this led
to an increase in sales? That’s Don’s final level: Results. From a busi-
nessandorganizational perspective,it’s onlyatthelevel ofresultsthat
training programs pay off.
DonKirkpatrickfirstpresented hismodelin1959inaseriesofarti-
cles in the Training and Development Journal. Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels
of Evaluation is a model of profound simplicity. New trainers have a
head-slapping experience and say, ‘‘Of course!’’ when they are first in-
troduced tothe fourlevels andthe needto evaluatenot justhow much
people liked the program and how much they learned but just what
benefit the organization got out of making the investment in training
them. Don revolutionized the field of training and development.
But this book isn’t about training or evaluation. And it isn’t written
just for people in the training industry or the human resources field.
This book may represent an even more important contribution, since it
focusesonmanaginghumanperformancethroughoutanorganization.
It is directed at operating managers who have to guide and coach and
correctandmotivatehighperformance.It’saimedattrainerswhomust
teach managers how to meet their responsibilities for managing the
performanceofotherpeople.AnditisdirectedtowardHRprofessionals
who must make sure thatthepeople-management sideof thebusiness
happens as it’s supposed to.
Basedonthe volumeoriginallypublishedin1982,this updatedand
revised edition will help everyone involved with the management of
human performance achieve excellence in this challenging area. It
deals with issues that matter.
Improving Employee Performance Through Appraisal and Coaching
istruthfullytitled.Itisahow-tobook,notatheoreticaltreatise.Itgives
managers the skills they need to appraise performance honestly, accu-
rately, and confidently.
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FOREWORD ix
When I served as subject-matter expert in a national benchmarking
study of best practices in performance management a few years ago, I
identified the companies that genuinely are doing outstanding work in
their performance appraisal, assessment, and development efforts. But
among these stellar organizations there was one common frustration.
In spite of the fact that their systems were the best around, they still
had trouble getting their managers to do a good job of setting goals.
This book will help them solve this problem and show managers how
to clarify what is expected of subordinates.
Gradeinflation isone oftheloudest complaintsmade aboutAmeri-
ca’sprestigeuniversities.Infact,asIwasreadinganissueofTheAtlan-
tic Monthly recently, I found a dramatic chart illustrating the year-by-
year escalation over the past twenty years of the average grade of stu-
dents at Cornell University, one of our finest Ivy League colleges. Over
the past few years, the same complaints of grade inflation have rou-
tinely been made by faculty and administrators at Harvard, Princeton,
and a host of other top-flight universities.
In organizations, things are not that different. HR managers fre-
quently complain about the fact that performance appraisal ratings are
notoriously inflated and that people simply aren’t being told the truth
aboutjusthowwellthey’redoing.There’sprobablynoveteranHRpro-
fessional who hasn’t had the distasteful experience of talking to a line
managerwhohasfinallymadethedecisiontofireamarginalperformer
after years of shoddy work, only to discover that the individual has a
drawerful of performance appraisals in his file, all with stellar ratings.
This book will help solve this common problem. Certainly one rea-
sonthat managersdon’tgive theirsubordinates honest, tough-minded
appraisals of their performance is that they simply lack the courage to
providestraight-between-the-eyesfeedback,andnobookwillcurethis
sad situation. But a more important reason for the problem of organi-
zational grade inflation that occurs in so many companies is that man-
agershaveneverbeentoldexactlyhowtosetspecificgoals.Theydon’t
knowhow tocommunicateexactlywhatresultsthey’relookingforand
how the subordinate’s performance will be measured. No one has
shown them how to work with subordinates to identify their strengths
and weaknesses. They don’t have the skills they need to conduct an
effective performance assessment or explain to a member of the team
precisely where herperformance needs to be improved. Theywould do
therightthingifsomeonewouldjustshowthemhow,butthey’vebeen
left to figure it out on their own. So they muddle through as best they
can and take the path of least resistance.
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