Despite the frustration they bring out, performance appraisals are an integral part of organizations. Ratings and rankings are two of the most enduring ways that have been used, and neither one provides an accurate representation of an employee's performance. Ratings are too easy to fudge, especially when they are tied to bonuses and promotions. Rankings aren't even actually performance appraisals because appraisals don't rank people, but instead compare the performance of an individual against the expectations of performance by that individual.

The process of managing performance starts with setting performance expectations and ends with sanctions - rewards and penalties - on appraised performance. Brumback suggests asking a series of yes/no questions. Since performance has two parts, behavior and results, the questions relate to each part. About 20 questions are included. Answers tend to be pretty honest for several reasons.

Overall, Brumback cautions that you should put performance appraisals in perspective. What is more important than appraising performance is the setting of performance expectations, from which everything else follows.