Customize Performance Management to Fit Global Cultures SHRM Journal — September 16, 2009
Rebecca Hastings extensively quotes Dick Grote on his experience and suggestions about using performance management processes successfully in countries around the world.
Helping Managers Hold Difficult Conversations IPMA-HR News — October 2008
In this article, Dick offers proven strategies and practical tips for two of the most common areas in which the need for a difficult conversation arises — performance appraisal and performance improvement discussions.
Passing Judgment The Conference Board Review — September/October 2008
In this cover story article, Dick explains that the reason performance appraisal programs fail is typically not because of shoddy forms, bad data and clumsy discussions. The real problem is that most people involved with the performance management process believe a set of myths that actually prevent their performance management procedures from operating successfully — no matter how well the managers have been trained and how expertly the forms have been designed.
How to Solve an Attitude Problem HR Magazine — July 2005
Managers are consistently confronted with dealing with employees who have “attitude problems”. Trying to fix the “attitude” without focusing on the specific behavior associated with it is a hopeless endeavor. In this article, published as “Attitude Adjustments” by SHRM’s monthly magazine, Dick Grote explains how to drill down to the real problem and how to effectively address the issue with the delinquent employee.
Performance Appraisal: An Ideal System, A Perfect Form Executive Excellence — December 2002
This article explains the four elements of an ideal performance appraisal system and the five components of a perfect performance appraisal form. It also argues for linking a company's performance appraisal system with its mission statement and vision and values.
Forced Ranking: Behind the Scenes Across the Board — November/December 2002
Dick Grote argues in this article that forced ranking, when well-conceived and well-executed, can be a powerful force for upgrading the organization’s talent bank. Then he goes “behind the scenes” to describe the actual forced ranking procedure he developed for a major consumer goods company.
Discipline Without Punishment Across the Board — September/October 2001
An obscene message written on a potato chip triggered the development of an innovative performance management system that is now rapidly replacing America's traditional "progressive discipline" system as the most effective way for organizations to deal with problem performers. In this cover story, Dick Grote explains the operation of a responsibility-based approach to discipline that replaces compliance with commitment.
Is There a Perfect Appraisal Form? HR Briefing — February 15, 2001
Yes, there is a perfect performance appraisal form, Dick Grote answers in this interview. Dick explains what the perfect form contains, discusses how the rating scale should be constructed, and argues for the importance of including the organization’s mission statement directly in the appraisal form itself.
Discipline Without Punishment Labor Relations Reporter — November 2000
Since its development in a troubled Frito-Lay plant a quarter century ago, a growing number of organizations have replaced their traditional “progressive discipline” systems with a discipline-without-punishment approach. This brief article by Dick Grote explains the basic elements of the Discipline Without Punishment® system and its advantages in improving labor relations.
Performance Appraisal: Solving the Toughest Challenges HR Magazine — July 2000
Most of the time, performance appraisal works like it ought to. Rater and ratee talk about how the past year has gone. They discuss aspects of performance that require both cheers and correction. They set some goals for the upcoming year. But, how do you handle the troublesome issues training programs don’t address? There are good answers for all of performance appraisal's toughest situations and Dick Grote’s article provides them.
Secrets of Performance Appraisal: Lessons from the Best Across the Board — May 2000
In 1999, Dick Grote served as the subject-matter expert for a national benchmarking study of best practices in performance appraisal sponsored by the American Productivity and Quality Center and Linkage, Inc. This article presents the finding of the study and recommends best-practice procedures from America's most admired organization, both public and private.
What Do We Buy When We Pay for Performance? Benefits and Compensation Solutions Magazine — June 2000
What does “pay” pay for? Dick Grote’s article, the cover story in the June 2000 issue of Benefits and Compensation Solutions magazine, answers these questions: Just what is it that our salary dollars buy? Does money motivate? And how do we manage compensation systems so that we get the most from our money?
How to Make a Compensation System Work Benefits and Compensation Solutions Magazine — June 2000
Several guidelines will help make the performance appraisal process and the compensation system work congruently. Dick Grote spells out four of the most important in this sidebar accompanying the article “What Do We Buy When We Pay for Performance?”.
Rules for Revolutionaries: How to Implement Change Not-for-Profit CEO — June 2000
In this feature article, Dick Grote explains how to become adroit in managing change, whether internally generated or imposed from the outside.
Public Sector Organizations: Today's Innovative Leaders in Performance Management Public Personnel Management — Spring 2000
This comprehensive article explains that today, it is America’s public sector organizations that are leading the pack in developing and implementing new approaches in performance management. The article describes how municipalities, states, and federal government agencies are generating highly effective people-management systems and installing them with remarkable success. Details of many of these approaches and data on the specific results that have been achieved are provided.
One More Time: How Do You Motivate People? Not-for-Profit CEO — February 2000
Echoing the title of a classic Harvard Business Review article by Fred Herzberg, Dick Grote explains why recognition, challenge, autonomy and the work itself genuinely motivate, while such critical items as pay and benefits and enlightened policies actually have little motivational impact.
In Performance Management Public Sector Leads the Pack Harvard Business Review — January/February 2000
Surprisingly, some of the most innovative work in developing new approaches to performance management is being done these days by organizations in the public sector. In this article, Dick Grote reveals that if you’re looking for breakthrough thinking and best practices, your best sources may now be state agencies and city governments, federal bureaucracies, housing authorities, and your local pardons and paroles board.
Managing People: Effective Ways to Motivate and Manage Employees Journal of Accountancy — July 1999
Aimed at CPAs who often are pressed into service as de facto personnel managers, Dick Grote’s article serves as an overview of new approaches organizations are taking in performance management. It provides an overview of best-practice approaches in performance appraisal, explains the benefits and mechanics of establishing a “peer review” grievance procedure, and describes why organizations are abandoning traditional approaches to discipline and installing a Discipline Without Punishment® approach.
Painless Performance Appraisal HR Magazine — October 1998
This article provides practical and realistic information and advice that will help both HR and operating managers set goals, determine a core message, conduct an effective appraisal discussion and minimize defensiveness.
Dealing with Jerks: A Training 101 Article Training and Development Magazine — October 1998
Most training program participants attend in order to learn the material being presented. But every so often a noisy and troublesome adversary — a jerk — presents himself in the classroom.
Dick Grote’s article describes the methods that trainers can use to neutralize disruptive participants before they start acting up, and concludes with an escalating series of steps any trainer can use when a participant’s objectives are disruption and mischief instead of learning and growth.
