People deeply dislike performance appraisals – receiving them as well as giving them –and think they are fundamentally flawed, yet they are ingrained management processes in most organizations in one form or another. While many leaders – including those in HR – would like to abandon them, few know what to do differently and even fewer can summon the courage to act.

Next to firing an employee, managers cite the annual performance appraisal as a task they hate the most. Given that the typical performance appraisal is fundamentally flawed (i.e. inconstant, unfair, inaccurate, or some/most/all of the above), this attitude is understandable. Appraisals are incongruent with the values-based, devolved, and participative work environments many leading organizations favor.

Here is what Jeremy Hope and Steve Player recommend.

Actions to Avoid

Stop spending so much time on annual performance appraisals. Focus on establishing and nourishing mutual respect and (especially) trust with those for whom you are primarily responsible. How much you care about them and about helping them to be happy and productive means more to them than anything else.

Be wary of forced rankings. In fact recent research suggests that forced rankings are counterproductive cause they reduce engagement, productivity, and morale. Do all you can to evaluate performance relative to expectations that have been made crystal clear. My own preference is to specify the expectations in writing and have both supervisor and the person evaluated co-sign both copies.

Don’t assume that people cause most of the problems. That said, they do cause some (e.g. incivility) and should be held accountable.

Don’t assume that people are the biggest cause of a problem. That said, a person sometimes is. Deal with it calmly, citing specifics.

Actions to Take

Use open peer reviews to hold people accountable. Focus on contributions relative to what is needed either by the organization or an associate.

Focus on process performance and learning over results. If you master the process and “harvest” what learning opportunities reveal, the results will probably take care of themselves.

Manage at the level of the team rather than the individual. Other than when repetitive, routine work is involved, expectations and goals tend to change frequently. Focus on team expectations and how each member helps to achieve them.

Provide development advice and training through continuous assessments. Examine and encourage incremental progress that can lead to major successes; cut losses quickly on hopeless initiatives and re-direct others that can eventually produce desired results.

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For a thorough discussion of key performance indicators and 39 other major business topics, I highly recommend Hope and Player’s Beyond Performance Measurement: Why, When, and How to Use 40 Tools and Best Practices for Superior Business Performance, published by Harvard Business Review Press (February, 2012).