Discover how to avoid the five common mistakes that could be fatal to a positive, productive relationship with your staff.

Performance appraisal. Or, if you prefer, performance review.

Whichever term you use, mention it to a dozen of your friends--whether they typically give or receive performance appraisals--and notice the responses you get. A grimace? A roll of the eyes? Tension? A satisfied smile?

Let's face it, mentioning "performance appraisal" gets such mixed responses because people have such mixed experiences. If your respondents aren't hostile, or scornful, then they're clearly unimpressed.

Why? Why are performance appraisals seen to be negative experiences?

Isn't a performance appraisal simply a meeting between a manager and a member of his or her staff, where together they appraise the staff member's performance during the year (or other time period) and agree on goals for the coming year?

Well, that's the theory. But in reality, many managers handle performance appraisals quite poorly. And the result is not only an unpleasant meeting, but one where the manager and his or her staff member never quite understand each other, never quite appreciate the other's point of view and never quite settle on appropriate goals for the coming year.

It's almost inevitable that the staff member will end up less happy and less productive than he or she was before! In fact, there are five big mistakes that managers often make in conducting performance appraisals.