Podcast Summary: Manager Tools – Delivering the Performance Review (HOF 2025)

Episode Date: December 1, 2025
Hosts: Mark Horstman and Mike Auzenne (Manager Tools)

Episode Overview

This episode is the final installment in a three-part Manager Tools series on performance reviews, focusing specifically on "Delivering the Performance Review." The hosts break the process down into tangible, actionable steps—moving past theory to outline how managers can execute the delivery of a review professionally and effectively. Their aim is to demystify the process, reduce stress for both manager and employee, and reframe performance reviews as a year-round process rather than a once-a-year, high-pressure event.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Stress of Performance Reviews

• Both managers and employees typically experience anxiety around performance review season.
• Mark (01:13): "It's much more stress inducing for the people who are receiving it because the managers do it so poorly."
• The rarity and perceived magnitude of annual reviews contribute to the problem (the "Christmas Rule": anything done once a year is stressful due to lack of practice).

2. The Need for Year-Round Performance Management

• Relying solely on the annual event is fundamentally flawed.
• Mark (05:58): "Managing around events as opposed to processes is almost always an ineffective way to manage."
• If feedback is given regularly—through coaching, quarterly check-ins, and one-on-ones—the annual review becomes largely anticlimactic (and that's a good thing).

3. Performance Review Delivery: The Eight-Step Process

The hosts lay out a meticulous process to ensure thoughtful, valuable delivery.

Step 1: The Pre-Meeting Email (06:57)

• Send a personalized email to the employee about a week in advance.
• This email sets the agenda, reduces apprehension, and ensures the review feels like part of an ongoing conversation, not a surprise or an inquisition.
• Sample Email Excerpt (11:30):

  "Dear Bob, this email is a reminder of our performance management meeting on [date] at [time] in [location]. I'm looking forward to sitting down with you and going over your year and talking about what we're going to do next year as well.”

Step 2: Developing Your Core Message (13:07)

• The most critical (and hardest) part: boil the message down to a simple, memorable takeaway, encapsulated in three parts—the rating, the result, and the ramifications.
  • Rating: The official evaluation (e.g., "meets expectations", "exceeds", "needs improvement").
  • Result: What that rating means for their career (promotion, growth, no change).
  • Ramifications: What comes next (goals, development, new responsibilities).
• Repeat this message throughout the meeting.
• Mark (16:01): "If you want the ratee to remember anything...you must pick a core message and make sure you have something you can hang your hat on."

Step 3: Logistical Preparation (33:54)

• Reserve the meeting room, hold the meeting early in the designated cycle, and avoid first thing in the morning or end of day to ensure everyone’s best mindset.
• Mark (34:38): "Don't do them at 8 in the morning, and don't do them at 4 in the afternoon. Do them in the middle of the day."

Step 4: Deliver the Review in Advance (36:59)

• Give the employee a copy of their review (without salary info) the day before the meeting. This allows space for emotional processing and prevents blindsiding.
• Mark (37:59): "Don’t ask the employee to read their review for the first time in front of you...Why make them do that in front of you?"

Step 5: What to Bring (40:36)

• Bring two copies of all documentation (your review form with salary info, their self-appraisal, job descriptions, objectives, supporting materials, tissues, water, and a clock).

Step 6: Structuring the Delivery (43:38)

• Start with areas of agreement between manager and employee, move to disagreements.
• For each review area, use the feedback model: behavior, results, and confirmation.
  • e.g., "Bob, I rated you as exceeded expectations in customer service based on behaviors such as..."

Step 7: Running the Meeting (50:30)

• Start with an agenda, set ground rules, and state the core message up front.
• Example ground rules:
  • No comparisons to other employees.
  • Stay professional.
  • Start and end on time.
  • Manager reserves the right to move the meeting along.
  • No phones.

Step 8: How to Behave (52:50)

• Smile, use first names, stay cool, calm, and collected.
• Never interrupt the employee; if they interrupt, stop and listen.
• Use the "medicine ball" and "Feel-Felt-Found" techniques to defuse high emotion and show empathy while retaining authority.
  • Mark's Story (53:56): Even if someone provokes you, "You own your emotions. You're responsible for your emotions."

Example Script for Defusing Emotion (60:54):

> "Gosh, I see how you feel. You're telling me you feel this particular way. You know what? I felt that way too...Here's what I found..."

4. Role of Feedback within the Review

• The annual review should not be the only place performance feedback happens.
• Mark (19:19): "A lot of managers believe that the annual review is the place that they do give feedback. And...it's terribly ineffective as a mechanism for doing that."
• The main value is setting up next year's goals and expectations, with the review itself serving as a summary, not an ambush.

5. Distinction between Being a Manager and Being a Boss

• Mark (50:13): "People have been living in a dream world thinking that what they're doing day to day is management. It's not. It's being a boss. This...this is management."
• Treat management as a profession—be prepared, be thorough, be deliberate.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• The "Christmas Rule"

  "Anything that you do once a year that's really important to you, like Christmas, is going to be stressful." – Mark (01:13)

• On Feedback and Reviews:

  "Events do not create change. They create the requisite raw material, if you will, for change. But change happens through a process. It happens over time." – Mark (04:12)

• Annual Reviews are for Summary, not Surprise

  "None of this should be a surprise the first time you do this. If you haven’t been using the feedback model...people’s heads are going to spin." – Mark (17:49)

• Three Rs of the Core Message (Rating, Result, Ramifications)

  "If you say something seven times, half your people will say they heard it once." – Mark (16:01)

• Professionalism

  "Management is a profession. Well, if it's a profession, then you’re a professional." – Mark (50:33)

• On Preparation

  "Giving an effective review is hard work. There’s a lot of work involved in being…getting prepared for a review." – Mike (39:05)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• Manager/Employee Anxiety & The Christmas Rule: 00:59-02:00
• Feedback Consistency & Feedback Model Recap: 03:14-03:45
• Why Reviews Feel Cataclysmic: 05:58-07:20
• The Essential Pre-Meeting Email: 06:57-13:00
• Developing and Delivering the Core Message: 13:07-17:00; 19:19-29:23
• Structuring the Meeting & Handling Disagreements: 43:38-49:05
• Handling Emotions: Medicine Ball & Feel-Felt-Found: 53:56-64:53
• Final Recap of Eight Steps: 64:58

Recap of the Eight Steps for Delivering a Performance Review

1. Send a pre-meeting email (about a week out).
2. Develop a core message: the single, memorable takeaway (Rating, Result, Ramifications).
3. Logistical prep: reserve space, plan timing.
4. Give the review document to the employee the day prior.
5. Bring all necessary materials (including tissues!)
6. Structure delivery: start with agreements, move to disagreements, follow the feedback model, request confirmation.
7. Start the meeting with agenda, ground rules, and the core message.
8. Behave professionally: maintain composure, listen more than you talk, use empathy and feedback techniques to keep the meeting productive and focused on the future.

Practical Takeaways for Managers

• Preparation is essential—winging it leads to stress and poor outcomes.
• Regular feedback and coaching throughout the year is key; the review becomes “boring” (and that’s the goal).
• Deliver a clear, consistent, repeatable message.
• Separate the review meeting from the surprise of receiving the review itself—give employees time to process.
• Emotions will run high; managers must be empathetic, composed, and in control.

For Further Reading

• Manager Tools Website: Sample pre-meeting emails, feedback guides, and worksheets as referenced throughout the episode.

This episode is a "must-listen" for managers who want a step-by-step approach to demystify and professionalize performance review delivery. The actionable steps and scripts ensure that no matter your organization’s specific process, you'll be equipped to run a review meeting that is direct, empathetic, and focused on future growth.