80% of employees say they'd rather get continuous feedback than sit through an annual review. Yet most organizations still run the annual cycle, and most managers still stare at a blank form the night before it's due. The result is vague, rushed language that helps nobody. "Meets expectations" tells an employee nothing about what they did well or where to grow. It's a placeholder, not feedback.
The problem isn't that reviews are broken. It's that most people have never seen a good one. This guide covers both sides: writing reviews as a manager and writing self evaluations as an employee. If you want to skip the writing entirely, the Performance Review Template generates calibrated review language from your inputs.
What Makes Performance Review Phrases Actually Work
Gallup found that employees who receive meaningful feedback are 3.6x more likely to be engaged. "Great job this year" and "needs to improve communication" are both meaningless because they describe nothing observable.
Three rules that make review phrases work:
- Name the behavior. Not the trait. "You reorganized the onboarding docs and cut new-hire ramp time from 3 weeks to 10 days" vs. "You're a good team player."
- Attach an outcome. What happened because of the behavior? Revenue, time saved, fewer errors, stronger relationships. Pick one.
- Point forward. Even positive feedback should suggest what's next. "Given how well the onboarding project went, I'd like you to lead the Q3 process audit."
Vague vs. specific, side by side:
| Category | Vague (Skip This) | Specific (Use This) |
|---|---|---|
| Productivity | "Very productive this year" | "Closed 47 tickets per sprint, 22% above team average, while maintaining a 94% customer satisfaction score" |
| Communication | "Good communicator" | "Led weekly cross-functional syncs that reduced duplicate work between engineering and design by an estimated 15 hours per month" |
| Leadership | "Shows leadership potential" | "Mentored two junior analysts through their first quarterly reports. Both delivered on time with minimal revision" |
| Problem-solving | "Good problem solver" | "Identified the root cause of the billing discrepancy in 48 hours. The fix recovered $38K in undercharged accounts" |
| Growth area | "Needs to improve time management" | "Three of your last five project milestones shipped 2-4 days late. Let's build buffer into your Q2 timeline and check in biweekly" |
The specific column reads like a story. The vague column reads like a fortune cookie.
What to Write When Someone Exceeded Expectations
Top performers leave at 2x the rate of average performers when they feel under-recognized. "Sarah is excellent, keep up the great work" tells Sarah nothing about which behaviors you value. She can't replicate what you won't name.
Phrases for High Performers
For results and output:
- "Exceeded Q4 revenue target by 31%, bringing in $2.1M against a $1.6M goal. This was the highest individual performance on the team."
- "Reduced average support ticket resolution time from 4.2 hours to 2.8 hours while handling 15% more tickets than the previous quarter."
- "Delivered the product migration two weeks ahead of schedule with zero critical bugs in the first 30 days."
For leadership and initiative:
- "Designed and implemented the new QA checklist without being asked. Error rates in production dropped 40% in the first month."
- "Took ownership of the stalled vendor negotiation. Renegotiated terms that saved $67K annually."
- "Organized the first department knowledge-sharing sessions. Attendance averaged 85% and three process improvements came directly from those meetings."
For collaboration:
- "Partnered with the marketing team to build the customer case study program. Six case studies published in Q3, contributing to a 28% increase in inbound demo requests."
- "Volunteered to onboard three new hires during a peak-workload quarter. All three passed their 90-day reviews with positive manager feedback."
The Forward-Looking Close
Don't end by restating what they already know. Open the next door.
- "I'd like to put your name forward for the senior analyst promotion cycle. Let's discuss the specific criteria in our next 1:1."
- "Your leadership on cross-functional projects is ready for a bigger stage. I want you to lead the Q2 platform initiative."
- "You've mastered the current scope of your role. Let's identify a stretch project that moves you toward the principal engineer track."
What to Write When Someone Needs to Improve
The average manager waits 2.5 performance cycles before addressing underperformance directly. That's over two years of vague feedback and growing resentment. Vague criticism ("needs improvement") is crueler than direct feedback because it leaves the person guessing.
Phrases for Constructive Feedback
For missed targets:
- "Q3 sales closed at 62% of target ($186K vs. $300K). The pipeline had sufficient leads, so I'd like us to look at conversion rates in the middle of the funnel together."
- "Three of the last four client deliverables required significant revision before sending. Let's establish a pre-send review step and revisit in 30 days."
For behavioral issues:
- "In the last two team meetings, you interrupted colleagues four times. I need you to practice letting others finish before responding, starting next meeting."
- "You've missed the Wednesday standup three times this month without notice. Attendance at standups is a baseline expectation. If the time doesn't work, let's find one that does."
For skill gaps:
- "Your SQL queries consistently produce correct results, but they take 3-5x longer than the team benchmark. I'd like you to complete the query optimization course by March 15 and pair with Maria on two queries this month."
- "Your written client communications often need heavy editing for tone and clarity. I'm signing you up for the business writing workshop and want to see improvement in the next 60 days."
The Framework: Behavior, Impact, Expectation
Every constructive comment should hit three points:
- Behavior: What specifically happened (observable, not interpreted)
- Impact: What that behavior caused (for the team, client, project)
- Expectation: What you need to see going forward (with a timeline)
"Your reports have been submitted 2-3 days after the Friday deadline for the past month (behavior). This delays the Monday executive summary and creates weekend work for the analytics team (impact). Starting next week, I need all reports submitted by 5 PM Friday. If something is blocking you, flag it by Wednesday so we can adjust (expectation)."
Self Evaluation Examples That Prove Your Value
Managers see about 30% of what you actually do. Cross-functional work, behind-the-scenes fixes, mentoring, process improvements that prevented problems. If you don't write it down, it didn't happen at promotion time.
The Three-Part Structure
Every strong self evaluation follows this pattern:
- Lead with results. Not effort. Not intentions. What measurably changed because of your work?
- Own your growth areas. Naming your own weaknesses before your manager does shows self-awareness and maturity. It also lets you frame the narrative.
- State what's next. Where do you want to go? What support do you need? This turns a backward-looking document into a forward-looking conversation.
Self Evaluation Examples by Category
Achievements and results:
- "Led the CRM migration project from Salesforce to HubSpot, completing the transition 10 days ahead of schedule. Data integrity was 99.7%. Trained 24 team members on the new system."
- "Grew my territory's ARR from $1.4M to $1.9M (36% increase) by focusing on expansion within existing accounts rather than new logos."
- "Reduced monthly infrastructure costs by $12K by identifying and decommissioning three unused cloud services."
Collaboration and teamwork:
- "Served as the primary liaison between engineering and customer success during the v4.0 launch. Facilitated 12 cross-team meetings and maintained a shared issue tracker that resolved 94% of launch-day bugs within 4 hours."
- "Mentored two interns through the summer program. Both received return offers. One accepted."
Growth areas (self-identified):
- "I struggled with prioritization during Q2 when three projects ran simultaneously. Two deadlines slipped by a week each. I've since started using timeboxing and weekly priority reviews with my manager."
- "My public speaking skills need work. I volunteered for two all-hands presentations this year. Both went well, but I still rely too heavily on notes. I'd like to take a presentation skills course in Q1."
- "I tend to take on too much rather than delegating. This quarter, I'm deliberately assigning sub-tasks to junior team members and focusing my time on architecture decisions."
The Self Evaluation prompt generates a complete self evaluation from your role, accomplishments, and goals. It's especially useful if you're staring at a blank form and need a structured first draft.
Performance Review Phrases Sorted by Competency
Over 60% of managers say finding the right phrasing is the hardest part. Here's a reference table by competency, positive and constructive versions.
Communication
| Rating | Example Phrase |
|---|---|
| Positive | "Communicates project status updates proactively. Stakeholders consistently report feeling well-informed." |
| Constructive | "Technical explanations often assume too much context. Non-technical stakeholders have asked for clarification on 4 of the last 6 project updates." |
Accountability
| Rating | Example Phrase |
|---|---|
| Positive | "Owns outcomes, not just tasks. When the integration failed during launch week, she assembled a fix team within an hour without waiting for direction." |
| Constructive | "Tends to attribute missed deadlines to external factors. I'd like to see more proactive escalation when blockers appear." |
Adaptability
| Rating | Example Phrase |
|---|---|
| Positive | "When the product roadmap shifted mid-quarter, he reprioritized his sprint backlog within 24 hours and delivered the new MVP scope on time." |
| Constructive | "Resisted the transition to the new project management tool for several weeks. Team adoption was delayed because the template library he owned wasn't migrated until the deadline." |
Quality of Work
| Rating | Example Phrase |
|---|---|
| Positive | "Code review rejection rate dropped from 18% to 4% over the past two quarters. Consistently writes tests alongside features." |
| Constructive | "Three client reports this quarter contained data errors that required reissuing. Implementing a peer-review step before final send would address this." |
Teamwork
| Rating | Example Phrase |
|---|---|
| Positive | "Actively shares knowledge. Created a Notion wiki for the team that's now used by 3 other departments." |
| Constructive | "Completes individual work at a high level but rarely offers help when teammates are overloaded. Building this habit would strengthen your leadership case." |
How to Write a Self Evaluation Your Manager Will Actually Read
The average self evaluation gets 90 seconds of reading time. Managers review 5-15 in a cycle alongside their own deadlines. Yours needs to communicate value fast.
What to Do
Start with your three biggest wins. Not five. Not eight. Three. Pick the ones with the clearest business impact and lead with those. If your manager remembers nothing else, they remember your top three.
Quantify everything you can. "Improved onboarding" means nothing. "Reduced new-hire ramp time from 4 weeks to 2.5 weeks by creating a structured 10-day curriculum" means a lot.
Use the STAR format. Situation, Task, Action, Result. Fastest way to move from "I did stuff" to "here's why it mattered."
Name one real growth area. Not a fake weakness dressed as a strength ("I care too much about quality"). A real one, with a real plan.
What to Skip
Don't list every task you completed. Focus on what went beyond baseline. Don't apologize for growth areas. State them, own them, describe what you're doing about them. Don't compare yourself to teammates.
The Career Goals prompt helps articulate where you're headed in language that connects to business outcomes.
The Follow-Up Meeting That Makes the Review Matter
43% of employees who get weekly feedback report high engagement, vs. 18% with annual reviews only. The written review is the start of the conversation. What happens in the follow-up determines whether anything changes.
Before the Meeting
Share the written review 24-48 hours before you meet. Gives them time to process, cuts defensiveness, makes the conversation productive. Prepare 2-3 open-ended questions:
- "What's the biggest obstacle to hitting your Q2 goals?"
- "What part of your role do you want to spend more time on?"
- "Is there a project or skill you want to work on that we haven't discussed?"
During the Meeting
Listen more than you talk. Ask what they agree with, what surprised them, what they'd push back on. If they disagree, that's useful data.
After the Meeting
Document agreed-upon goals and check-in dates. A review without follow-up action changes nothing. The One-on-One Meeting Template keeps those follow-up conversations structured.
Performance Review Template: Putting It All Together
A 5-section template covers 90% of review scenarios. Adapt to your company's format.
Manager Review Template
Section 1: Summary (2-3 sentences) Overall performance level and the single most important theme of this review.
Example: "Alex exceeded expectations this cycle. His leadership on the platform migration was the standout contribution, and his technical mentorship of junior engineers has raised the quality bar for the whole team."
Section 2: Key Accomplishments (3-5 bullets) Each bullet: what they did + the measurable result.
Section 3: Growth Areas (1-3 bullets) Each bullet: specific behavior + impact + what you want to see.
Section 4: Goals for Next Period Tied to business outcomes. Not "improve communication" but "lead the Q2 client QBR presentations."
Section 5: Development and Career Path Where you see them going. What skills or experiences would get them there.
The Performance Review Template generates this full structure from your inputs. You describe the employee's performance, specify their level and role, and it returns calibrated review language you can edit and personalize.
Common Mistakes That Undermine Your Review
74% of employees feel their reviews are inaccurate. Usually it's one of four traps.
The Recency Trap
You remember November. You barely remember March. Your review ends up reflecting the last six weeks, not the full year. Fix: keep a running doc. Drop a bullet after any notable moment. A year of evidence beats a month of memory.
The Halo Effect
One strong trait colors everything. The charming presenter gets rated highly on execution. The quiet shipper gets rated lower on "leadership potential." Review each competency independently with specific examples.
Grading Everyone the Same
If every person on your team gets the same rating, you're avoiding conflict, not evaluating performance. Differentiation is hard. It's also the only way reviews create career movement.
Writing for HR Instead of the Employee
Your audience is the person across from you. "You did X, and it resulted in Y" beats "The employee demonstrated a capacity for strategic thinking in alignment with organizational objectives."
Frequently Asked Questions
What should I write in a performance review for an average performer?
Average means they meet expectations consistently. Acknowledge that, then focus on what would move them to exceeding. One or two specific growth levers, framed as opportunities.
How long should a self evaluation be?
One to two pages. Lead with your top three accomplishments, add a growth area, close with goals. The Self Evaluation prompt produces a complete draft if you need a starting point.
How do you write a performance review for someone you want to promote?
Document examples of them already operating at the next level. "Sarah runs sprint planning, unblocks junior developers daily, and represented our team in three cross-departmental initiatives this quarter." Promotion reviews should read like the person's already doing the job.
What performance review phrases should I avoid?
Anything a fortune cookie could say. "Great team player," "shows initiative," "needs to improve" are meaningless without specifics. Also: never put surprise negative feedback in a written review that wasn't discussed in person first.
How often should performance reviews happen?
Weekly or biweekly feedback outperforms annual reviews for engagement (Gallup). If your org runs annual cycles, supplement with monthly 1:1s. The One-on-One Meeting Template keeps those structured.
Can I use AI to write my performance review?
As a starting point, not the final product. Write your raw notes first, let AI organize and sharpen them, then edit until it sounds like you. The Performance Review Template is built for this workflow.
What's the difference between a performance review and a self evaluation?
A performance review is your manager's assessment. A self evaluation is yours. Most orgs use both. The manager review provides direction. The self evaluation ensures your contributions are documented, especially the work your manager didn't see.
The pattern's the same whether you're writing reviews or self evaluations: name what happened, attach it to an outcome, point toward what's next. Everything else is overhead.