How to use these examples without sounding generic
A review comment is useful when the employee can recognise their own year in it. Generic praise such as “great team player” tells them little, and generic criticism feels unfair. Use the examples as a starting sentence, then add three things: what the person did, when it happened, and what difference it made. For instance, “you are reliable” becomes “you took over the release checklist in March and the last four releases went out without a late fix.”
Keep a running note during the year, one line each time you see something worth mentioning. When review season arrives you will be picking from evidence, not trying to recall twelve months of work, and you will be less likely to over-weight the last few weeks.
A simple structure for each comment
- Situation: the project, quarter or customer involved.
- Behaviour: what the person actually did or did not do, in terms someone else could observe.
- Impact: what changed because of it, for the team, the customer or the business.
- Next step: what to keep doing, or what to try next, with a date if you can.
A review process that takes about two weeks
- Collect evidence: your notes, shipped work, customer feedback and anything the person has shared with you.
- Ask the employee to write a short self-review, using the self-review writer if it helps.
- Draft your comments for each competency, using the examples above as a starting point and adding your own evidence.
- Compare drafts with other managers if your company calibrates ratings, so similar work gets a similar rating.
- Hold the conversation. Share the main points first, then listen, then agree on next steps and write them down.
Mistakes to avoid
- Copying a phrase that describes a different level of performance from the rating you chose.
- Writing about personality instead of behaviour. “Negative attitude” cannot be fixed; “interrupts colleagues in meetings” can.
- Surprising people. Nothing in a review should be news. If it is, the conversation should have happened months earlier.
- Using the same comments for the whole team. People notice, and it signals that you did not look closely at their work.
- Leaving out strengths. Even a difficult review should say what the person does well and should keep doing.
Questions managers ask
How long should a review comment be?
Two to four sentences per competency is usually enough: what you saw, the effect, and what happens next. Longer comments tend to repeat themselves, and shorter ones feel dismissive.
Can I use the same wording across roles?
Only for the framing. The evidence has to be specific to the person. A comment about code reviews does not belong in a sales review, and a comment about closing deals does not belong in a support review.
What if I do not have a good example?
That is information too. Ask the employee for their own list of achievements, speak to people who worked with them, and look at the work itself. If you still have nothing, plan to observe more closely next quarter and say so.
Should self-review and manager review match?
Not word for word. Differences are a useful starting point for the conversation. Ask where the person sees their year differently, and listen before you explain your view.