140+ Performance Review Examples (Phrases + Comments)

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“How your employees feel is how your customers will feel.” – Richard Branson.
This simple truth underscores the power of a motivated and engaged workforce. Employees who feel valued and supported are more likely to go the extra mile, and that feeling ripples out to customers, affecting their experience and satisfaction.
But how do you ensure your employees feel supported? One of the most impactful ways is through regular and meaningful performance reviews. These reviews aren’t just formalities but opportunities for growth, recognition, and alignment.
Research by Gallup shows that employees who receive quarterly progress checks are 90% more likely to be engaged and 2.1 times more likely to feel the review process is fair and transparent. Consistent, thoughtful feedback creates a sense of fairness and direction, both essential for fostering an empowered workforce.
In this guide, we’ll explain how to conduct employee performance reviews using real performance evaluation examples and phrases. We’ll also share tips on what not to write in a performance assessment and how to respond to performance feedback.
A performance review is a formal assessment in which an employer evaluates an employee’s work performance over a specific period. It involves analyzing key aspects such as productivity, skill development, goal achievement, and areas for improvement.
The review provides a structured opportunity for constructive feedback, goal-setting, and discussions about career growth, helping align individual contributions with the company’s overall objectives.
Performance reviews play a crucial role in retaining top talent. Here’s how:
Every company has its own way of conducting performance reviews. For example, Netflix’s performance management system is popular as it strengthens employees’ freedom and accountability. Netflix abandoned the traditional annual performance review system, opting for a more innovative approach.
Instead of formal evaluations, they implemented a 360-degree feedback system, the Keeper Test, and the 4A Principles of Feedback. This shift from ratings and retrospective assessments aims to create a more open and collaborative performance management environment.
Also Read: 10 Best Employee Performance Review Software
Did you know that employees who feel undervalued can be up to 18% less productive and 15% less profitable for a company? However, studies show that 78% of employees feel motivated to work harder when rewarded.
It’s a clear case of how human nature responds positively to incentives.
These employee feedback examples are divided into different categories to address the qualities of the employee’s performance. Use these performance evaluation examples to inspire your performance review comments for your team members.
Employee aptitude, or their natural ability to learn and apply knowledge, is a vital factor in overall job performance. Here are some positive and critical phrases to help you assess employee aptitude in your performance reviews.
Your openness to new ideas and collaboration contributes greatly to our team’s innovative spirit and success.
While you demonstrate strong initiative, there are times when collaboration is essential; seeking input from team members could enhance project outcomes.
📮ClickUp Insight: 37% of our respondents use AI for content creation, including writing, editing, and emails. However, this process usually involves switching between different tools, such as a content generation tool and your workspace.
With ClickUp, you get AI-powered writing assistance across the workspace, including emails, comments, chats, Docs, and more—all while maintaining context from your entire workspace.
Attendance and reliability are essential qualities for any employee. Let’s examine the BBC case study to learn how important performance reviews are for employees.
The BBC implemented a new performance review system featuring six-month meetings between employees and their team leaders. These team meetings emphasized open, two-way discussions about job goals, performance feedback, and career development.
The results were overwhelmingly positive. Whereas only a small proportion of employees had performance reviews with their managers, the first round of the new approach saw 85% of employees having them, subsequently rising to 91%.
We appreciate how you always show up ready to contribute, especially during last week’s brainstorming session, where your insights led to innovative solutions for our challenges.

If you keep missing critical planning sessions, it will hinder our ability to move forward effectively; we need your input to make informed decisions.
Effective communication and interpersonal skills are essential for building strong relationships, strengthening teamwork, and bringing in more business.
You did an excellent job mediating the discussion between the marketing and sales teams. Your ability to facilitate open communication helped both sides align their strategies and resolve misunderstandings effectively.
During our recent project discussions, there were moments when your explanations were unclear, leading to confusion among team members about their roles. Clarifying your points could greatly enhance our collaboration.
Effective time management is crucial for achieving goals, maintaining a healthy work-life balance, and maximizing productivity. Employees who excel in time management can meet deadlines consistently, deliver high-quality work, and reduce stress.
I admire how you allocate time for both individual tasks and team collaboration. This balance not only enhances your own productivity but also supports the team’s goals.
I’ve noticed that you often underestimate the time required for projects. This leads to rushed work and could affect the quality of your output. We need to work toward more realistic planning. Let me know how I can help.
Leadership is a multifaceted skill that involves inspiring others, motivating teams, and driving positive change. The most crucial task for any leader is to create a shared vision. This helps establish roles and responsibilities and ultimately measures team productivity.
You consistently demonstrate a commitment to developing others, providing guidance and mentorship that significantly enhances the skills and confidence of your colleagues.
At times, your decision-making process appears to overlook input from the team, which can lead to missed opportunities and lower morale.
An employee’s work quality is critical in determining their overall performance. Consider an employee’s quality of work based on their attention to detail, accuracy, and ability to meet expectations.
Your commitment to maintaining a positive team atmosphere is commendable.
During the last project, there were several overlooked requirements that affected the overall quality, highlighting the need for a more structured approach to reviewing your work.
Creativity is a valuable asset in today’s fast-paced business environment. While giving feedback, address the employee’s ability to think outside the box, generate new ideas, and approach problems from different perspectives.
The interactive workshop you designed encouraged collaboration and sparked new ideas, resulting in actionable plans for the team.
While your ideas are often well-researched, they sometimes lack the creativity needed to capture our audience’s interest effectively.
When evaluating an employee’s performance in this area, consider their ability to adapt to new situations, work with different teams, and balance multiple responsibilities.
Flexible employees can adjust their approach to work as needed, embrace change, and work effectively in different environments.
You handle last-minute changes with grace, ensuring that the team stays on track and motivated, regardless of the challenges we encounter.
While your attention to detail is commendable, it can sometimes hinder your ability to adapt to changing circumstances. Being more flexible in your approach could help us identify and implement innovative solutions more quickly.
Your willingness to support teammates during challenging projects has been instrumental in achieving team goals.
At times, your focus on individual tasks has led to missed opportunities for collaboration with the team.
Your proactive approach to finding innovative solutions for customers has set a high standard for service quality.
Your focus on process adherence, while important, sometimes leads to missed opportunities for tailoring solutions to customer needs.
You can always be counted on to follow through on commitments, providing the team with confidence in your reliability.
You could work on managing time more effectively to balance competing priorities and meet deadlines consistently.
It isn’t just team managers who must write professional performance reviews. Typically, performance evaluation systems also require a self-appraisal from each employee. Here are some employee self-review examples you can use for ideation, both on the positive and the ‘need to improve’ side of things.
My adaptability has enabled me to work well with diverse teams, contributing to successful project outcomes.
At times, I could be more proactive in seeking input from colleagues to ensure alignment on shared goals.
Writing performance reviews can seem challenging, but with the right tools, they can become more structured, efficient, and insightful.
Let’s walk through how you can use ClickUp–an all-in-one project management and team collaboration tool that writes impactful performance reviews and helps employees track their progress, manage goals for improvement, and streamline the entire review process.
Before diving into the performance review, it’s essential to have a clear picture of the employee’s goals and achievements. ClickUp Goals helps you set, track, and visualize progress toward specific objectives.
In ClickUp, goals are high-level objectives made up of smaller, measurable targets. When all the Targets are completed, the goal is achieved!
For example, you can use Goals to track employee performance on objectives like OKRs (Objectives and Key Results), Sprints, or weekly scorecards. You can set up a dedicated Space for all your goals and OKRs, organizing them into Folders that fit your business needs—whether company-wide, departmental, quarterly, or region-based goals.

For instance, a team-based Folder could include separate Lists for each team, where each List contains tasks representing specific goals or OKRs.
Under the OKRs, create a task for the objective and add subtasks for each key result. This keeps everything neatly organized and easily trackable and helps determine future goals for performance review appraisals based on past trends. You can assign these tasks to individuals or teams, set due dates, and add detailed descriptions to guide the team’s efforts.
Custom Fields in ClickUp are especially useful for tracking goals and OKRs. For instance, the Progress (Auto) Custom Field is a dynamic progress bar that automatically updates based on completing subtasks, checklists, and assigned comments.
ClickUp Dashboards make writing performance reviews much easier. With customizable widgets, you can create an OKR dashboard that displays each team member’s key performance indicators (KPIs).

There are countless ways to use ClickUp Dashboards to visually represent work for your team. The Dashboard view integrates your Dashboards directly into your Workspace, ensuring your team can easily access the data they need alongside their tasks.
For instance, you can use time-based cards to show how tasks evolve—highlighting changes in priority, time estimates, or Sprint points during a project. An Activity view card can display task activity, such as comments and status changes, giving you real-time insights into productivity metrics.
To dive deeper into data analysis, you can:
ClickUp was the best solution for us because it combines multiple project management tools into one. From Mind-Mapping to Documents to Sprints, ClickUp is a dynamic tool to organize any department’s task management needs and give visibility across the whole company
ClickUp Docs can elevate continuous performance management by providing a structured way to document feedback, performance insights, and action plans. You can build Docs tailored to any type of work, whether you need detailed performance review templates, team wikis, or knowledge bases.

Performance reviews are often collaborative, involving feedback from peers, managers, and even the employee being reviewed.
With ClickUp Docs, you can:
Imagine having a performance review document linked to an employee’s key tasks and goals; you can easily reference their progress and make updates within the document.

ClickUp Brain, ClickUp’s AI-powered assistant, can help you summarize complex discussions, refine your notes, and generate content based on custom prompts, making your review process faster and more efficient.
How to use ClickUp Brain for performance reviews:
One of the most effective ways to streamline your performance review process is to use ClickUp’s free performance review templates. These templates are specifically designed to help you manage every aspect of performance management, from setting goals and tracking progress to documenting feedback and creating development plans.
Here are three of them:
The ClickUp Performance Report Template is designed to help you provide a clear, organized, and customizable way to report on the overall progress of multiple projects.
This template allows you to consolidate all your metrics and KPIs into one comprehensive report, making it easy to keep an eye on your team’s performance:
With ClickUp’s Performance Review Template, you can efficiently analyze performance, organize your thoughts, and ensure that every employee receives the valuable feedback they need to grow and succeed.
Here’s how you can use the template:
ClickUp Performance Reviews Template empowers your HR team by offering a streamlined, engaging, and comprehensive approach to performance management. This template provides everything you need to enhance feedback, boost career growth, and motivate your team.
Here are a few standout features of this template:
When writing performance evaluations, it’s important to maintain professionalism, fairness, and clarity. Here are some common mistakes to avoid when you’re working on one:
These responses strike a balance between professionalism, humility, and a willingness to act on feedback, ensuring that employees approach both positive and critical comments constructively.
Performance reviews are more than just a checkbox—they’re a powerful tool for helping employees grow, improve their technical skills, and align with company goals. They provide structured feedback that can guide professional growth, boost motivation, and map out career development paths.
However, finding the right words for your performance review comments can be tricky. That’s why having a list of performance review examples can be a lifesaver, helping you hit the right notes when discussing everything from project achievements to areas needing improvement.
ClickUp revolutionizes how your HR team operates and helps you conduct performance reviews. It neatly organizes everything from tracking employee progress and scheduling reviews to conducting customer satisfaction surveys. It also supports other crucial HR functions like onboarding, employee engagement, and career development.
Sign up on ClickUp today!
Here’s an example of positive performance review comments. You can customize it for a particular employee. [Employee’s Name] has consistently exceeded expectations in their role as [Job Title]. Their [specific skill or quality] has been invaluable to the team. They have successfully [mention specific achievements or contributions]. Their positive attitude, dedication, and willingness to go above and beyond have significantly impacted our department.
When writing a performance review for you, highlight your most significant accomplishments and how they contributed to the company’s goals. Use the STAR Method to describe the Situation, your Task, the Action you took, and the Result achieved. Ask your manager or colleagues for input to ensure your self-assessment is accurate and comprehensive.
To write a performance goal, ensure it’s SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Align it with your company’s objectives and set challenging yet realistic targets. For example, instead of saying, “I want to improve my performance,” you could set a goal like “Increase sales by 15% in the next quarter”.
To write a performance review example, use the STAR method to describe the Situation, Task, Action, and Result of a specific accomplishment. For example:
When writing a self-assessment performance review, be honest, focus on key achievements, identify areas for improvement, and align your comments with the company’s goals. For example, you might say, ‘I’m pleased with my performance in [area]. I successfully [achievement]. I’d like to improve my [skill] to better contribute.’
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