By Andreas Pettersson, Founder, Leaders ADAPT
Most performance review examples online are lists of adjectives sorted by trait. Communication: "communicates clearly". Teamwork: "is a team player". Initiative: "shows initiative". Copy one of those into a review and you have told the employee nothing they can act on, and told yourself nothing you did not already believe.
The examples on this page are grouped differently. Each one names the standard the person is held to, then gives the evidence as a situation, a behavior, an effect, and what changes or continues going forward. Bad line first, rewrite second, every time.
I run Leaders ADAPT and wrote the 5-Minute Leader for managers who end up holding everything. The SBED format the rewrites use is the feedback standard inside it, and the rule that no review contains a surprise is from the 1:1 Protocol.
Quick answer: Strong performance review examples name a standard and give evidence against it: the situation, the observable behavior, the effect, and what continues or changes. "In the Q2 vendor switch you ran the test before signing and caught the pickup gap, saving a month of late orders" works. "Proactive and detail oriented" does not, because the employee cannot repeat it.
The rule every example follows
A performance review example is useful when it names a standard and supplies evidence in SBED form, situation, behavior, experience and demands, rather than an adjective the employee cannot act on. Gallup's review of performance reviews found only 14 percent of employees strongly agree their reviews inspire them to improve. Adjectives are most of the reason. A standard with evidence is the fix.
The four letters, as I teach them in the 1:1 Protocol:
| Letter | Means | The test |
|---|---|---|
| S, Situation | Where and when | Could a third person identify the meeting or the week |
| B, Behavior | What the person observably did | Would a camera have recorded it |
| E, Experience | What it caused for the team, the customer or the number | Is the effect real, not assumed |
| D, Demands | What continues or changes going forward | Is there a date or a next occurrence attached |
Every rewrite below has all four. The bad versions have none.
Examples for delegation and ownership
The standard: work that is handed over stays handed over, and the owner escalates blockers the day they appear.
| Bad line | Rewrite |
|---|---|
| "Takes ownership of projects" | "When the carrier contract came back with a weekend gap in April, you flagged it the same day and proposed the alternate before I asked. Keep escalating on the day, that is the standard" |
| "Needs to take more initiative" | "The onboarding map was due end of July and the first draft reached me in September after two reminders. Going forward, a draft by the agreed date even if it is rough, and a blocker raised the day it appears" |
| "Reliable team member" | "You owned the month end close for 11 of 12 months without a late day. The one miss in March was flagged two days ahead, which is exactly how a miss should go" |
| "Struggles to delegate" | "Three of the four tasks you handed to your coordinator in Q3 came back to your desk within a week. In Q4, use the three minute handover we practised, outcome, authority level and a repeat back, and we will review which ones stay delegated" |
| "Good at managing workload" | "You cleared the backlog of 140 tickets in six weeks by moving the triage step to the morning stand up. Document that change for the other two teams by November" |
| "Does not follow through" | "Two commitments from our August and September 1:1s, the vendor scorecard and the handover doc, were not delivered and not re-negotiated. From now on, if a commitment will slip, tell me before the date, not after" |
Notice the last column never uses "always" or "never". It names the month, the count and the thing.
Examples for communication
The standard: the people who need to know hear it before they have to ask, and bad news travels faster than good news.
| Bad line | Rewrite |
|---|---|
| "Communicates clearly" | "Your weekly update is three lines, the number, the risk and the ask, and the leadership team reads it. Keep that format and teach it to the two new leads" |
| "Needs to improve communication" | "Three client emails in August sat for more than two days before a reply. The clients escalated to me. From now on, same day acknowledgement, even when the answer will take longer" |
| "Good presenter" | "In the board prep in September you cut the deck from 40 slides to 9 and the board asked better questions than any quarter this year. That is the deck standard going forward" |
| "Can be abrasive in meetings" | "In the pricing meeting on the 12th you interrupted the finance lead three times while she was explaining the margin model, and she stopped contributing for the rest of the hour. Let people finish before you respond, starting with Thursday's meeting" |
| "Keeps stakeholders informed" | "When the migration slipped a week in May, you told the customer success team on the Monday, before any customer noticed. That is exactly the order it should happen in" |
| "Could speak up more" | "In the last six leadership meetings you raised a point once, and it was the one about the churn cohort, which turned out to be right. I want one point from you per meeting, prepared in advance" |
Boomerang check: does your work stay delegated, or does it come back?
Three questions, scored to the protocol that fixes the leak. The 5-Minute Leader is the four protocols, Delegation, 1:1, Accountability and Rhythm, written down so a manager can run them in about five minutes a day, so tasks stop boomeranging back half done.
Get the 5-Minute Leader or see what is inside the 5-Minute Leader.
Examples for quality of work and accountability
The standard: the work is right the first time, and when it is not, the person says so before anyone else finds it.
| Bad line | Rewrite |
|---|---|
| "Produces high quality work" | "Of the 31 proposals you sent in H1, two came back with corrections and both were client changes, not errors. Keep the checklist you built, and share it with the new hire" |
| "Needs to pay more attention to detail" | "The September invoice run had 14 wrong rates, which took finance two days to unwind. Before the October run, reconcile against the rate card and send me the reconciliation, not the invoices" |
| "Accountable for results" | "You missed the Q2 hiring target by two roles and told me in week three of the quarter, with a revised plan. The miss was real and the handling was right" |
| "Makes excuses" | "When the launch slipped, the explanation was the vendor, then the brief, then the timeline. I need ownership of the outcome, and if something blocks you, escalation on the day. Can you commit to that for Q4?" |
| "Dependable" | "In 2026 you were the person the team called when the system went down, four times, and the write up was in my inbox the next morning each time. Keep writing them, that is how the fixes stuck" |
| "Inconsistent performance" | "Your first two quarters hit every number and the last two missed three of four. Something changed around June. The demand is not a number, it is this: tell me what changed, this week, and we build the plan from there" |
That last rewrite matters. Sometimes the evidence points to a conversation, not a correction, and the review should say so rather than invent a demand.
Examples for growth, leadership and the manager's own commitments
The standard: the person makes the people around them better, and the manager owes something back.
| Bad line | Rewrite |
|---|---|
| "Shows leadership potential" | "You ran the Tuesday stand up for six weeks while I was out and it started on time every day. The team told me they did not notice a difference, which is the compliment. In Q1 you run it permanently" |
| "Mentors junior staff" | "Two of the three analysts who joined in spring now close their own reports without review, and both told me you sat with them weekly. Keep the weekly slot and add the third" |
| "Ready for more responsibility" | "You asked for the regional budget in June and I said not yet. The gap was the forecasting, and your last two forecasts landed within 5 percent. You get the budget in January" |
| "Should develop strategic thinking" | "In the planning session you proposed three initiatives and all three were execution items. For Q1, bring me one proposal that answers what we should stop doing, and we will work it together" |
| "Manager will support growth" | "I will approve the second coordinator role by October 15 and move your 1:1 to a fixed Tuesday slot so it stops being cancelled" |
| "Keep up the good work" | "Nothing in this review was new to you, because we covered all of it in the 1:1s. That is the standard for both of us. Next review, same rule" |
The manager line belongs in every review. A list of demands with nothing owed back is a verdict, not a conversation, and the Accountability Protocol I teach ends every firm conversation with the same question: what do you need from me to make this shift.
How to use these without copying them
Do not paste a rewrite. Steal the shape. Pick the standard, find the scene in your 1:1 notes, write the four parts, and read it aloud. If you would not say the line to the person's face, cut it.
If the notes do not hold a scene for a standard you want to write about, you do not have evidence for it. Either drop the line or go and observe for a month and write it next time. The performance review template has the sections these examples fill, and the short phrase bank by competency is on performance review phrases.
Where SBED and the no surprise rule come from
Every rewrite above uses SBED, the feedback format inside The 5-Minute Leader. It is the system I wrote after scaling a company to more than 150 people, when my managers had copied my meetings but not the sentences that made them work. Four protocols, Delegation, 1:1, Accountability and Rhythm, each written so a manager can run it in about five minutes a day, so handed over work stays handed over and the year end review holds no surprises.
SBED lives in the 1:1 Protocol, next to the 40/40/20 structure and the 24/48 Rule that decides when feedback is still worth giving. The Accountability Protocol holds the Warm but Firm conversation and the three conversations every manager avoids, with the scripts.
One of those three scripts is the one for the person whose review reads like the "makes excuses" row above, and it is shorter than you expect.
Performance review examples FAQ
What are good performance review examples?
A good performance review example names a situation, an observable behavior, the effect it had and what should continue or change. "In the Q2 vendor switch you ran the test before signing and caught the pickup gap, which saved a month of late orders. Keep running it on every vendor change." The adjective version, "proactive and detail oriented", tells the employee nothing they can repeat.
How do you write performance review comments for an employee?
Start from the standard the role is held to, then write the comment as evidence against that standard: where it happened, what the person did, what it caused, what happens next. Pull the examples from weekly 1:1 notes so nothing is new to the employee. One comment per standard beats a paragraph of adjectives.
What should you not write in a performance review?
Anything the employee is hearing for the first time, any adjective without a scene behind it, any comparison to a colleague by name, and any line about personality rather than behavior. Gallup reports that traditional reviews make performance worse about a third of the time, and these four habits are most of the reason.
What are examples of performance review comments for communication?
Name the standard first, for example "updates reach the people who need them before they ask", then give the evidence. "During the warehouse outage in June you briefed sales within 20 minutes, before the first customer call came in." For a gap: "Three client emails in August went unanswered for more than two days. From now on, same day acknowledgement, even if the answer takes longer."
How do you write a performance review for an underperformer?
The same way as for anyone, with more weight on the demands line. Each gap gets a situation, a behavior and an effect, then a specific change with a date it should be visible by. If the gaps have already been raised and have not moved, the review points to a performance improvement plan rather than restating the gaps a third time.
Should performance review examples include numbers?
Yes where the number is real and the person controls it. "Cut order to ship time from 6 days to 2.8" is evidence. "Improved efficiency" is not. Avoid numbers the person does not control, such as company revenue, and avoid ratings without the evidence underneath them. A number that the employee can verify in their own data is the strongest line in any review.
Rewrite one line tonight
Open the last review you wrote. Find the first adjective. Replace it with a situation, a behavior, an effect and a demand, using the performance review examples above as the shape. One line is enough to feel the difference, and the employee will feel it more than you do.
Which adjective in your last review would the person have disagreed with, if the evidence had been on the page?
