Self-Evaluation Examples: 60 Phrases, Free Form and Samples
Write a self-evaluation with finished examples, a free form and 60 phrases to adapt. Includes annual, probation and mid-year review samples.
A self-evaluation explains your performance over a review period: your results, how you worked, areas to develop and what you plan to do next.
- Use specific evidence and name your part in shared work. Figures help when available, but a work example or relevant feedback can also support a claim.
- Choose ratings using your organisation's criteria. Missing evidence is a reason to investigate, not automatically a reason to give yourself a lower rating.
- Explain development needs with an action, date and support request. The free form helps organise those details; it does not judge your performance or verify your writing.
Train teams faster and more effectively with AI
A self-evaluation is your written account of how you performed over a review period: what you achieved, how you worked, what you want to improve and what comes next. Below you'll find finished examples, phrases to adapt and a free form with a 60-phrase bank. The completed workbook follows a support specialist's review, with further samples for a team leader, a new starter and a care worker.
I'm the COO of Coursebox, and I run our team in Perth. We make HR training software for teams that train their own people.
The support specialist is a fictional employee at a software company. Their review includes a response-time goal they exceeded, three help articles they haven't finished and a plan to handle urgent tickets better. The examples show how to explain that mix without exaggerating the successes or hiding the unfinished work.
Use the form to organise your evidence. Its checks flag empty fields and unrecognised ratings; you still need to read and check what you have written.
Download the blank Excel form with all 60 phrases, the completed Excel example, or a blank Word form. The example PDF includes the completed review, phrase bank and three shorter role samples. No email or account required.
Open the completed form preview at full size
Self-evaluation examples you can adapt
These three examples come from the fictional support specialist. Each names a piece of work and gives enough detail for a manager to discuss it.
Achievement: “I set up saved replies for 15 common questions and took the 8 am shift twice a week. Median first response fell from 3.1 hours in January to 1.6 hours in September, against a target below 2 hours.”
Open the response-time example at full size
Partly met goal: “I published seven of the ten planned help articles. The other three are drafted and waiting for the billing changes. I will finish them by 30 November, once those changes ship.”
Area to improve: “During the March release, two outage tickets waited over a day while I handled tickets in arrival order. Since April I check priority at the start of each shift. I want to practise leading the queue during a release, with my lead available for support.”
What a self-evaluation is
A self-evaluation is the part of a performance review you write yourself, usually before you meet your manager. Your manager reads it alongside their own view, and the conversation starts from both.
Your manager may have seen the final result without seeing your contribution. Explain what you did, what happened and what you learned. If several people contributed, name your part rather than taking credit for the whole outcome.
What goes in a self-evaluation
Competencies are the skills and behaviours you use at work, such as communication or problem-solving. The form separates how you worked from the results you achieved, then asks what you want to develop next.
| Part | The question it answers | Example from the support specialist |
|---|---|---|
| Results | Did I meet the goals I was given? | Median first response fell from 3.1 to 1.6 hours against a 2-hour target |
| Competencies | How did I work? | Problem-solving: logged a recurring login error, and those tickets fell from 30 to 4 a month |
| Areas to improve | What do I need to get better at, and what am I doing about it? | Prioritising under pressure: now sorts the queue by priority each shift |
| Goals | What will I do next period, and how will we know? | Lead the queue during one release, with outage tickets answered within 2 hours, by 30 June |
Self-evaluation, self-assessment or performance review?
These terms overlap, and organisations use them differently.
| Term | What it is | Who writes it |
|---|---|---|
| Self-evaluation | Your written review of your own performance for one period | You |
| Self-assessment | A term also used for reviewing your own performance, skills or knowledge; the format varies by organisation | You, often as a form or quiz |
| Performance review | The whole process: your self-evaluation, your manager's review and the conversation | You and your manager |
| 360-degree feedback | Feedback from colleagues, direct reports, managers and sometimes customers | Several people |
In this guide, a self-evaluation includes the self-assessment: you rate each competency, then back the rating with an example.
Types of self-evaluation
| Review | Period it covers | What to focus on |
|---|---|---|
| Annual review | 12 months | Results against goals, competencies, next year's goals |
| Mid-year check-in | 6 months | Progress on this year's goals, what to change for the second half |
| Probation review | The probation period your employer sets | What you can now do on your own, what you are still learning |
| Project review | One project | Your part in the result and what you would do differently |
How to rate yourself
Start with your organisation's rating descriptions. A useful result does not automatically mean the highest rating: compare it with what your role and goals required. If the evidence is missing, look for it or explain the uncertainty rather than guessing a higher or lower score.
| Rating | Use it when | The support specialist's example |
|---|---|---|
| Strong | Your evidence supports performance above the agreed role expectations | Problem-solving: found a recurring login error and got it fixed |
| Solid | Your evidence supports meeting the agreed expectations | Teamwork: covered weekend shifts during colleagues' leave |
| Developing | A required skill or part of the work needs further development | Prioritisation: outage tickets waited over a day during the March release |
Research: self-ratings can influence managers
Iris Bohnet and co-authors studied performance reviews in a multinational firm. When managers could not see employees' self-evaluations before rating them, the relationship between self-ratings and manager ratings weakened.
The finding is a reason to explain your evidence clearly, not to inflate a score. It comes from one firm and does not tell you which rating to choose.
The workbook uses Strong, Solid and Developing as an example scale. A mix of ratings is not evidence of honesty, and an all-Strong review is not automatically wrong. Use the criteria and evidence for each competency. If your employer uses another scale, write in its form and use the phrase bank for wording.
When a self-evaluation form is the wrong tool
- Your organisation has its own form or HR system: use theirs, and use these phrases to fill it in.
- A performance problem is already formal: a performance improvement plan has its own process, and HR should guide it.
- You want feedback from others: ask for it through your organisation's feedback process. A self-evaluation records your own perspective.
How to write your self-evaluation
The steps follow the fictional support specialist's annual review for November 2025 to October 2026. They answer chat and email tickets, and report to a support team lead. Treat the figures as examples of how to write, not targets for your own role.
Step 1: Collect your evidence first
Gather evidence from across the review period: completed work, relevant reports, customer comments and feedback. Include routine responsibilities as well as projects. An accurate handover or a resolved complaint can be useful evidence even when you don't have a percentage to attach to it.
The support specialist pulled their response times by month, their satisfaction score, the help articles they published, and the login error they logged.
When something goes well, note the date, what you did and the result in one line. At review time you'll have your evidence instead of trying to remember it.
Step 2: Write your results against each goal
For each goal you were given, write what you did, the result and your rating. The result should be a number or something your manager can check.
The support specialist's results
Example: Fictional customer support specialist, annual review for November 2025 to October 2026.
- 1. Exceeded: The writer compares a 1.6-hour response time with the target below 2 hours. The rating still depends on the agreed criteria.
- 2. Partly met: 7 of 10 help articles is reported as it is, with the reason for the other 3.
- 3. Fields filled: The required spaces contain text. This does not verify facts, judge the evidence or decide that the review is ready to submit.
Open the results preview at full size
For the help-article goal, the specialist reports seven published articles and three unfinished drafts. That gives the manager something specific to discuss: what is complete, what is waiting on another change and when the remaining work can finish.
Step 3: Rate each competency with one example
For each competency, choose a rating and write one example in two parts: what you did, then what changed because of it.
The support specialist's competencies
Example: Fictional customer support specialist, annual review for November 2025 to October 2026.
- 1. Strong: problem-solving names the problem, the action and the drop from 30 to 4 tickets a month.
- 2. Developing: prioritisation says what went wrong in March and what changed in April.
- 3. Rating criteria: The example has three Strong, four Solid and one Developing rating. Choose each rating from the evidence and agreed expectations, not a required mix.
Open the competencies preview at full size
"I write clear emails" tells your manager nothing. "I rewrote our refund replies in plain words, and follow-up questions fell from about 1 in 4 to 1 in 10" shows it.
Step 4: Explain what you want to improve
Choose a real area for development and explain its effect on your work. Say what you have tried, or that you haven't started yet, then give a next step, date and any support you need. You can acknowledge a difficulty in a core responsibility; the useful part is being clear about what will help you perform it better.
Use it for each area to improve, then replace every bracket with your own facts.
I want to get better at [skill]. So far I've started to [action]. Next I'll [step] by [date], and I'd like [support].
- [skill]
- : The area you want to improve (for example, prioritising when the queue is under pressure)
- [action]
- : What you have already done about it (for example, sort the queue by priority at the start of each shift)
- [step]
- : Your next step (for example, lead the queue during the next release)
- [date]
- : When you will do it (for example, 15 December)
- [support]
- : What you need from your manager (for example, a walkthrough of the incident process)
“I need better time management” leaves the problem unclear. “I left the help articles unfinished while waiting for product changes; I'll agree a release date and reserve writing time each week” explains the work and the next action. Avoid invented weaknesses or blaming someone else. Describe any dependencies factually.
Step 5: Set goals with a measure and a date
Each goal for the next period needs a measure and a date, or nobody can tell at the next review whether it was met. One of the support specialist's goals: "Lead the support queue during one product release by 30 June 2027." The measure is outage tickets answered within 2 hours.
Link at least one goal to an area to improve. The specialist's incident-handling course by 15 December is the next step on prioritisation.
Step 6: Check it, then send it
Check names, dates, figures and your contribution to shared results. Read each rating against its description, then check that the next steps are realistic. The workbook's Fields filled message only means the required spaces contain something. It cannot tell whether your claims are accurate, your examples are useful or your goals have a workable deadline.
Follow your employer's length guidance. Keep the main point visible, then add enough detail to support it. A short paragraph may be enough for one competency; a complex project may need more context.
Self-evaluation phrases by competency
Use these as starting points, and replace every bracket with your own facts. The workbook has 60 phrases (two per competency at each level), plus frames for areas to improve and goals, and you can filter them by competency.
Prioritisation phrases from the workbook
Example: The phrase bank from the blank and example workbooks.
- 1. Filter: choose a competency or a level in the header to see only those phrases.
- 2. Brackets: every phrase needs your own facts and numbers before it is ready to use.
Open the phrases preview at full size
| Competency | Strong | Developing |
|---|---|---|
| Communication | I rewrote [document] in plain words after [problem]. [Follow-ups or errors] fell by [number]. | My [handovers] have sometimes left out [detail]. Since [month] I use [checklist], and [early result]. |
| Giving and receiving feedback | When [person] gave me feedback on [issue], I changed [what] within [time], and [result]. | I have put off giving feedback to [colleague] on [issue]. I've now [first step], and I'll [next step] by [date]. |
| Results and goals | I achieved [result] against a target of [target], by [what you did]. | I reached [part] of [goal] because [real reason]. To finish it, I will [action] by [date]. |
| Prioritisation | When [deadlines] clashed, I agreed priorities with [manager] and delivered [the critical one] on time. | During [busy period] I worked on [tasks] in the order they arrived, and [consequence]. Since [month] I [new habit]. |
| Teamwork | I covered [colleague]'s [work] during [period] and wrote handover notes, so [result]. | I haven't always kept [team] informed about [work]. I now [post updates] each [week]. |
| Problem-solving | I noticed [recurring problem], found the cause and [got it fixed]. [Metric] dropped from [x] to [y]. | On [problem], I fixed the symptom, not the cause. Next time I'll [approach]. |
| Reliability | I delivered [all] of my [commitments] on time this period, including [hard example]. | I missed [number] deadlines on [work] because [reason]. I now [new habit], and [early result]. |
| Adaptability | When we moved to [new system], I [learnt it early, trained others], and [result]. | I found [change] hard at first. I've since [action], and I'd like [support] for the next change. |
| Customer service | [Number] customers mentioned me by name in [reviews] this period, mostly about [what]. | My [handle time] is [number] against a target of [number]. I'm working on [skill], with [support]. |
| Leadership | I hold a [frequency] one-to-one meeting with each of my [number] team members, and [result]. | I put off a hard conversation about [issue] for [time]. I've now had it, and next time I'll [approach] sooner. |
Self-evaluation samples for other situations
In the 180 days to 19 October 2026, at least 14 people asked our AI course builder for training on performance reviews, from new managers running reviews to a course for all employees on self-reflection and goal setting. The fictional samples below show how to adapt a review for different roles.
The following samples are fictional. Each also appears on a separate tab in the completed Excel file and in the example PDF.
A new team leader's first annual review
A fictional team leader reviewing their first year managing seven people.
| Section | What they wrote |
|---|---|
| Result | The team met its quality target in 10 of 12 months, up from 6 the year before. |
| Strength | I planned a 20-minute one-to-one meeting with each of my seven team members every fortnight and held 179 of the 182 planned meetings. Two people asked for development plans. |
| Strength | I handed the weekly rota to a senior team member, which freed about 3 hours a week for coaching. |
| Area to improve | I put off a conversation about attendance for two months. I've now discussed the missed shifts and their effect on cover with the employee. I'll finish the difficult-conversations module by 31 March 2027 and review my approach with my manager. |
| Goal | Every team member has a written development goal by 31 March, reviewed at each 1:1. |
Include the team's results, then explain your contribution as a manager. Holding meetings is an activity; the development requests show one way those conversations led to further action.
A probation review for a new front desk receptionist
A fictional hotel receptionist at the end of a three-month probation period.
| Section | What they wrote |
|---|---|
| What I can do alone now | Check guests in and out on the booking system, take payments and handle room changes. |
| Result | Handled about 600 check-ins with 2 errors, both fixed in the same shift. |
| Strength | Guests named me in 5 online reviews in my second month, mostly about local tips. |
| Still learning | End-of-day booking and payment checks: I've completed these twice with my supervisor. I'd like two more supervised shifts before doing them alone. |
| Goal for the next 3 months | Complete the end-of-day checks independently by the end of month five, after supervisor sign-off, and practise a group booking with my supervisor by the end of month six. |
Explain what you can now do independently and where you still need support. In this example, the request for two supervised shifts gives the manager a clear next step.
A mid-year check-in on the way to a senior role
A fictional care worker reviewing progress in October towards a senior carer role the following March.
| Section | What they wrote |
|---|---|
| Progress on my goal | Goal: be ready to apply for senior carer by March 2027. Medication competency signed off in July 2026; shadowed the senior carer on six shifts. |
| Strength | Two families wrote to the manager about how I handled their parent's move to a new room. |
| Area to improve | Three of my care notes were missing visit times in May. I now use the end-of-visit checklist, and none have been missing since June. |
| Next six months | Lead the shift handover on four shifts and finish the supervising-others module by January 2027. |
A mid-year check-in is for changing course. Report progress against the year's goals, and say what you will do differently in the second half.
What to do after you send it
Your self-evaluation is the start of the review conversation, not the end of it.
- Prepare for the conversation. Note where you expect your manager to see things differently, and the evidence you would point to.
- Agree the goals. Confirm each goal, its measure and its date, and write them down.
- Turn areas to improve into a plan. Agree what will help: clearer priorities, better tools, practice, coaching or a course. These employee development plan examples show how to record the actions.
- Agree a check-in date before the next formal review. Use it to discuss progress, support and any goals that need to change.
If the review shows a bigger gap between what the role needs and what you can do now, work out its cause first with a performance gap analysis.
When the form is not enough
- To name your strengths and weaknesses in plain words, use these employee strengths and weaknesses examples.
- To see which skills a whole team has, build a skills matrix.
- To prepare managers for running reviews, start with these management training topics.
The workbook is version 1.1 (20 October 2026). Its checks cover empty fields and recognised rating labels, not evidence quality or performance. The Word form is a separate writing template without automatic checks.
Writing your next self-evaluation
Collect your evidence first, then rate each competency on what you can show. Write every area to improve with what you have already done about it, and give every goal a measure and a date. If your team's areas to improve point to the same training needs, you can build that training in Coursebox's HR training software.
Frequently Asked Questions
Collect evidence from the review period, then explain your results against the agreed goals. For each competency, describe your contribution and what happened. Include a real development need and next-period goals with measures and dates. Use your employer's form and criteria where provided.
Name a real part of your work you want to improve. Explain its effect, what you have tried and what you plan to do next. If you have not started, say so and agree a first step and date. Do not hide a difficulty just because it concerns a core responsibility.
Follow your employer's guidance. Include enough detail to support your main points, without repeating the same example or listing every task. Use headings or short paragraphs so the manager can find the evidence.
Use the rating descriptions and evidence for your role. Look for missing records or ask for clarification if you are uncertain. Avoid inflating a score or lowering it merely because you cannot immediately find a number.
Use a specific example of how you worked. For instance: 'I logged a recurring login error with screenshots; engineering fixed it in June, and related tickets fell from about 30 to four a month.' This fictional example makes the writer's contribution clear.
Alex Hey
Alex Hey is a technical marketer with 10 years of hands-on growth and digital marketing experience. He cofounded Coursebox together with Travis Clapp who he met online when looking for a cofounder to build a globally impactful software product. He works in the Perth, Western Australia office as the COO. He built the world's first automated funnel for patient recruitment before building Coursebox. After launching Coursebox in mid 2023, he drove +400k organic sign ups for Coursebox. Alex leads the marketing and digital growth of Coursebox and works with the product development team bringing a passion for data-driven product decision and exceptional user experience. Alex is determined to build the world's easiest way to build the perfect course.
