Performance review examples
Performance review examples for people managers
Three complete sample reviews for people managers — one exceeds, one meets, one needs improvement — with the leadership competencies behind them, measurable team goals and a review template you can copy.
By the CLEAR Talent team
A manager’s review has to answer two questions that often get blurred: did the team deliver, and did the manager lead it well? A team can hit its numbers while the manager burns people out, and a well-led team can miss a target for reasons nobody controlled.
The reviews below rate four leadership competencies — setting direction, coaching and developing people, delivering results through the team, and building the team — so a strong result never hides weak leadership, and a hard year does not erase good leadership.
What to rate
Leadership competencies to review a manager against
These four apply to team leads and to managers of managers; the scope grows with seniority. The evidence comes from more places than for most roles: the team’s results, the manager’s own manager, and — through upward or 360° feedback — the people they manage.
Rate the leadership competencies even when the results are strong. They are what predicts whether the results will last.
| Competency | Meets expectations | Exceeds expectations |
|---|---|---|
| Setting direction and goals | Turns organisation goals into clear team goals, explains the priorities and revisits them when things change. | Gets the team to own the goals — people can say why their work matters — and anticipates the next shift in priorities. |
| Coaching and developing people | Holds regular one-to-ones, gives specific feedback and keeps every report’s development plan moving. | People grow measurably under them — into bigger roles, new skills, other teams — and seek them out for advice. |
| Delivering results through the team | The team meets its goals; the manager removes blockers and delegates rather than doing the work themselves. | The team exceeds its goals sustainably, without heroics, and other teams adopt how it works. |
| Building the team | Hires well, deals with underperformance early and fairly, and runs reviews on time and on evidence. | Builds a team that keeps its people, brings on new starters quickly and covers for absences without strain. |
For a fuller model, the leadership competencies guide sets out twelve competencies for managers. This is a starting point, not a validated model.
Measurable goals
Measurable goals for people managers
A manager’s goals should cover the team’s results and the manager’s own leadership work. The second kind is easy to leave vague; give it a number or an observable outcome too.
Team results goals
Team goals
Deliver the team’s three quarterly goals, with progress reviewed at each monthly check-in.
Review cycle
Complete every direct report’s review by the stage deadline, with evidence on each rating.
Hiring
Fill the open role within ten weeks of approval, with the new starter fully onboarded in their first month.
Leadership goals
One-to-ones
Hold a one-to-one with every direct report at least fortnightly, with shared notes.
Development plans
Every direct report has an agreed development plan by the end of quarter one, reviewed at each check-in.
Delegation
Hand two recurring deliverables to team members by the end of quarter two, each with a written brief.
The numbers are placeholders to show the shape of a measurable goal. Set the real figures from your own targets and last year’s results, not from this page.
The people manager performance review template
Template
People manager performance review
Fill in the review details, then one row per competency in the role profile — for managers, usually the four leadership competencies in the table above. The overall rating goes in last, once the rows are written.
| Field | What to write |
|---|---|
| Review details | |
| Employee | Name, or an employee ID if the form will travel beyond the manager and HR. |
| Role and team | Job title, team and level, so the reader knows which standard applies. |
| Review period | The dates the review covers. Evidence from outside them does not belong here. |
| Overall rating | Exceeds, meets or needs improvement against what the role requires. Decide it after the rows below, not before. |
| Summary | Three or four sentences: the headline result, the strongest evidence and the one thing to change. The employee should recognise every sentence. |
| Goals for the next period | Two or three goals, each with a number or an observable outcome and a date. |
| For each competency (up to 5) | |
| Competency | A competency from the role profile, with the level the role requires. |
| Rating | Exceeds, meets or needs improvement, for this competency only. |
| Evidence | Two or three specific examples from the period — what happened, when and the result — with figures where the role has them. |
| Next step | What to keep doing, stretch into or change, in one sentence the employee can act on. |
Show the plain-text template
PEOPLE MANAGER PERFORMANCE REVIEW Employee: Role and team: Review period: Overall rating: Summary: Goals for the next period: COMPETENCY 1 Competency: Rating: Evidence: Next step: COMPETENCY 2 Competency: Rating: Evidence: Next step: COMPETENCY 3 Competency: Rating: Evidence: Next step: COMPETENCY 4 Competency: Rating: Evidence: Next step: COMPETENCY 5 Competency: Rating: Evidence: Next step:
Nothing here is gated: the spreadsheet and the text file hold exactly the fields shown above, with five blank competency rows.
How to write a performance review for a manager
A manager’s review needs evidence from three directions: the results, the manager’s own manager, and the people they lead.
Separate the team’s results from the leadership
Rate delivering results on the team’s goals, then rate direction, coaching and team building on their own evidence. One strong row should not carry the others.
Ask the people they manage
Upward or 360° feedback from direct reports is the best evidence for coaching and direction. Keep it anonymous where the team is large enough, and read it for patterns rather than single comments.
Look at what happened to their people
Who grew, who moved on and why, how quickly new starters became productive, whether development plans moved. These are the outcomes of the leadership competencies.
Check how they ran their own reviews
Were the team’s reviews on time, evidenced and consistent with other teams at calibration? A manager’s own review is a fair place to rate how they review others.
Set team and leadership goals
One or two team results goals and one or two leadership goals, each measurable, so next year’s review has evidence for both halves.
Manager performance review examples at three rating levels
An engineering manager who exceeded, a first-year customer operations team lead who met expectations and a sales manager whose team hit its numbers but whose leadership needs improvement.
These reviews were written for this page to show a workable level of detail at each rating. They describe no real employee or CLEAR Talent customer, and every figure in them is an illustrative placeholder, not a benchmark.
Exceeds expectations
Example 1: exceeds — an engineering manager
Manages eight engineers across two squads, four years as a manager. Took on a second squad mid-year.
- Role and team
- Engineering manager, platform squads
- Review period
- January to December
- Overall rating
- Exceeds expectations
- Summary
- Absorbed a second squad mid-year without either squad missing its goals, and two engineers moved up a level. Upward feedback is the strongest in the department on coaching. Hiring for the open role ran long.
- Goals for the next period
- Deliver both squads’ quarterly goals; fill the open senior role within ten weeks of approval; prepare one engineer to lead a squad’s stand-ups and planning by the end of quarter three.
Competency 1
- Competency
- Setting direction and goals (role requires: manager)
- Rating
- Exceeds
- Evidence
- Merged two squads’ roadmaps into one set of quarterly goals within three weeks of taking on the second squad. Engineers in both can explain how their work links to the platform goals.
- Next step
- Involve the squad leads in drafting next year’s goals.
Competency 2
- Competency
- Coaching and developing people (manager)
- Rating
- Exceeds
- Evidence
- Fortnightly one-to-ones with all eight reports, every development plan updated at check-ins, two promotions to the next level. Upward feedback highlights specific, useful feedback.
- Next step
- Develop one engineer towards leading a squad.
Competency 3
- Competency
- Delivering results through the team (manager)
- Rating
- Exceeds
- Evidence
- Both squads delivered their quarterly goals in every quarter, including the two after the merge, without extended overtime.
- Next step
- Keep the pace; protect the time set aside for reliability work.
Competency 4
- Competency
- Building the team (manager)
- Rating
- Meets
- Evidence
- Onboarded three new engineers well. The open senior role took five months to fill after two candidates declined offers.
- Next step
- Review the role’s level and pitch with the recruiter before reopening it.
Meets expectations
Example 2: meets — a first-year team lead
Promoted from within the team last year and now managing six customer operations staff, most of them former peers.
- Role and team
- Team lead, customer operations
- Review period
- January to December
- Overall rating
- Meets expectations
- Summary
- A solid first year: the team met its goals and one-to-ones became a habit. Still doing too much of the work personally, which limits time for coaching. Upward feedback describes the lead as fair and approachable.
- Goals for the next period
- Hand two recurring deliverables to team members by the end of quarter two; every report has an agreed development plan by the end of quarter one; complete the feedback skills course by March.
Competency 1
- Competency
- Setting direction and goals (team lead)
- Rating
- Meets
- Evidence
- Translated the department goals into three team goals and reviewed them at the monthly team meeting.
- Next step
- Ask the team to draft next quarter’s goals before the meeting.
Competency 2
- Competency
- Coaching and developing people (team lead)
- Rating
- Meets
- Evidence
- Fortnightly one-to-ones with every report from March. Feedback is kind but general; two reports said they were not sure what to improve.
- Next step
- Use the situation–behaviour–impact model for feedback and agree a development plan with each report.
Competency 3
- Competency
- Delivering results through the team (team lead)
- Rating
- Meets
- Evidence
- The team met its processing-time and accuracy goals in every quarter. The lead personally handled the month-end reconciliation all year.
- Next step
- Hand the reconciliation and one other recurring task to team members, with a written brief.
Competency 4
- Competency
- Building the team (team lead)
- Rating
- Meets
- Evidence
- Ran every review on time with evidence. Raised a performance concern with one report early and agreed a plan, which has since been closed.
- Next step
- Keep raising concerns early; involve HR sooner if one recurs.
Needs improvement
Example 3: needs improvement — a sales manager
Manages seven account executives. The team beat its target, but turnover and upward feedback point to a leadership problem the number hides.
- Role and team
- Sales manager, mid-market
- Review period
- January to December
- Overall rating
- Needs improvement
- Summary
- The team closed 104% of its target, which is recognised in the results row. But three of seven account executives left during the year, one-to-ones were frequently cancelled and upward feedback is the lowest in the sales organisation. The overall rating reflects that the leadership competencies are not yet at the level the role requires.
- Goals for the next period
- Hold fortnightly one-to-ones with every report, with no more than one cancellation a quarter each; agree a development plan with every report by the end of February; work with a leadership coach for two quarters.
Competency 1
- Competency
- Setting direction and goals (manager)
- Rating
- Meets
- Evidence
- Team targets were set and tracked weekly; account executives knew their numbers.
- Next step
- Explain the reasons behind territory changes before they are announced.
Competency 2
- Competency
- Coaching and developing people (manager)
- Rating
- Needs improvement
- Evidence
- Roughly half of scheduled one-to-ones were cancelled. Upward feedback says deal reviews focus on the forecast and rarely on how to improve. No report had an agreed development plan.
- Next step
- Fortnightly one-to-ones that open with the report’s priorities; a development plan for each report.
Competency 3
- Competency
- Delivering results through the team (manager)
- Rating
- Exceeds
- Evidence
- The team closed 104% of target, with the manager personally leading the two largest deals.
- Next step
- Coach account executives through large deals rather than taking them over.
Competency 4
- Competency
- Building the team (manager)
- Rating
- Needs improvement
- Evidence
- Three account executives left during the year; two exit conversations mentioned the management style. Two roles were vacant for more than three months.
- Next step
- Agree a hiring and onboarding plan with the head of sales and HR for both open roles.
From template to review cycle
Running manager reviews on a competency framework
In CLEAR Talent the competencies on this page would sit in one competency library, each with behavioural anchors and proficiency levels, and a role profile sets the competencies the role requires and the target level for each. A rating can require evidence — a project, a deliverable or an observed behaviour — and self-assessment and manager assessment are compared side by side, so both sides argue from the same facts.
Leadership competencies can carry their own scale, separate from the scales for technical and individual-contributor roles, and the same competencies feed 360° feedback — so the upward feedback a manager receives is rated against the same descriptions their review uses.
The same competencies run through reviews, 360° feedback and development plans. Each assessment drafts an individual development plan around the competencies that matter most for the role, ranked by the size of the gap, and the next review re-scores them on the same scale — so you can see whether a needs-improvement rating actually moved.