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Free tools for HR leaders

Creativity
and innovation performance review phrases

24 phrases across four rating bands, for managers, coaching conversations and self-evaluations. Filter, copy, print. Free, no sign-up.

Start with the rating band that matches the person, then pick the voice you are writing in. Copy a phrase, then change the specifics so it names the real project, the real quarter, the real thing that happened. A comment that could describe anyone is the thing you were trying to avoid.

How these were written, and the five steps to a review that holds up ↓
Rating:
Voice:
24 showing
Exceeds expectations

Proposed the approach nobody had considered on [work], and made the case well enough that it got tried.

Manager to employee

Borrows solutions from outside our industry and adapts them rather than reinventing.

Manager to employee

Kills their own ideas quickly when they do not survive contact with the constraints.

Manager to employee

Worth giving them a genuinely open problem rather than an optimisation, which is where this capability actually pays.

Coaching

Ready to run the idea through to implementation, which is the part most ideas die at.

Coaching

I proposed [approach] and built a small version to test it, which made the case far better than the argument would have.

Self-evaluation
Meets expectations

Suggests improvements and is willing to have them picked apart.

Manager to employee

Builds on other people's ideas rather than competing with them.

Manager to employee

Tries a different approach when the standard one is clearly not working.

Manager to employee

Generates ideas well. The next step is testing one cheaply rather than arguing it in a meeting.

Coaching

Worth deliberately looking outside our sector for the next problem. The best answers usually already exist somewhere.

Coaching

I have started prototyping ideas rather than presenting them, which has killed two early and cheaply.

Self-evaluation
Needs development

Applies the established approach even where it is clearly a poor fit.

Manager to employee

Ideas are raised but not developed to the point where anybody could act on them.

Manager to employee

Dismisses unfamiliar approaches before understanding them.

Manager to employee

When the standard approach is not working, say so out loud. Persisting quietly is the expensive version.

Coaching

Take one idea this quarter and build the smallest possible version. An idea that has been tested beats one that has been argued.

Coaching

I default to the way we have always done it, including when it plainly does not fit.

Self-evaluation

I raise ideas without developing them enough for anybody to act on.

Self-evaluation
Unsatisfactory

No alternative approaches have been proposed on work where the current method is visibly failing.

Manager to employee

New approaches from others have been repeatedly obstructed rather than tested.

Manager to employee

For the next quarter I want one proposed alternative on any work that is not going well, in writing. Reviewed in six weeks.

Coaching

If ideas have been raised before and gone nowhere, tell me, because that is the thing to fix first.

Coaching

I have stopped proposing alternatives. Some of that is mine and some of it is what happened to the last few.

Self-evaluation
No phrases match those two filters together. Clear one of them.
How do you write about creativity in a performance review?

Point at an idea that got tested, not one that got mentioned. Developing an idea to the point of action is the rare part.

How these were written

Written, not calculated. Each phrase names a situation, an observable behaviour and its effect on the work or the people around it. Bands run from exceeds expectations to unsatisfactory across three voices: a manager writing about somebody, a manager coaching, and a person writing their own self-evaluation.

Assumptions
  • Phrases are starting points. Drop in the real situation or the comment reads as filler.
  • The four bands assume a four-point scale. On a three or five-point cycle the band is a sorting device, not a score.
  • Written for Australian workplaces and Australian English.
  • Check the constraint before rating the person. Workload, authority and what happened to the last person who tried shape most of what gets written up as an individual failing.
  • Unsatisfactory-band comments assume a dated record already exists and the issue has been raised before.
Sources

What to do about it

Good phrasing rescues a review that was already done properly. It cannot rescue one where nobody wrote anything down until the week it was due.

1

Start from your notes, not from this list

Open what you recorded during the year, pick what really happened, then find the wording. The other order produces a fluent review that says nothing.

2

Name the situation in every comment

The real project, the real quarter, the real result. Only one person could have earned it.

3

Match the band to your evidence, not the conversation you want

A generous rating on somebody you privately consider a problem is how next year's difficult conversation ends up looking like it came from nowhere.

4

Pair every development comment with a support step

Training, a pilot, a pairing, a cadence. Criticism without a path forward produces defensiveness and reads badly to anyone reviewing the file later.

5
Where a tool helps

Read your reviews as a set

If the same competency is the gap across a function, that is a capability gap in how the team was built rather than a dozen development plans.

Untested ideas are
just opinions.

Compono Develop maps capability against what the role actually needs, so the gap between generating ideas and landing them becomes a specific development plan.

Step 5 asks what your reviews say together. That is very hard to answer from a folder of review documents and straightforward to answer from capability data.

See how it works
Compono Develop
4.7/5
rating across millions of learners

Common questions

What are examples of innovation feedback?

Proposing an approach nobody had considered and making the case for it, borrowing a solution from another industry, abandoning your own idea quickly when it fails.

How do you encourage more innovation?

Check what happened to the last few ideas people raised. If they went nowhere, that is your answer and no amount of feedback will change it.

Can I use these phrases word for word?

Yes, with the real idea named.

These phrases are starting points, not finished comments. Change the specifics so each one is true of the actual person and the actual situation, because a comment that could describe anyone is the thing you were trying to avoid. Review comments can later be read as evidence in an employment matter, so anything you take from the unsatisfactory band should match a dated record you already hold. Last reviewed July 2026.

Next step

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