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Free tools for HR leaders

Decision
making 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

Makes the call at the point it needs making, with the information available, and says what would change their mind.

Manager to employee

Reversed a decision quickly when it was clearly wrong, which cost far less than defending it would have.

Manager to employee

Distinguishes the reversible decisions from the expensive ones and spends time accordingly.

Manager to employee

Worth having them narrate the next hard call to the team. The method is more useful to others than the outcome.

Coaching

Ready for decisions with real consequences and incomplete information, which is most of the ones that matter.

Coaching

I made the call on [decision] before I had everything, wrote down the assumptions, and revisited it openly when one proved wrong.

Self-evaluation
Meets expectations

Decides within their authority without escalating unnecessarily.

Manager to employee

Consults the people affected before committing, without turning it into a committee.

Manager to employee

Explains the reasoning, so others can work with the decision rather than around it.

Manager to employee

Sound on decisions inside their patch. The next step is deciding when the answer genuinely is not clear.

Coaching

Worth naming which decisions are reversible. Treating a cheap decision like an expensive one is its own cost.

Coaching

I have got faster at the reversible decisions, which left more time for the ones that actually needed thought.

Self-evaluation
Needs development

Escalates decisions that sit clearly within their authority.

Manager to employee

Waits for certainty that is not coming, and the delay costs more than a wrong call would have.

Manager to employee

Decisions are made but not communicated, so the team learns them by encountering them.

Manager to employee

For every decision, ask whether it is reversible. If it is, decide now and move; you can undo it more cheaply than you can wait.

Coaching

When you decide, write one line on why. It stops the decision being relitigated every time somebody new asks.

Coaching

I wait for more certainty than the decision needs, and the waiting has its own cost that I have not been counting.

Self-evaluation

I decide and then forget to tell people, which makes the decision look arbitrary.

Self-evaluation
Unsatisfactory

Decisions within their authority have been repeatedly deferred, stalling [work] on more than one occasion.

Manager to employee

Significant decisions have been made without consulting the people who had to implement them, after this was raised in [month].

Manager to employee

We need to agree in writing which decisions are yours, and I need them made within a stated timeframe. Reviewed in six weeks.

Coaching

If the hesitation comes from a decision going badly before, tell me, because that is mine to fix rather than yours.

Coaching

I have deferred decisions that were mine to make. I want the boundaries written down so I stop checking.

Self-evaluation
No phrases match those two filters together. Clear one of them.
How do you review someone's decision making?

Rate the process, not only the result. A good decision with a bad outcome is still a good decision, and rating it otherwise teaches people to avoid deciding.

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 prior experience 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.

Reversible decisions
deserve less thought.

Compono Develop maps role requirements against real capability, which is what tells you whether somebody is avoiding decisions or was never given the authority to make them.

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 decision making feedback?

Making a call with incomplete information and stating what would change it, reversing quickly when wrong, telling reversible decisions apart from expensive ones.

How do you help someone who avoids decisions?

Write down which decisions are theirs, and check whether a previous decision went badly for them. Hesitation is usually learned.

Can I use these phrases word for word?

Yes, with the real decision 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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Bring us your review cycle

A conversation about what your reviews are telling you as a set, not a demo script.

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