Initiative
performance review phrases

Spotted the reporting gap nobody had asked about, built the fix, and it is now how the whole team works.

Consistently arrives with the problem and a recommendation rather than the problem alone.

Took on [work] when it had no owner, and did not wait for it to be formally assigned.

The instinct is strong. Worth pointing it at the biggest problem rather than the nearest one, so the effort lands where it compounds.

Ready to own an area outright rather than improve pieces of somebody else's.

I rebuilt [process] because it was quietly costing the team a day a week, and nobody had put a number on it.

I picked up [work] when it fell between two roles rather than waiting for the org chart to catch up.

Acts on obvious improvements without waiting to be asked.

Raises problems early rather than working around them quietly.

Volunteers for work outside the immediate role description when the team needs it.

Takes initiative within their own patch. The step up is spotting the thing that is nobody's patch, which is usually where the cost is.

Good at raising problems. Practise arriving with a recommendation attached, even a wrong one, because it changes the conversation.

I stopped routing small improvements through approval and just made them, which cleared a backlog that had been sitting for months.

I have started bringing a proposed answer rather than an open question.

Waits for explicit direction on work that is well within their judgement.

Identifies problems accurately but stops at identifying them.

Improvement ideas surface in one-to-ones and rarely make it into action.

Pick one thing this quarter that annoys you weekly, and fix it without asking. If it is reversible and small, you do not need permission.

When you raise a problem, add the sentence 'and I think we should'. That single habit moves you from reporter to owner.

I tend to wait for a clear mandate before acting, and some of what I waited on did not need one.

I spot problems earlier than I act on them.

Work outside explicit instructions has not been taken up this year, including tasks previously agreed as owned.

Known problems have been left unraised until they affected delivery, more than once.

We need agreed areas of ownership in writing, with what acting without approval looks like in each, reviewed in six weeks.

If the reason for waiting is that acting has gone badly before, I want to hear that, because that is mine to fix rather than yours.

I have waited for direction more than the role needed, partly from caution. I want clearer boundaries on where I can act alone.