Tips for Writing a Strong Self-Evaluation (With Examples)

Self-evaluations ask employees to reflect on (and often rate) their own performance over a set period of time.

While that sounds simple enough, it’s no secret that the self-assessment performance review process can be awkward. Singing our own praises may make our toes curl — and acknowledging where we’ve made mistakes in the past can feel uncomfortable or embarrassing.

So it seems like little wonder, then, that according to research by Gallup, only 14% of employees find performance reviews helpful for driving improvement. Getting this part of the performance review right requires introspection, a non-judgmental attitude, and asking yourself the right questions to guide self-evaluation. 

To get things started, use our tips in this article to help guide your reflection process. Then, follow up with our Self-Evaluation Template to help you structure your written evaluation.

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What is a Self-Evaluation? (And What Should It Be?)

At its core, a self-evaluation is a structured opportunity for employees to reflect on their performance over a given period — typically a quarter or a year. But in the best organizations, it’s more than just a retrospective exercise.

A well-executed self-evaluation should:

• Provide a clear picture of employee performance, accomplishments, developed skills, and contributions to the team and company.
• Identify areas for improvement and personal development goals.
• Offer context for manager evaluations by surfacing insights that might not be visible from the outside.
• Serve as a launchpad for future career growth conversations.

Benefits of Self-Evaluations 

Even if writing self-evaluations can be a challenge, the juice is worth the squeeze. Self-evaluations provide several key benefits for both employees and employers alike, including:

• Self-Reflection: Employees can take time to reflect on their strengths, weaknesses, accomplishments, and areas for growth.
• Ownership and Accountability: By completing self-evaluations, employees take ownership of their performance. This fosters a sense of responsibility and involvement in their own development and career progression.
• Communication: Self-evaluations open up a dialogue between employees and managers. Employees can articulate their perspectives, while managers gain insight into how employees perceive their own contributions.
• Goal Alignment: Self-evaluations encourage employees to align their work with company goals and objectives. They can review their achievements in relation to broader team or organizational goals, ensuring they're on the right track.
• Continuous Improvement: Employees can identify areas for improvement and set realistic goals for the future. This encourages a growth mindset and fosters continuous learning.
• Employee Engagement: When employees feel their opinions and self-assessments are valued, it increases their engagement and motivation. It can also help reduce feelings of being overlooked in the performance review process.
• Mitigating Bias: Self-assessments can provide a more balanced perspective in performance reviews by giving employees the opportunity to also evaluate themselves. Managers can compare the self-evaluation with their own assessment to identify discrepancies and biases.

Incorporating self-evaluations into your performance management process fosters a more collaborative, transparent, and growth-oriented workplace.

Should Employees Use AI to Write Self-Evaluations?

AI-powered writing tools can help structure self-evaluations, but they shouldn’t replace genuine reflection. When used correctly, AI can save time, improve clarity, and suggest more impactful phrasing. However, relying too heavily on AI risks creating evaluations that feel impersonal or miss key nuances.

How AI Can Help With Self-Evaluations

AI can enhance self-evaluations by:

• Structuring responses for better readability
• Offering alternative phrasing to avoid repetition
• Summarizing key accomplishments from previous feedback
• Helping employees articulate their growth areas and future goals

The Risks of Over-Reliance on AI

Despite these benefits, AI has limitations. It may:

• Generate overly generic responses that lack authenticity
• Miss important personal context or specific contributions
• Lead to a loss of trust if employees or managers rely on AI too much

Best Practices for Using AI in Self-Evaluations

To use AI effectively without losing the human element:

1. Use AI as a starting point. Let it help with structure and wording, but personalize the content.
2. Provide detailed inputs. The more specific the data (metrics, projects, feedback), the better the output.
3. Refine and review. Edit AI-generated text to ensure it reflects personal insights and a growth mindset.

AI can be a useful assistant in the self-evaluation process — but it should enhance, not replace, thoughtful self-reflection.

What to Reflect On Before Writing an Employee Self-Assessment

Jumping into a self-evaluation might feel a little daunting. Taking a moment to do an informal review of your performance, progress, and goals can help you collect your thoughts when it’s time to write the real thing.

In the spirit of continuous feedback and the performance review process, consider your metrics of success for your own performance — whether that’s a quantitative measure like KPIs and OKRs, or more qualitative, such as your emotions and feelings about the last year.

Make sure you write down specific examples of any skills learned, goals met, or targets hit, so that you’re well-prepared for the next performance review cycle.

Here are our five best practices to get this process right.

1. Identify how you really feel. 

Start by figuring out how you actually feel about your overall performance without the pressure of presenting these thoughts in a professional context. 

Try taking some notes or consulting a trusted friend or peer about how you feel you’ve performed over the last quarter or year. Acknowledge the full spectrum of your experiences, including any specific examples you might feel hesitant to highlight in your formal performance review.

Coming up with an unfiltered version will help you understand how your perspective comes across, and you can always make edits once you start writing.‍

2. Review your goals.

Setting goals — and feeling motivated to achieve them — is the cornerstone of doing your best work. Review how you performed against your most recent goals. Did you meet, exceed, or struggle to meet expectations?

For each goal, evaluate yourself based on the following questions:

• Why did you meet — or struggle to meet — this goal?
• When you didn’t meet a goal, what blockers made progress difficult?
• Was this goal clear, specific, and challenging enough? Why?
• Thinking about the goals you struggled to meet, what could you improve on to meet goals like this in future?
• Thinking about the goals you achieved, how can you build on this success to set a new goal?

As you reflect on goal progress, use your objectives and key results (OKRs) to provide a framework for your self-assessment, adding details and examples from the past year that contextualize your progress or challenges.

3. Review your manager’s feedback. 

Your performance review is an opportunity to check in with your manager about your progress and have a dialogue on what’s next. But it’s also an opportunity for you to provide additional context on anything that might have improved or hindered your performance and goal accomplishment. 

Look at recent one-on-ones or manager feedback from previous check-ins for guidance. What did your manager highlight or praise? Was there any constructive feedback on your performance?

Make sure you reference your accomplishments in your review and highlight what you did well. For areas that need improvement, provide additional context for any questions you think your manager might ask, and share any details about how you approached a project or situation that shed light on its outcome. Reflect on how you grew, and your plans to continue improving. 

4. ‍Review notes from peers and coworkers. 

Peer feedback isn’t just great for professional development and surfacing new performance perspectives — it’s also vital for fostering the environment needed for great teamwork. In fact, one 2015 study on employee recognition found that praise from team members can have twice the impact on your wellbeing at work compared with manager feedback.

Evaluating feedback from peers can help you see how you’ve supported your team’s overall goals, as well as highlighting your progress on any non-technical skills — like problem-solving or communication — that build a more complete picture of your progress in the last year. Look through any past performance reviews, emails, personal messages, team meeting slide decks, or your company’s Praise Wall to collate a balanced view of how your peers see you.

Evaluate your progress by considering the following questions:

• How have you helped team members and peers deliver on their goals?
• Were there any specific instances or projects where team members praised your contributions?
• How have you followed through on team expectations?
• How would you rate your teamwork and collaboration skills?

Find more question examples in our Peer Review Template.

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How to Write a Self-Evaluation for Performance Reviews

Once you’re ready to write your self-appraisal, you’ll want to collate everything you’ve noted during the reflection process, and start crafting your highlight reel that outlines all of your accomplishments since your last review.

To get started, use your job description as a guide. Evaluate how you meet each of the core competencies and skill sets, pointing to specific examples when you demonstrated each. While you write, work through the following topics:

• Role in the wider team: How does your work connect to the bigger picture? What kind of teammate are you?
• Unique selling point: What do you contribute that sets you apart? How is your team unable to function without you?
• Key results: Review any OKRs. What key results did or didn’t you achieve? Why or why not?
• Areas for improvement: Things can change for the better after a performance evaluation. What does that look like for you?

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Examples of How to Talk about Your Accomplishments in Your Self-Assessment

Many folks worry about sounding braggy in a self-review. And while it might feel uncomfortable to sing your own praises, try writing it like you’re advocating for someone else to show what you’re capable of.

Talk about the cause and effect of your actions on projects, and make sure to reference praise you’ve gotten from others. Include business outcomes, quotes from happy customers, and any tangible data. Talk assertively about your accomplishments like they’re facts.

Try using these self-evaluation examples to help you guide your review.

‍Goal Accomplishment

• “I set an OKR this year to grow our social channels 20%, but I exceeded that goal by growing them 40%.” 
• “My contribution to project X has helped increase customer NPS 10x.” 
• “Project Y has streamlined our process and saved time across teams.” 
• “Project Z will bring in more and better-qualified leads.” 
• “I accomplished a personal developmental goal to learn a new skill by working alongside peers in a different department.”

Project Management

• “I demonstrate strong time management skills when hitting project deadlines.”
• “I communicate project updates with all team members and relevant stakeholders in a timely manner.”
• “When running project X, I was effective at delegating tasks and following up on work to make sure our team stayed on deadline.”
• “I am effective at taking ownership of new projects and managing their successful completion.”

Team Support and Enablement

• “I always review my team member’s work within 24 hours of being asked.” 
• “Because of my feedback on this project, XYZ was completed faster.” 
• “I supported the success of our customer conference by being a speaker, and received praise from our VP of Marketing.”
• “I go above and beyond to make sure our team operates at its best, and I regularly provide help and support to team members when working on a collective goal.”

Non-Technical Skills

• “My problem-solving skills helped overcome a key strategic challenge in a recent project.”
• “Because of my effective decision-making skills, we were able to complete project XYZ in a timely manner.”
• “I regularly contribute my ideas and perspectives in team meetings to help boost our team’s output and goal accomplishment.”
• “I’m successful at staying on top of my to-do list, and regularly communicate progress with team members on shared projects.”

Ongoing Contributions

• “I maintain and moderate a critical daily community discussion channel.” 
• “I reach out to prospects early in the morning, since they’re in a different time zone than I am.”
• “I send out a weekly update to the entire organization about my project or function.”
• “I helped launch and manage a new Employee Resource Group that supports our LGBTQ+ employees.

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Examples of How to Talk About Areas of Improvement

It can be hard to talk about your mistakes or recognize room for improvement in aspects of your work. For this reason, tone is particularly important when it comes to this portion of your self-assessment.

When talking about any areas for improvement, focus on honesty, and try not to be defensive, minimize errors, or blame others in your self-evaluation. Remember that everything you say is from your own perspective, so it’s a good practice to phrase things accordingly, such as “I found out I benefit from x”, or “I found I work best in x conditions”. 

Reflecting on where you need to improve can also be a perfect opportunity to talk about how you want to grow in your career or improve in your job. When talking about mistakes or known problems during the review period, stay positive and emphasize the solution and next steps. You want to position yourself as a problem-solver with self-awareness.

For example, perhaps you weren’t prepared to take on a task because you weren’t trained. Propose enrolling in a class to help you step up your career development and take on more responsibilities.

When reflecting on your areas for improvement, try emulating the following examples:

• “I can sometimes struggle to take the lead in project management scenarios. I’d really like to take on some leadership skills classes to help me develop.”
• “I find it hard to share my ideas with team members on how to approach a project or piece of work, because I get overwhelmed when talking in a larger group. This year, I’d really like to learn how to develop my confidence with some mentoring.”
• “I made a scheduling mistake that contributed to a delay on our team’s recent project. I learned better time management skills as a result and have a plan to manage these situations better in future.”
• “I struggle with my presentation skills in front of a large audience. Is there someone in our wider team I can learn from?”

Common Mistakes to Avoid in Self-Evaluations

Even high-performing employees make mistakes in self-evaluations that diminish their impact. Here’s what to watch out for:

1. Being Too Vague or Generic

This is your opportunity to showcase accomplishments that directly impact the business.

❌ "I worked hard and contributed to team projects."

✅ "I led the automation of our reporting workflow, reducing manual effort by 12 hours per week and improving data accuracy by 30%."

2. Over-Explaining Weaknesses Without Solutions

Self-awareness is valuable, but framing mistakes without a growth plan can come across as unproductive.

❌ "I struggled with project management and communication skills and missed a deadline."

✅ "Balancing multiple priorities was a challenge. To improve, I implemented a task prioritization system and took a project management workshop."

3. Only Looking Backward Instead of Forward

A self-evaluation should set the stage for what’s next. Instead of just listing past achievements, include:

• Future goals and career aspirations
• How you plan to build on successes
• Areas of development and learning opportunities

FAQs About Writing Better Self-Evaluations

Your self-assessment is a chance to be your own biggest advocate, but sometimes it can feel like exposing your weaknesses, past failures, or mistakes. Try to look at it as an opportunity, with your manager’s help, to take ownership of your career path, celebrate your wins, and unravel any issues.

Working through this collaborative process should feel like a conversation with your manager that gives you a roadmap to help you perform at your very best in the future.

1. What if I don’t have many achievements to highlight?

Everyone contributes value, even if their work isn't always visible. Focus on small wins, team contributions, or process improvements. If you lack measurable results, highlight new skills you’ve developed or challenges you’ve overcome.

2. How honest should I be about my weaknesses?

Be transparent but solution-focused. Instead of just listing weaknesses, explain what you’ve learned and how you’re improving. For example, rather than saying “I struggle with time management,” try “I’ve been working on prioritization techniques and plan to take a time management course.”

3. What’s the best way to structure my self-evaluation?

Use a framework to keep it organized. Common structures include:

• STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) to explain key achievements.
• SMART Goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) for goal-setting.
• Past-Present-Future approach to highlight what you accomplished, what you’re working on, and where you want to grow.

4. Should I include feedback from peers or customers?

Absolutely. If you’ve received positive feedback from colleagues, managers, or clients, include it as evidence of your impact. Quotes or metrics from peer reviews or customer satisfaction scores can make your evaluation more credible and well-rounded.

5. How do I connect my self-evaluation to company goals?

Show how your work aligns with broader business objectives. Instead of just listing tasks, explain how your contributions impacted the company—whether in efficiency, revenue, customer satisfaction, or team performance.

6. What if my manager and I have different views on my performance?

If you anticipate disagreements, be prepared with data to support your self-assessment. If there’s a misalignment, ask for specific feedback on improvement areas and discuss how expectations can be better aligned moving forward.

7. Should I include personal development goals in my self-evaluation?

Yes! Managers appreciate seeing employees take initiative in their career growth. Identify skills you want to develop and how they align with your role or company needs.

8. How can I make my self-evaluation stand out?

• Use clear, measurable results (e.g., "Increased project efficiency by 25%").
• Incorporate storytelling (e.g., "Led a cross-functional project that reduced customer churn").
• Show growth and adaptability rather than just listing responsibilities.

9. What if I don’t agree with my manager’s feedback?

Stay professional and open-minded. If you receive unexpected criticism, ask for specific examples and clarify expectations for the future. If necessary, propose a follow-up conversation to revisit concerns with more data.

10. Can I reuse the same self-evaluation for future reviews?

Partially. While past evaluations can serve as a starting point, make sure to update accomplishments, refine goals, and adjust to changing priorities.

How Lattice Helps Streamline the Self-Evaluation Process

For many employees and managers, self-evaluations are time-consuming, frustrating, and disconnected from daily work. Lattice eliminates these pain points by providing a centralized, data-driven approach to performance reviews.

1. AI-Powered Writing Assistance

Lattice’s AI-powered review tool helps employees:

• Surface past feedback, goals, and achievements to make self-evaluations more comprehensive.
• Get smart writing suggestions to frame contributions effectively.
• Reduce bias and self-doubt by providing objective phrasing recommendations.
• Save time by generating structured, data-backed self-appraisals based on their past feedback, goals, and achievements.

2. Seamless Integration with Continuous Feedback

Unlike traditional self-evaluations that rely on memory recall, Lattice connects self-assessments to:

• Ongoing peer and manager feedback is collected throughout the year.
• Easily pull in past peer and manager feedback to provide a well-rounded self-evaluation.
• Goal-tracking data, ensuring employees can tie performance to key objectives.
• Performance trends over time help employees and managers see long-term progress.

3. A Structured, Fair Review Process

Lattice ensures self-evaluations aren’t just an exercise in self-promotion but a tool for accurate and balanced performance assessments.

• Provides visibility for managers into employee reflections, reducing blind spots.
• Helps managers benchmark performance fairly with structured data.
• Makes performance conversations more productive by aligning employee self-reflections with company goals.
• Embeds real-time feedback into workflows, ensuring performance insights are collected continuously — not just at review time.

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