# Self-Assessment Evidence ## Instructions Read this as a performance conversation: a 1:1, a performance review, a project retro, or a skip-level. "You" is the person who will write the self-assessment; "Them" is the manager or peer. Your job is not to summarize the meeting. It is to surface the moments You could write up as self-assessment lines, each shaped as an action, the evidence it happened, and the impact it had. Pull out every accomplishment You describe, every accomplishment Them credits to You, every number either of you says out loud, and every piece of feedback Them gives. Score each surfaced moment against the criteria below, one to five, and quote the exact line from the transcript that earned the score. Cite only what was actually said. Never invent a number, an outcome, or a piece of praise, and never round a figure up. This playbook is the standard for what a self-assessment-ready moment looks like. ## What this lens is for A conversation where your work, your goals, or your growth came up. A good read hands back six to eight moments already framed as action, evidence, and impact, each traceable to a line someone actually said. It is the raw material for a self-review, not the self-review itself. The employee still chooses which lines to use and adapts them into their own voice. ## How to read the call - Read once end to end before scoring anything. The strongest evidence is often a number Them said in passing, not a claim You made. - List every accomplishment You describe, and every one Them credits to You. Treat a credit from Them as stronger evidence than a claim from You. - Note every number spoken by either speaker: money, hours, headcount, dates, percentages, before-and-after. Attach each number to the action it belongs to. - Note every piece of feedback Them gives, positive or critical, in Their own words. Feedback is evidence a manager already believes. - Note every goal, rating, or commitment set for the next period. Those are decisions, not accomplishments. - Keep a clean line between what You did and what the team did. A team result told as "I" is the fastest way to lose a manager's trust, so mark it rather than pass it through. ## The criteria Score criteria 1 to 4 on each surfaced moment; they decide whether a moment is ready to write up. Score 5 and 6 on every drafted line. Score 7 only on a moment where You name a weakness or an area to improve, and mark it n/a elsewhere. ### 1. Action is specific and yours **Listen for:** a concrete thing You did, in a verb only You could claim, not a trait and not a standing duty. **1-2:** a trait or a responsibility. Example: "I'm good with communication" or "I handle the reports." **3:** an action named but vague on scope. Example: "I helped out with the migration." **4-5:** a specific action with a boundary around it. Example: "I rewrote the onboarding doc into one checklist." **Evidence:** quote the verb-and-object You said. ### 2. Evidence was actually spoken **Listen for:** a number, a date, a named artifact, or a quoted piece of feedback attached to the action and present in the transcript. **1-2:** an adjective standing in for a fact. Example: "It went really well." **3:** one soft number, said once and not pushed on. Example: "It saved a few hours." **4-5:** a number with its source, or a named artifact. Example: "It cut first-response time from two days to four hours" or "the Q3 compliance export, zero findings." **Evidence:** quote the figure or the artifact, and note who said it. ### 3. Impact is stated and traceable **Listen for:** what changed because of the action, tied to the team or the business rather than to Your effort. **1-2:** no outcome, or an outcome with nothing behind it. Example: "It improved efficiency." **3:** an outcome asserted but not measured. Example: "Tickets went down after that." **4-5:** an outcome with a before and after, or a named consequence. Example: "Escalations on new features dropped by roughly a third." **Evidence:** quote the change, in the words it was said. ### 4. Verifiable by someone else **Listen for:** whether a manager could check the claim without taking Your word for it. **1-2:** only checkable by trusting You. Example: "I worked really hard on that one." **3:** checkable in principle, but no pointer is given. Example: "We shipped it on time." **4-5:** names the artifact, the date, the person, or the metric a reader could look up. Example: "the migration plan, signed off in one review instead of two." **Evidence:** quote the pointer a manager would follow. ### 5. Ownership is honest **Listen for:** a clean seam between what You did and what the team did. **1-2:** a team result, or someone else's work, claimed as "I." **3:** mixed, so it is unclear who did what. **4-5:** You own Your part and credit the rest. Example: "I set up the rotation; the team kept it running." **Evidence:** quote the line where ownership is stated, and flag it if it needs a pronoun fixed. ### 6. Said in plain voice **Listen for:** the sentence written the way You actually speak, not dressed in resume verbs. **1-2:** borrowed verbs You would not say aloud. Example: "spearheaded," "utilized," "facilitated synergies." **3:** plain but padded, with throat-clearing around the fact. **4-5:** the sentence a teammate would recognize as You. Example: "I found two tools doing the same job and cut one." **Evidence:** quote the phrasing to keep, or the resume verb to replace. ### 7. A growth line has a real next step **Listen for:** an honest gap You name, plus the specific step You are taking about it. Score this only on improvement moments. **1-2:** no gap, or a humblebrag. Example: "I just care too much about quality." **3:** a real gap named, but no counter-step. Example: "I should communicate more during incidents." **4-5:** a specific behavior and a specific counter-step. Example: "I say yes too fast, so I now list my commitments before I add one." **Evidence:** quote the gap and the step together. ## Scoring Average criteria 1 to 4 for each moment, to one decimal place. - **4.0 and up.** Review-ready. Write it as one action-evidence-impact line and put it in the self-assessment. - **3.0 to 3.9.** A draft with a hole. Almost always the missing part is the evidence: name the number or artifact You need to go find before using it. - **Below 3.0.** A claim, not evidence. Do not write it up until it has a fact behind it. Mark a criterion n/a where the transcript gives you nothing, and say what was missing rather than guessing. A moment with a strong action and impact but no spoken evidence is not review-ready; say so plainly instead of inventing the number. ## Red flags - **Impact with no source.** A result is claimed but no number or artifact appears anywhere in the transcript. Mark it unverifiable and do not write it up as fact. - **A team win as "I."** A result the team delivered is told in the first person. Flag the ownership before the line reaches the form. - **A resume verb.** "Spearheaded," "leveraged," "utilized." Rewrite in the words You used elsewhere in the call, or drop it. - **A humblebrag growth area.** A weakness that is secretly a boast. It reads as evasion; leave it out unless it names a real gap and a real step. - **A number you are unsure you heard.** Quote it and mark it to confirm. Never smooth a figure upward to make a line stronger. ## How to report - **TL;DR:** how many review-ready moments were found, and the single strongest line, written out. - **What went well:** each review-ready moment as a finished action-evidence-impact line, each with the transcript quote that grounds it. These are the lines to paste into the self-assessment. - **To improve:** each moment scoring 3 or below on evidence or impact, with the exact number or artifact to go find, plus any honest growth area and its next step. - **Decisions:** goals, ratings, and commitments set in the conversation, kept literal. - **Action items:** the three or four lines worth finishing, each owned by You, ready to adapt into your own voice. - If the surface asks for a single PERFORMANCE block instead of the five sections, run the criteria there, moment by moment, with the same evidence rule. ## Coaching notes - Finish three or four lines, not twenty. A self-review is strongest at six to eight checkable claims, and depth comes from specificity, not length. - Lead with the moments carrying a number Them said. A manager's own figure is worth more than one You supplied. - Across two reviews, watch which competency never produces evidence. That is the habit to build next period, not the sentence to phrase around.