Final Polish Checklist

Match common review-form wording, sharpen your claims and finish a confident four-section draft.

1. Accomplishments and impact

• Match these section headings to your review form’s wording.
• Put your most important completed contribution first.
• Replace vague activity descriptions with specific deliverables, decisions, or problems resolved.
• Use: “I [ACTION], which helped [OBSERVABLE OUTCOME].”
• Distinguish your contribution from the team’s overall result.
• Delete unsupported metrics, results, and causal claims.

2. Strengths and collaboration

• Name two strengths demonstrated in the accomplishments section.
• Support each strength with a concrete example from the review period.
• Replace “helped with” with your exact contribution: drafted, reviewed, coordinated, or resolved.
• Describe how your work supported a colleague, customer, or stakeholder.
• Replace “I think I” with “I” when describing work you completed.
• Cut repeated accomplishments that add no new evidence of a strength.

3. Development areas

• Choose one development area that would improve your current work.
• Describe the behavior to improve rather than labeling your personality.
• Use: “I’m improving [SKILL] by [SPECIFIC PRACTICE].”
• Separate actions already underway from actions you plan to begin.
• Replace apologies with a direct account of what you will change.
• Connect the improvement to a concrete benefit for your work.

4. Goals, support, and final submission

• Set one or two priorities connected to your role’s current needs.
• Use: “By [DATE], I will [DELIVERABLE], with completion demonstrated by [OBSERVABLE CHECK].”
• Name the decision, access, feedback, or training needed to make progress.
• Check each section against the corresponding review question.
• Remove repeated points and generic claims such as “consistently added value.”
• Read aloud once, replacing wording you would not use with your manager.
• Check names, dates, tense, and spelling.
• Save a copy before submitting.