Performance & Culture • 8 MIN READ
Performance Review Questions: 30+ of the Best to Ask
MAR 30, 2026
The questions you ask in a performance review shape the quality of the conversation. Here are 30+ that consistently produce honest, useful dialogue.
Questions about achievements and strengths
What accomplishment are you most proud of from this review period? Which of your strengths have you made the most use of? Where have you added the most value to the team? What has gone better than expected? These opening questions set a constructive tone and give the employee an opportunity to highlight contributions the manager may not have directly observed. Starting with strengths rather than gaps increases psychological safety and makes the employee more receptive to development feedback.
Questions about development and goals
Which skills do you most want to develop in the coming year? What support would help you perform at your best? Where would you like to be in your career in two to three years? What barriers are getting in the way of your performance? Are there aspects of your role you would like to do more of, or less of? These questions produce the development part of the review, which is the most directly linked to engagement and retention outcomes.
Questions about the manager and organisation
What could I do differently as your manager to better support you? Is there anything about the way we work as a team that you would like to change? What does the organisation do well that you would like to see more of? What one thing would make your job significantly better? These questions require a manager with genuine psychological security to ask, but they are among the most valuable: they surface actionable information about management quality and working conditions that employees are unlikely to volunteer unprompted.
Structuring the conversation
A performance review should feel like a dialogue, not an interrogation or a monologue by the manager. A useful structure is: 15 minutes for the employee to share their self-assessment, 15 minutes for the manager to add their observations, and 15 minutes to agree on goals and development actions for the next period. Send questions to the employee in advance so they can prepare thoughtful responses rather than improvising. Document agreed actions in your HRIS and review them at the next check-in.
