We believe that reviews should be a way to periodically check on progress and validate what is, and isn’t, working well. While this traditionally coincides with a performance review, Leadr allows you to adapt this process to fit your needs.
Reviews are built to ensure your team is aligned with:
Clarity - people understand what is expected of them
Feedback - people understand how they are doing
Support - people have the tools and support that they need to thrive in their work
Good things to keep in mind during reviews
Your reviews live under the Reviews tab. The Active tab shows all review cycles that you have visibility to or a required action in. The Closed tab stores all past review cycles you were a participant in or have visibility to.
You may participate as a Reviewee (completing your own self-assessment), a Reviewer (evaluating your direct reports), or a Viewer (downline oversight — visibility only, no responses required).
Using Save and Exit saves your responses as a draft — they are not visible to others until you submit. Once submitted, your responses are locked unless your HR administrator re-opens them.
Your organization's Admin can re-open any submitted review on your behalf.
Accessing Your Reviews
Navigate to the Reviews tab in the left-hand navigation. From here you will see two tabs:
Active — all review cycles that you have visibility to or a required action in
Closed — all past review cycles you were a participant in or have visibility to
Your Role in a Review Cycle
Every participant in a review cycle is assigned one of three roles:
Reviewee — the employee being reviewed, responsible for completing the self-assessment
Reviewer — the supervisor responsible for completing and conducting the review
Viewer — has visibility across their downline; no responses required
For Reviewers and Viewers: The List View
When you click into a review cycle as a Reviewer or Viewer, you will see a list view of all participants. From this view you can:
Search by name to quickly locate a specific participant
Clarify your role and next required action
Filter by completion status or by your specific role
Access submitted review responses
Viewers only: send reminders to participants who have not completed their step
Starting Your Review
Click on the review cycle you have been assigned to.
If you are a Reviewee with no supervisory responsibilities, your self-review will open automatically.
If you are a Reviewer or Viewer, you will see the list view — click on a participant's name to open their review.
Note: Clicking on a participant's name or profile picture opens the full review (including the Submit button), while clicking elsewhere on the review entry opens only the status drawer (without the Submit button).
To begin drafting your responses, click the Start button. You can also click on your role label to see a full timeline of the review with all associated due dates.
Understanding Your Review
At the top of every review you will find:
The review cycle title
Days remaining until the final submission deadline
Your role and the name of the person reviewing you, or that you are reviewing
The dates in which you are being reviewed
Due dates for each phase of the review cycle
Which step you are currently on
Returning to your work? You can jump straight to where you left off.
Answering Review Questions
Each question displays the question text, an optional description, and the appropriate response prompt. There are three question types: free response, rating scale, and multiple choice.
Free Response & AI Drafting Assistance
On free-response questions, use AI drafting assistance to generate a suggested response based on your 1:1 meeting notes from throughout the review period. Drafting takes approximately 60–90 seconds. Once the draft appears, review it and make any adjustments before saving.
Tip: Use Leadr Notetaker in your 1:1 meetings to get the most comprehensive AI-drafted responses and save time.
Rating Scale Questions
Select the number that best reflects the prompt. You may also have the option to add additional comments — these may be optional or required depending on how the question was configured.
Multiple Choice Questions
Make your selection and add additional context as needed. Required additional comments will be noted with a red asterisk (*).
Adding Reflections
Reflections allow you to pull in specific examples from other parts of Leadr to support your response to each question. Review your stored achievements from the review period and choose Add to attach them. Once attached, reflections are accessible by clicking on them directly within your response. See the Using Reflections in Your Review section at the bottom of this article for a full breakdown of what can be added as a reflection.
AI Feedback Analysis (Reviewers)
If enabled by your HR team, Reviewers will have access to AI-powered feedback analysis. This provides actionable suggestions for improving the quality of your responses before submitting. If you do not have this option and would like it, reach out to your HR team.
Saving and Submitting Your Review
Save and Exit — Saves all responses as a draft for you to return to later. Responses are not visible to others while in draft.
Submit — Locks in your responses and moves the review cycle to the next step. Responses become visible to appropriate up-line and HR personnel.
Note: You must complete all prompts before you are able to submit your review. Once submitted, your responses are frozen unless your HR administrator chooses to unlock them.
Tracking Your Progress
After submitting, return to your review dashboard to see your updated status. You can also see the number of pending actions for each active review cycle directly from the main navigation.
Re-opening a review
To re-open a Review once it has been submitted, you will need to reach out to your Admin to re-open your review and edit your review. If you are an Admin within Leadr, please see the article Reviews for Admins.
Sharing Your Review
To share a review, you can either print the review or export the whole Review Cycle.
To print an individual review
Navigate to the Review Cycle that this review is in and click on the participant that you would like to print your review for. Once you are viewing this participant's review, use your browser’s native print dialog to print or save the review as a PDF:
On Mac: Press Cmd + P
On Windows: Press Ctrl + P
In the print dialog, select "Save as PDF" to save the review in a PDF format, or choose your printer to print the review.
Please note that when using the browser's print dialog, the formatting may vary slightly depending on your browser and settings.
To Export a Review as a CSV
To export a review, you can do this by exporting it as a CSV, which is a text file that has a specific format which allows data to be saved in a table structured format. Similar to an excel spreadsheet.
Locate the Review you want to export, this can only be done when the review is completed, meaning it has been signed-off by all participants.
Once you are in that Review, you can use the 'Export CSV' button at the top right corner of the screen.
Once you select 'Export CSV', a green confirmation bubble will come across the top. If you are receiving a red bubble, please contact Leadr Support.
Now you can wait for an email regarding your export.
Downline Visibility
Executives and managers with the Viewer role can see the completed reviews of their entire downline, making it easier to monitor how everyone on the team is performing. Viewers can also send reminders to team members who have not yet completed their assigned steps.
Using Reflections in your Review
Reflections is a feature that allows people to reference specific moments that occurred or were completed during the review's timeframe. You can learn more about how Reflections can level your team's review experience below.
During the completion of a Review, the subject of the review (the person who is self-assessing) can reference in the review things that they have bookmarked relating to themself or their reviewer.
Likewise, the reviewer (manager) can incorporate things they bookmarked about the subject of the review.
Reflections Explained
Both managers and direct reports can add reflections to a review. They can add different reflections to review topics.
For example, Tom could add an objective as a reflection in one of his review topics, while Tom's manager could choose a learning assignment.
You can add as many reflections to each review topic as you want
You can add reflections to all the question types - free response, custom scale/rating, and multiple choice
After a review cycle is published, you can still work on things that would be reflections
For example, managers and direct reports can bookmark 1:1 topics after their review cycle is active, and those topics will appear as options to add as reflections (as long as they meet the above criteria). Same for completing feedback or learning
After submitting a review, the reflections will appear under the submitted answer for the person that added it. Then it will open in a drawer where the details can be viewed.
For learning, it doesn’t include the content
Adding Agenda Topics as a Reflection
Agenda topics from your 1:1 with your direct manager that have been bookmarked by clicking the “add topic to next review”
Both managers and direct reports can bookmark their topics. Each party will only be able to add the topics that they have bookmarked to their review as reflections
1:1 meeting dates for the bookmarked topics must be within the start and end dates of the review cycle
Any related comments will be pulled in for that agenda topic
Adding Objectives as a Reflection
Objectives that have a start and end date that overlap with the start and end dates of the review cycle
Either the start or end date of the objective can overlap with the start and end dates of the review cycle. For example, Tim's objective started Dec 22 and ends Dec 23 and his review cycle runs from Jan 22- Dec 22, which means this objective will pull in as a Reflection.
An objective is required
The objective is not required to be shared with the manager
Cannot be a Private objective
Action items are not required
The owner of the objective must be the direct report
Managers can only add objectives that the direct report is the owner of
Direct reports can only add objectives that they are the owner of
Collaborative objectives do not apply
Adding Learning as a Reflection
Learning that was assigned to a direct report by their manager OR assigned to a manager by their direct report that includes a due date within the start and end date of the review cycle
An introduction and due date are required
The assigned party must complete learning
Adding Feedback as a Reflection
Any feedback that was requested from the direct report to their manager OR from the manager to their direct report that includes a due within the start and end date of the review cycle
An objective and due date is required
The assigned party must have completed feedback requests
Adding Recognition as a Reflection
Any recognition received within the start and end date of the review cycle
Adding Accomplishments as a Reflection
Any accomplishment within a PDP that occurred within the start and end date of the review cycle
🎬 Want to see it in action? Walk through an interactive tutorial of the full participant experience in Leadr Reviews.