What is upward feedback for a manager?
Upward feedback for a manager is input an employee gives about how their manager leads, covering communication, recognition, coaching, delegation, workload and fairness. It flows from direct report to manager, either named in a one-to-one or anonymous through a survey, and it shows managers the habits that only their own team can see.
Upward feedback: feedback that flows from an employee to their manager about the manager’s leadership behavior, given in person or through an anonymous survey.
Managers get plenty of feedback on results from above and very little on how they lead from below. Employees see the daily habits first: how priorities are shared, whether one-on-ones happen, and who gets credit. Regular, real-time feedback closes that gap before small habits become team-wide problems.
For the People team, upward feedback is one of the clearest signals of manager quality across the organization. It also strengthens employee relations, because employees who see their input change something are more willing to raise the next issue. It only works where psychological safety at work is real, so HR sets the rules and managers earn the trust.
How is upward feedback different from 360 feedback and a performance review?
Upward feedback comes only from a manager's direct reports and focuses on day-to-day leadership habits. A 360 review adds peers, senior leaders and a self-rating, usually once a year. A performance review runs the other way, from manager to employee, and judges results against goals rather than how the manager leads people.
- Upward feedback
Direct reports on their manager. Named in one-to-ones or anonymous in a survey. Runs continuously or twice a year and focuses on leadership habits.
- 360 feedback
Direct reports, peers, the manager's own manager and a self-rating. Usually annual, often tied to leadership development, and broader than team-level habits.
- Performance review
Manager on employee. Judges results against goals, sets ratings and pay outcomes, and rarely asks how the manager leads.
The three work together. Upward feedback surfaces the habits to work on, and a leadership development plan turns them into coaching goals. The formal review then checks results. Use a broader set of employee feedback questions when you need views beyond the manager relationship.
72 feedback for manager examples by competency
The 72 feedback for manager examples below are grouped by nine manager competencies, with four positive and four constructive phrases each. Pick the competency that matches the behavior you saw, adapt the wording to a real situation, and add a specific example so the manager knows exactly what to keep doing or change.
Lead with positive feedback when you can, because it tells the manager what to protect. Constructive phrases work best tied to a recent moment. Many touch on role clarity, and the workload group is often where early signs of employee burnout show up first.
Communication and clarity
Clear priorities and reasons behind decisions are the habits teams notice first, and the easiest for a manager to change.
- Positive “Your weekly priorities note means I start Monday knowing exactly what matters most. Please keep it going.”
- Positive “You explained the reasons behind the reorganization before the announcement, which made the change much easier to trust.”
- Positive “Your meeting agendas keep us focused, and we finish on time more often than not.”
- Positive “When you explain complex ideas, you use examples from our own work, which helps the whole team act faster.”
- Constructive “Your emails sometimes leave out the deadline or the owner. Adding both would save a round of follow-up questions.”
- Constructive “When priorities shift mid-project, we often hear it late. A quick message on the day it changes would help us replan.”
- Constructive “In our last two team meetings, decisions were announced without the reasoning. Knowing the why would help me explain them to clients.”
- Constructive “Your instructions on the vendor project left two of us unsure who owned the report. Could we confirm owners at the end of each meeting?”
Recognition and appreciation
Specific praise tells people what to repeat. Generic thanks feels kind but gives nothing to act on.
- Positive “Thank you for naming my work in the leadership update. It made me feel the extra hours were seen.”
- Positive “The way you celebrate small wins in stand-up keeps the team motivated during long projects.”
- Positive “You give credit to the person who did the work, even in front of senior leaders, and the team notices.”
- Positive “Your handwritten note after the launch meant more to me than any formal award.”
- Constructive “Recognition in our team mostly goes to the people who present. The analysts who build the numbers rarely get a mention.”
- Constructive “It has been a while since we marked a milestone together. Even a short shout-out in our weekly call would lift morale.”
- Constructive “You thank the team as a group, which is kind, but specific praise would help me know what to keep doing.”
- Constructive “You have been missing from recent appreciation events. Your presence there matters more than you might think.”
Coaching and career growth
Development conversations are where employees decide whether they have a future on the team.
- Positive “Your mentorship has helped me take on client calls I would not have attempted a year ago.”
- Positive “You connected me with the analytics lead, which opened a path I did not know existed here.”
- Positive “Your feedback on my drafts is specific and kind, and I improve faster because of it.”
- Positive “Thank you for protecting time for my certification course during a busy quarter.”
- Constructive “We have not discussed my development plan since my last review. Could we set a quarterly check-in on it?”
- Constructive “I would like more stretch work. Could I lead part of the next project with you as backup?”
- Constructive “When you fix my work yourself, I miss the chance to learn. Talking me through the change would help more.”
- Constructive “I am not sure what I need to show to be considered for promotion. Could you share the criteria you use?”
Delegation and autonomy
Micromanagement is one of the most common themes in upward feedback, and one of the hardest for managers to see in themselves.
- Positive “You trust us to run our own projects, and that trust makes me want to do my best work.”
- Positive “You set the outcome and let us choose the method, which has made the team more creative.”
- Positive “Handing me the budget review was a real vote of confidence, and I learned a lot from it.”
- Positive “You step in only when we ask for help, which gives the team room to solve problems.”
- Constructive “Checking in on the same task several times a day makes me feel you are not sure I can deliver. Could we agree on one daily update?”
- Constructive “Most of the interesting work goes to the same two people. Spreading it out would build skills across the team.”
- Constructive “When you rework decisions we already made, the team starts waiting for approval instead of acting.”
- Constructive “Delegated tasks sometimes arrive without context. A two-line brief would help me get it right the first time.”
Decision making and planning
Slow or invisible decisions stall whole teams. Feedback here is about speed, input and follow-through.
- Positive “You made the call to pause the launch quickly and explained it clearly, which saved us weeks of rework.”
- Positive “Your quarterly roadmap helps me plan my workload and say no to the right things.”
- Positive “You ask for our input before big decisions, and it shows in how committed the team is to the plan.”
- Positive “You anticipated the staffing gap before peak season, which kept the site running smoothly.”
- Constructive “Some decisions sit with you for a week or more, and the project stalls. A decision date would help us plan.”
- Constructive “Decisions are sometimes made in side conversations. Sharing them in the team channel would keep everyone aligned.”
- Constructive “The timeline changed last month without team input. Earlier input could have flagged the delays we then hit.”
- Constructive “When goals conflict between teams, we are left to sort it out. Your help setting the priority would unblock us.”
Workload and wellbeing
Managers set the pace. Feedback on workload is often the earliest warning of burnout on a team.
- Positive “You noticed I was stretched before I said anything and moved two deadlines. That made a real difference.”
- Positive “You model logging off on time, which makes it easier for the rest of us to do the same.”
- Positive “Thank you for asking how I am doing and waiting for a real answer.”
- Positive “Your support for flexible hours has helped me balance school runs with deadlines.”
- Constructive “Messages late at night make me feel I should reply straight away. Could we agree on response hours?”
- Constructive “The team has been at full stretch for three months. Can we talk about what to pause or hire for?”
- Constructive “New requests often arrive without anything coming off the list. Could we reprioritize together when that happens?”
- Constructive “I took on the extra shift coverage, but it is affecting my main work. I need help rebalancing it.”
One-on-ones and listening
The one-on-one is where most named feedback happens, so how it runs shapes everything else on this list.
- Positive “You keep our one-on-ones even in busy weeks, and that tells me my concerns matter.”
- Positive “You listen to the whole problem before offering a fix, which helps me think it through.”
- Positive “When I raised the process issue, you acted on it within a week. That encourages me to speak up again.”
- Positive “You ask for my feedback at the end of each one-on-one, and it feels genuine.”
- Constructive “Our one-on-ones often get moved or cut short. A protected 30 minutes every two weeks would help.”
- Constructive “When you check messages during our one-on-ones, it feels like you are only half there.”
- Constructive “Suggestions from the team sometimes get dismissed quickly in meetings. Asking a follow-up question first would help people speak up.”
- Constructive “I raised the tooling issue twice and have not heard back. Even a no with a reason would help me move on.”
Fairness, inclusion and team culture
Hybrid and multi-site teams feel unfairness first. Read these alongside how work and visibility are shared.
- Positive “You make sure quieter team members get time to speak in meetings, and the ideas are better for it.”
- Positive “You rotate the high-visibility projects, so everyone gets a chance to be seen.”
- Positive “You handled the conflict between our two leads fairly and privately.”
- Positive “Our remote colleagues feel as included as the people in the office because of how you run meetings.”
- Constructive “Remote team members often miss decisions made in the office. Moving those conversations online would help.”
- Constructive “Meeting times always suit headquarters. Rotating them would share the early starts across time zones.”
- Constructive “Some of us feel the same people always get the benefit of the doubt. Clear criteria would make it feel fairer.”
- Constructive “Tension between the two squads has been building. A facilitated conversation could clear the air.”
Transparency and accountability
Employees trust managers who share bad news early and own mistakes in front of leadership.
- Positive “You share the good and bad news from leadership, so we never hear things secondhand.”
- Positive “When the project slipped, you owned it in front of leadership instead of pointing to the team.”
- Positive “You explain how our targets connect to company goals, which gives my work meaning.”
- Positive “You are open about what you do not know yet, which makes it easier to trust what you do say.”
- Constructive “We often learn about changes from other teams first. Hearing it from you first would build trust.”
- Constructive “When things go wrong, the conversation moves to who is at fault. A blame-free review would help us learn faster.”
- Constructive “Commitments from our planning session were not followed up. A short tracker would keep everyone accountable, including us.”
- Constructive “The reasons behind the new bonus structure were not clear. A short Q&A would help the team accept the change.”
How do you write a review of your manager for an appraisal?
To write a review of your manager for an appraisal, open with one strength and a specific example, name one or two areas to improve with the impact on your work, and close with a request for support. Keep it to 100 to 250 words, and describe behaviors rather than personality.
Sample upward review for an appraisal form
My manager has been a strong leader this year. Their weekly priorities note means I always know what matters most, and they protected time for my certification course during our busiest quarter. They also give credit to the person who did the work in leadership updates, which the whole team values.
One area to grow is how decisions are shared. Twice this quarter, timeline changes reached us after other teams knew, and we lost a week replanning. A same-day note when priorities shift would help. I would also value a quarterly conversation about my development plan, since we have not revisited it since my last review.
The sample runs to about 110 words: one strength with evidence, one area to improve with impact, one request. The same structure works for a short thank-you note to a manager, minus the improvement paragraph. If your review form asks for a rating, match it to the examples you wrote, and borrow the specificity managers use when they recognize employees well.
What can you tell your manager to improve on?
You can tell your manager to improve on the habits that affect your work most often, such as unclear priorities, rare one-on-ones, micromanagement, uneven recognition, slow decisions and unmanaged workload. Pick one area, describe what you notice, and ask for a specific change, as the table below shows for the six most common areas.
| Area | What employees notice | What to say | What to ask for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Communication | Priorities change without notice | “I found out about the deadline change from another team.” | A same-day note when priorities shift |
| One-on-ones | Meetings get moved or cut short | “Our last three one-on-ones were rescheduled.” | A protected 30 minutes every two weeks |
| Delegation | Several check-ins on the same task | “Frequent check-ins make me feel you doubt I can deliver.” | One agreed daily update |
| Recognition | Praise is generic or goes to the same people | “I am not sure which parts of my work land well.” | Specific feedback after key deliverables |
| Decision making | Decisions stall or happen in side conversations | “The project waited a week for a decision.” | A decision date for open questions |
| Workload | New work arrives with nothing removed | “Adding this means something else will slip.” | A joint reprioritization when work is added |
Patterns that repeat across a whole team, such as missed one-on-ones and decisions made without input, often point to poor leadership habits rather than one bad week. Those are coachable. HR can pair the feedback with coaching skills for managers, and a lack of transparency at work usually improves fastest once a manager hears it named.
How do you give feedback to your manager step by step?
To give feedback to your manager, choose one behavior, ask for time in a scheduled one-to-one, state your intent, describe the situation, behavior and impact, suggest a change, and follow up two to four weeks later. The six steps below work for positive and constructive feedback alike and take about 15 minutes.
- Pick one behavior
Choose the single behavior that affects your work most. One clear point gets acted on. Five points in one conversation get defended.
- Ask for time
Request a slot in your next one-to-one and say you have feedback to share. A heads-up lets the manager listen instead of react.
- State your intent
Open with why you are raising it, such as wanting the team to hit the launch date. Intent frames the feedback as help, not criticism.
- Describe the situation, behavior and impact
Use the SBI model: when it happened, what the manager did, and how it affected you or the team. Stick to what you observed.
- Suggest a change and ask for their view
Offer one concrete alternative, then ask how the manager sees it. The manager may know constraints you do not.
- Follow up in two to four weeks
Note what changed and say thank you. If nothing changed, raise it once more, then use the anonymous survey or talk to HR.
A structured one-on-one template with a standing “feedback for me” item makes step two routine rather than awkward. For wording that stays constructive under pressure, the negative feedback examples guide shows how to keep the focus on behavior.
When should you give feedback to your manager, and when should you wait?
Give feedback to your manager in a scheduled one-to-one, after a project wraps up, or during an upward review cycle, when both of you have time to think. Wait when emotions are high, during a crisis or deadline week, or in front of the team, because the same words land very differently in those moments.
| Moment | Good time? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled one-to-one | Yes | Private, planned, and both of you expect a two-way conversation |
| End of a project or retrospective | Yes | The situation is fresh and the focus is on the next project |
| Formal upward review cycle | Yes | The organization asked for it and HR tracks the results |
| Right after a tense meeting | Wait 24 to 48 hours | Emotions are high and the message may land as an attack |
| In front of the team | No | Public criticism puts the manager on the defensive |
| During a crisis or deadline week | Wait | Attention is elsewhere, so the feedback is unlikely to stick |
| After you have resigned | Use the exit interview | Still useful for the next person, but it cannot change your own experience |
Timing matters because people leave managers, not companies, and the frustrations that drive resignations are usually raised late or not at all. Early, well-timed feedback gives a manager the chance to fix things, which is one reason manager retention and team retention tend to move together.
Should feedback for your manager be named or anonymous?
Named feedback works when trust is high and the issue is specific, because the manager can ask questions and follow up. Anonymous feedback works when the topic is sensitive, the team fears retaliation, or HR needs a pattern across many managers. Most organizations use both: named in one-to-ones, anonymous in surveys.
| Aspect | Named feedback | Anonymous feedback |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Specific, recent situations with a manager you trust | Sensitive topics, fear of retaliation, patterns across teams |
| Channel | One-to-one, email or an upward review form | Upward feedback survey or an anonymous feedback tool |
| Follow-up | The manager can ask questions and agree on a change | HR shares themes and the manager responds to the whole team |
| Main risk | Employees soften the message to protect the relationship | Comments may be too vague to act on |
| Works best when | Psychological safety is already high | Groups are large enough to protect identity, commonly five or more |
Anonymous phrasing needs its own care, because the manager cannot ask a follow-up question. For wording written for that setting, see the anonymous feedback for manager examples guide, and for the channels themselves, how to collect anonymous feedback online.
How do you collect feedback for managers with an upward feedback survey?
To collect feedback for managers with an upward feedback survey, HR sends 10 to 15 anonymous questions about each manager to their direct reports twice a year, reports results only for teams above a minimum group size, and gives every manager a private debrief. Managers then share one or two actions with their team.
| Channel | Cadence | Questions | Who sees results | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Upward feedback survey | Twice a year | 10 to 15 | Manager and HR, above the group minimum | HR |
| Manager pulse | Quarterly | 3 to 5 | Manager and HR | HR |
| One-to-one feedback | Every one to two weeks | 1 or 2 open questions | Manager only | Manager |
| 360 review | Once a year, for people leaders | 20 to 40 | Manager, their own manager and HR | HR and leadership |
| New manager check-in | 90 days after a manager starts | 8 to 10 | Manager and HR | HR |
The survey asks rating questions, not the phrases above. Ready-made sets live in the manager feedback survey questions guide. Keep the wording identical between cycles so each manager can see their own trend, and read results by manager, team and tenure rather than only company-wide.
Manager support scores 8.33 out of 10 in CultureMonkey’s engagement driver benchmarks, so a company average rarely shows a problem. The signal sits in the spread between managers. A manager effectiveness program turns that spread into coaching for the managers who need it most.
Source: CultureMonkey People Science, Employee Engagement Drivers Benchmarks, Q2 2026 Edition, drawn from anonymized responses across CultureMonkey’s customer base.
What should a manager do after receiving upward feedback?
After receiving upward feedback, a manager should thank the team, resist guessing who said what, pick one or two changes, and tell the team what will change and what will not within two weeks. Checking progress in the next pulse survey shows employees their feedback was worth giving.
- Thank the team first
Say thank you before responding to any point. Defending yourself in the first reply teaches the team not to try again.
- Do not hunt for authors
Guessing who wrote a comment breaks anonymity in spirit, even if the tool protects it, and employees notice.
- Pick one or two changes
Choose the themes that came up most or cost the team most. A short list gets done. A long one gets forgotten.
- Report back within two weeks
Tell the team what will change, what will not, and why. Then re-check the same questions in the next pulse.
Hard comments sting, and how a manager handles them sets the tone for the next cycle. The guide on how to reply to negative feedback covers the first conversation. After that, close the employee feedback loop in writing, and track the chosen changes in the same survey action plan HR uses for engagement results.
What mistakes make feedback to a manager backfire?
Feedback to a manager backfires when it is vague, personal, saved up for months, delivered in public, or offered without a suggestion. On the organization side, it backfires when anonymity is promised but not protected, or when nothing visibly changes, because employees stop giving honest feedback after one ignored cycle.
- Being vague
“You could communicate better” gives the manager nothing to change. Name the meeting, the message and the effect.
- Making it personal
Comment on behavior, not character. Interrupting a client twice can change. Being called rude invites a defense.
- Saving it up
Feedback held for months arrives as a list of grievances and loses the detail that makes it useful.
- Giving it in public
Criticism in a team meeting forces the manager to defend their authority rather than listen.
- Promising anonymity that is not kept
If a manager can filter results down to two people, employees stop answering honestly. Set a minimum group size before launch.
- Asking and never acting
When nothing changes after an upward survey, participation falls in the next cycle, starting with the people who have the most to say.
The organizational mistakes are the ones HR can prevent. An anonymous employee survey with a fixed minimum group size protects identity. Dedicated employee feedback software keeps that rule consistent across every filter, and a short pulse survey between cycles shows employees whether anything changed.
Conclusion
Feedback for managers is what employees tell their manager about how they lead, from clear priorities to fair recognition. It matters because direct reports see leadership habits that peers and senior leaders never do, and those habits decide whether good people stay.
This guide gave you 72 feedback for manager examples across nine competencies, a sample appraisal review, six common areas to improve, a six-step way to deliver feedback, the right and wrong moments, when to stay anonymous, how HR runs an upward feedback survey, and what managers should do next.
CultureMonkey helps HR teams run, analyze and act on upward feedback. Anonymous manager surveys and pulses go out over email, SMS, WhatsApp, QR code, Slack and Teams. Results are reported by manager and team only above anonymity thresholds, heatmaps show the spread between managers, and manager action plans give every finding a named owner and a follow-up pulse.
Frequently asked questions
What are some examples of positive feedback for a manager?
Examples of positive feedback for a manager include "Your weekly priorities note means I start Monday knowing exactly what matters most" and "You give credit to the person who did the work, even in front of senior leaders." Strong positive feedback names one specific behavior and its effect, so the manager knows what to repeat.
How do I give feedback to my team leader as an employee?
Give feedback to a team leader the same way you would to a manager: ask for a private moment, describe one specific situation, explain the effect on your work, and suggest a change. Team leaders often work alongside you daily, so keep the tone collegial and follow up informally after a week or two.
How do I write a thank-you note to my manager?
A thank-you note to your manager works best when it names one specific action, such as protecting time for your training, and says what it changed for you. Keep it to three or four sentences, send it soon after the moment, and avoid generic praise that could apply to any manager.
What feedback can I give a project manager?
Feedback for a project manager usually covers planning, scope changes, deadline communication and how risks are raised. For example: "The weekly status summary helps me plan, but scope changes reach us late. A same-day note when scope changes would give us time to adjust." Keep it tied to a specific project moment.
Can my manager find out who wrote anonymous feedback?
A manager should not be able to identify the author of anonymous feedback if the survey reports only groups above a minimum size, commonly five responses, and blocks filters that shrink below it. Small teams remain a risk, so avoid unique details, and ask HR how anonymity is protected before you write.
How often should employees give feedback to their manager?
Employees can give informal feedback to their manager in any one-to-one, ideally every two weeks, and formal upward feedback twice a year through an anonymous survey run by HR. Frequent small comments work better than saving everything for an annual review, because the manager can adjust while the situation is still fresh.
Is it appropriate to give negative feedback to your boss?
Yes, giving negative feedback to your boss is appropriate when it is private, specific and focused on behavior that affects the work. Frame it constructively, describe the impact, and suggest a change. Most managers value it, because their own direct reports see habits that peers and senior leaders never notice.
