Complete a Best-Self Review® cycle as a participant

You’ve been added as a participant in a Best-Self Review® cycle—here’s what to expect and what to do next.

This article walks you through the full participant experience, from finding your review tasks to viewing your results. 

In this article, you will learn about...

• Open your review cycle
• Review your to-dos
• Manage your peer nominations (if enabled)
• Write and submit reviews
• View and acknowledge your results
• FAQs

1. Open your review cycle

When a review cycle starts, all of your assigned tasks live in one place.

To open your review cycle:

1. Go to Best-Self Review® in the left navigation.

2. Select your review cycle.

You’ll land on the cycle overview page, where you can see key dates and everything you’re responsible for completing.

2. Review your to-dos

At the top of the cycle overview, you’ll see Your review to-dos. This section shows:

• Reviews you need to write (self, peer, upward, or manager reviews)

• Nominate peers to review you this cycle

• Due dates for each review

• Whether a task has been started or submitted

Revisit this list throughout the cycle to stay on track and avoid last-minute deadlines.

3. Manage peer nominations (if enabled)

Many review cycles include peer reviews. If peer reviews are enabled, you may be asked to nominate peers to review you. This often happens before—or at the same time as—writing your self review.

Nominate peers to review you

Peers can be nominated up until the review cycle's end date or until your review results have been finalized— whichever comes first.

1. Open your review cycle.

2. Select the Peer nominations tab.

3. Click into the 'Peers for your review' field and start typing the name of the person who you'd like to nominate as a peer. Select their name from the dropdown menu.

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   Note

   You can nominate most people as peers, even if they aren’t participants in the review cycle. However, you can’t nominate someone who:

   • Is already assigned to review you

   • Has already been nominated as your peer

   • Is globally excluded from reviews in Best-Self Review®

   If you’re unsure whether someone is globally excluded, contact your Account admins.

4. Select all the peers you want to nominate, then click Submit. 
   
5. Upon submission, your nominations will be sent to your manager to approve or deny.

Your manager, review admins, or cycle collaborators may also nominate peers on your behalf.

After you submit nominations:

• Your manager or a review admin reviews and approves or declines them.

• Approved peers receive a request to accept or decline.

• If a peer declines and you’re still within the nomination window, you can nominate someone else.

Before the nomination deadline, revisit the Peer nominations tab to confirm all required nominations have been accepted.

Accept or decline a peer nomination

If another participant nominates you as a peer reviewer and their nomination is approved, you’ll be prompted to accept or decline.

If you accept, you’re committing to write that peer review by the deadline—accept only what you can reasonably complete.

1. Scroll down to the "Peers who have nominated you" section. Then, click Accept or Decline to review next to the peer nomination.
   

   💡

   Tip

   Don't feel obligated to accept every peer request! We recommend that you choose 3-5 peers to give feedback to and only accepting nominations for individuals you can provide specific, actionable feedback about.

2. If you choose to decline the nomination, you're done. No further action is needed. If you choose to accept the nomination, click Go to peer review to begin writing a peer review of that person.
   

4. Write and submit reviews

A review cycle may include any combination of:

• Self reviews (the participant leaves a review for themselves)

• Manager reviews (written by the participant's manager or additional managers)

• Peer reviews (written by colleagues of participant)

• Upward reviews (written about managers by participant)

You can see every review you’re responsible for writing in Your review to-dos on the cycle overview page.

Write or edit a review

To complete a review, or make an edit to a submitted review, follow the steps in the Write or edit a review article.

Helpful things to know while writing:

• No one can see an in-progress/drafted review. Reviews you write are not visible until you submit them.
• You can see when a review is due, as well as transparency of your submitted review, by opening the review and referring to the 'Review details' box on the left-hand side.
  

5. View and acknowledge your review results

Once all reviews are submitted, your manager prepares a review summary and typically meets with you to discuss it. After that conversation, your manager will finalize the review and shares the results with you.

Access or download your results

When results are shared, you can access and download your review summary directly in 15Five.

Acknowledge your results

Some cycles include an acknowledgment step to confirm you’ve reviewed your results and met with your manager. Follow these steps to acknowledge your review results.

FAQs

Q: What happens if my manager doesn't approve one of my nominated peers?
A: If your manager or someone else in an administrative role denies one of your peer nominations, you can remove the nomination and nominate someone else in their place.

Q: What happens if a person declines my peer nomination?
A: If someone declines your peer nomination, you can remove the nomination and nominate someone else in their place.