Describe the review cycle, strategic goals, and leadership expectations. Makeform builds a CEO self evaluation form that connects ratings to evidence and prepares the board's annual review.
Route assessments to the board chair, Google Sheets, Slack, and Zapier.
Sample builder prompts
Choose a starting prompt, revise it, or send it to the builder. The outline is an example, not a completed assessment.
Audience
CEOs preparing for review
Format
Goal scorecard with evidence
Prompt size
281 chars
Example structure
Goal scorecard with evidence
Which annual goal are you evaluating?
Rate performance against this goal
What measurable result supports the rating?
What affected the outcome?
What should carry into next year?
Suggested routing tags
Board review
CEO reflection
Next-year priorities
Ask for evidence beside every rating so the board can discuss results, context, and lessons.
Step 1
Align
review period, goals, and rating definitions
Step 2
Reflect
results, evidence, context, and lessons
Step 3
Discuss
board themes, gaps, and different perspectives
Step 4
Commit
next-year priorities, measures, and support
A better annual review input
Keep the CEO's account tied to goals, results, leadership choices, and board expectations.
Place definitions beside questions so ratings use the same standard.
Require a result, example, or decision record after each rating.
Separate achievements, constraints, lessons, development, and requested support.
Adapt it to the mandate
Choose a review context, then insert the board-approved mandate.
Compare outcomes with strategic, operating, financial, people, and stakeholder goals.
Connect mission, stewardship, fundraising, staff, and community.
Review listening, early decisions, team changes, cadence, and risks.
Assess judgment, communication, talent, execution, and board partnership.
Build the review input
Create the form early, test the rating language, and give the CEO time to gather evidence.
Name the readers, approved goals, competencies, and rating definitions.
Use actual commitments and add prompts for evidence, context, lessons, and contribution.
State the deadline, readers, review sequence, and source documents.
Send it to designated reviewers and compare themes with board input.
Form vs memo vs generic survey
Give the CEO room for judgment and the board comparable answers.
Field guide
Six sections connect the CEO's mandate to annual review and next-cycle goals.
Review frame
State the dates, approved goals, and rating definitions. Clarify whether the board is assessing results, leadership behaviors, changing conditions, or all three.
Goals & results
Give every major goal its own block for status, outcome, evidence, contribution, context, and tradeoffs.
Leadership & organization
Include talent decisions, executive-team effectiveness, culture, communication, succession readiness, and the habits used to execute strategy.
Board partnership
Ask about information quality, decision timing, meetings, challenge, and what the board could do differently.
Risks & lessons
Ask what changed, which warning signs appeared, what the CEO learned, and how the next response will differ.
Next cycle
Capture next-year outcomes, measures, development priorities, dependencies, and required board support.
Related tools
Pair the CEO's reflection with distinct board, peer, employee, and planning inputs.
Create the board's evaluation of results, leadership, and partnership.
Open toolGather colleague and stakeholder perspectives on defined behaviors.
Open toolUse structured self-reflection for managers.
Open toolBuild a governance-led nonprofit executive review.
Open toolHelp employees connect achievements, evidence, learning, and upcoming goals.
Open toolTranslate agreed priorities into documented outcomes, actions, and follow-up points.
Open toolFAQ
Answers for boards and CEOs preparing an annual review.
It is a structured reflection completed before a board-led review. The CEO assesses agreed goals, supports ratings with evidence, reflects on leadership and board partnership, identifies lessons and risks, and proposes next-cycle priorities. It is one input, not the entire evaluation.
Cover approved goals, results, executive-team leadership, organizational health, judgment, stewardship, stakeholders, board communication, risks, missed commitments, lessons, development, and needed support. Require evidence after every rating.
A shared, defined scale makes differences easier to interpret. Anchor each point and clarify whether it reflects outcomes, behaviors, or both. Complete separate forms, then discuss gaps instead of averaging unexplained scores.
Keep the original commitment visible and record what changed, when, and which revision the board recognized. Place the decision, tradeoffs, results, and lesson beside the rating.
Follow the organization's review process and route it only to designated reviewers. State the readers and handling expectations in advance, and avoid unrelated sensitive details.
Allow time to review goals, board materials, results, and prior commitments. Set a deadline before reviewers complete their evaluation and keep timing consistent each year.
Yes. Add mission, programs, fundraising, community, and governance for a nonprofit. For a first-year CEO, emphasize the transition mandate, listening, team assessment, early decisions, cadence, and milestones. Use expectations the board actually set.
Yes. Makeform provides unlimited free forms and responses for generating, editing, publishing, and reusing the assessment. The paid tier only removes the Makeform badge.
Start the annual review with evidence.
