Good leadership survey questions are specific, ask about one behavior at a time, and cover a recent period. "My manager involves me in decisions that affect my work" tells you something you can act on. "My manager is a good leader" does not. Below you will find 45 questions sorted by what they measure, the wording mistakes that ruin results, and what to do with the answers once they come in.
TL;DR
- Separate leadership questions (direction, decisions, accountability at the top) from manager questions (day-to-day support for a team). They measure different things and need different items.
- Ask about observable behavior, one idea per question, and avoid asking people to predict the future.
- Keep it short: California Management Review recommends five to seven competencies that raters can think about in a single sitting.
- Anonymity and follow-up matter more than the wording. Set a minimum reporting group size and share two or three actions after the survey.
- Turn each low score into a habit someone can practice, not a report that sits in a folder.
Table of Contents
- Leadership questions vs. manager questions
- Before you write: trust comes first
- Senior leadership survey questions
- Manager survey questions
- Open-ended and satisfaction questions
- Self-reflection items for leaders
- Wording mistakes that ruin the data
- Build the survey: a practical sequence
- Education leaders and strategy clarity
- Perspective: the survey is the start of a habit, not the finish
- Turning results into action
- Where Leaderly fits
- FAQ
- Sources
Leadership questions vs. manager questions
Most searches for this topic come from two different jobs. One is checking how the top of the organization is doing. The other is checking how a direct supervisor is doing. SurveyMonkey's guide draws the same line: leadership questions cover how the leadership layer sets direction, decides, communicates and holds itself accountable, while manager questions cover the person an employee works with every week.
The difference shows up in the wording:
| Level | Sample question | What it reveals |
|---|---|---|
| Senior leadership | When priorities change, does leadership explain what is being deprioritized? | Whether strategy is communicated honestly |
| Manager | Does your manager remove obstacles for your team? | Whether daily work is supported |
| Peer or team | People on my team share information openly. | Whether leadership habits spread sideways |
If you blend the two into one survey, employees cannot tell which "leader" you mean, and the scores blur. Decide who is being rated before you write a single item.
Before you write: trust comes first
The instrument is the smaller half of the job. According to an SHRM executive network piece quoting Alessandria Polizzi of Verdant Consulting, organizations need psychological safety and trust first, and many employees doubt that surveys are anonymous. No clever phrasing fixes a fear of retribution.
Three things to settle before launch:
- Say what the results are for. Tell people the data is for growth, not punishment, and say who will see it.
- Set a reporting threshold. Do not report results for groups smaller than about 5 to 10 people, or a small team's "anonymous" comments point straight at one person.
- Promise follow-up you can keep. Employees treat a leadership survey like a contract. If leadership does not share two or three clear actions afterward, participation drops the next time.
If your team needs a fuller plan for that last part, our engagement survey design workbook walks through turning results into plans instead of reports.
Senior leadership survey questions
Use these to see whether people understand where the organization is going and whether they trust the people steering it. Rate each on a five-point agree/disagree scale unless noted.
Vision and strategy
- I can explain how my own work connects to the organization's top priorities.
- When priorities change, leadership explains what is being deprioritized.
- I understand the reasoning behind the strategy leadership has chosen.
- Leadership has told us in the past six months what success looks like for our department.
- I know which two or three goals matter most this quarter.
The first three echo items SurveyMonkey lists for evaluating clarity of vision and decision-making. They matter because unclear direction is expensive: the same guide cites a 2026 finding that 50% of employees have had to redo work due to lack of clarity.
Decision-making and transparency
- Senior leaders explain the reasons behind major decisions.
- Decisions that affect my work are made with input from people who do the work.
- When a decision is reversed, leadership tells us why.
- Leadership shares bad news as openly as good news.
- I know who to ask when I need a decision made.
Accountability and integrity
- Senior leaders follow the same standards they set for everyone else.
- When leadership makes a mistake, they acknowledge it.
- Leaders do what they say they will do.
- I have seen leadership act on feedback from a previous survey.
- Concerns I raise are taken seriously by senior leaders.
Development of people
- This organization gives me chances to build my skills in the next year.
- Leadership invests in developing people at every level, not only managers.
- I can name one way I have grown in this organization in the last six months.
- People who show strong potential are noticed regardless of their role.
- Leadership encourages us to keep learning.
Manager survey questions
This is the set most people want when they search for manager feedback. Keep the statements about behaviors the employee can see.
Clarity and expectations
- My manager gives me clear expectations for my work.
- I know how my performance will be judged.
- My manager explains the "why" behind assignments.
Feedback and coaching
- My manager provides useful feedback that helps me improve.
- My manager gave me feedback on my work in the last month.
- My manager recognizes good work specifically, not generically.
- My manager helps me set development goals.
Support and involvement
- My manager involves me in decisions that affect my work.
- My manager removes obstacles that slow my team down.
- I can disagree with my manager without worrying about consequences.
- My manager respects my time outside working hours.
Trust and inclusion
- My manager treats people on the team fairly.
- My manager listens when I raise a problem.
- I feel comfortable bringing a mistake to my manager.
- My manager makes sure quieter voices get heard in meetings.
The MangoApps survey template includes similar manager effectiveness items, such as clear expectations and useful feedback on a 1 to 5 agreement scale, which is a sensible default format.
Open-ended and satisfaction questions
Ratings tell you where the problem is. Open text tells you what it looks like. Use two or three at most, so the survey stays short.
- What is one thing leadership should start doing?
- What is one thing leadership should stop doing?
- What is one thing leadership does that helps you do your best work?
- Describe a recent moment when you felt supported by your manager.
- Describe a recent moment when you needed more support than you got.
For a simple satisfaction read, add:
- Overall, how satisfied are you with the direction leadership is taking?
- Overall, how satisfied are you with the support you get from your manager?
Keep those two separate. Combining them is exactly the double-barreled trap covered below.
Self-reflection items for leaders
A survey of employees is stronger when the leaders answer a mirror version. The gap between how leaders rate themselves and how their teams rate them is often the most useful number in the whole exercise.
- I explain the reasons behind my decisions to my team.
- I asked for critical feedback from someone on my team in the last month.
- I can name one habit I am working on to lead better.
If you want a structured way to do this, see our guides to leadership self-assessment and leadership style assessment.
Wording mistakes that ruin the data
A survey fails quietly. Respondents still click answers, and you still get a chart. Watch for these.
Leading questions
A leading question pushes toward an answer. "Don't you agree that our new onboarding process is an improvement?" primes a yes. Neutral phrasing, like "How would you describe the new onboarding process?", lets the real answer appear, as this survey wording guide explains. In leadership surveys, watch for flattering adjectives such as "supportive" or "transparent" inside the stem.
Double-barreled questions
"How satisfied are you with our pay and our manager?" cannot be answered cleanly. Someone can love one and dislike the other. A quick check: if the stem contains "and" joining two ideas, split it into two items. "My manager listens and acts on my ideas" is two questions: listening and acting.
Vague traits instead of behaviors
Many leadership surveys measure fuzzy competencies that give no direction. Berkeley's California Management Review article on 360-degree feedback argues for fewer competencies, measured well. "My manager is a good leader" gives a score and no next step. "My manager involves me in decisions that affect my work" gives a habit to practice.
Survey fundamentals from the University of Iowa and UNC make the same point from the research side: the aim is that every respondent reads the question the same way, which means specific language with a clear time and context, and error that you reduce rather than eliminate.
Asking people to predict the future
"How will your leader handle a future crisis?" invites a guess. People are poor at predicting behavior. Ask about the past instead: "In the last three months, my manager gave me constructive feedback at least once." Past behavior is something a respondent can actually remember.
Unbalanced scales
If your scale has three positive options and one negative, you have nudged the result before anyone answers. CASRAI's questionnaire guidance recommends an equal number of positive and negative categories around any midpoint.
Using broad measures on individuals
Some instruments were built to compare groups or cultures. They lack the sensitivity to judge one person. Do not take a population-level scale and use it to rate a single manager in a performance conversation.
Build the survey: a practical sequence
- Pick the target. Senior leadership, managers, or both in two clearly separate sections.
- Choose five to seven themes. Clarity, feedback, trust, development and decision-making cover most needs.
- Write two or three items per theme. Behavioral, one idea each, past tense where you can.
- Use one scale. Five-point agreement is simple and familiar to respondents.
- Add two open questions. One "start," one "stop," for example.
- Test with five people. Ask them to explain each question back to you. If their reading differs, rewrite it.
- Announce purpose and privacy. Include the reporting threshold in the invitation.
- Share results within a few weeks. Pair them with two or three committed actions.
A 15-question survey that people finish beats a 60-question one that people abandon at question 22. The long lists you see online are menus, not templates. Pick from them.
Education leaders and strategy clarity
Schools, colleges and universities have a particular version of the clarity problem: faculty, staff and students all hear priorities from different sources. If you work in education, items 1 to 5 above are a good place to start, reworded for your setting ("I understand how my course or office supports the institution's top priorities"). A digital leadership curriculum can also give staff a shared framework for discussing priorities once the survey shows where the gaps are.
Perspective: the survey is the start of a habit, not the finish
We build leadership development for every employee, not only for people with "manager" in their title, so we read leadership surveys with one question in mind: what will someone do differently on Monday?
That is why we favor behavioral items. A score for "communication" is a verdict. A score for "my manager explains the reasons behind decisions" is a habit someone can practice for two weeks, then measure again. Leadership grows through small repeated actions, which is why we use short microlessons and practical exercises rather than a once-a-year workshop.
The common failure we see in survey programs is the gap between report and behavior. HR collects data, a deck is presented, and managers go back to work with nothing concrete to try. If the survey ends with a finding, close the loop with a small exercise attached to each low-scoring item. Then ask the same question again in a quarter.
One more point: do not reserve this for senior leaders. Emerging leaders and individual contributors benefit from the same questions asked about themselves, which is part of why we build self-assessments and reflection into the way people learn.
— Drew
Turning results into action
The numbers are only useful if they change what people do.
Read for patterns, not outliers. Look for items where scores differ most across teams or between leaders and their reports. Those gaps point to the conversation you need.
Pick two or three actions. The SHRM source describes this as the point where employees decide whether the survey was real. Announce the actions, name an owner for each and give a date.
Convert each low item into a practice. For example:
- Low on "My manager gave me feedback in the last month": managers schedule one short feedback conversation per direct report every two weeks.
- Low on "Leadership explains what is being deprioritized": add a "what we stopped" line to each all-hands update.
- Low on "I can disagree without worrying about consequences": leaders ask for one dissenting view in each meeting and thank the person who offers it.
Re-measure only what you worked on. Repeat the specific items after 90 days. A short pulse beats a full resurvey.
Do not hide the bad news. Sharing difficult results, along with what you plan to do, builds the trust that makes the next survey honest.
For a psychological safety angle, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business publishes a seven-question team check-in that works well as a conversation starter after a survey surfaces trust issues.
Where Leaderly fits
Once a survey shows which leadership habits need work, the hard part is helping hundreds of people practice them. Leaderly AI is a mobile-first platform that delivers personalized microlessons, practical exercises and self-assessments (including DiSC, EQ and MBTI), with analytics dashboards and surveys so HR teams can scale development to all employees. Higher education teams can see Leaderly AI for Higher Education, and nonprofits can look at Leaderly AI for Nonprofits.
FAQ
What is a leading question on a survey?
A leading question builds a cue toward one answer into its wording, such as "Don't you agree that leadership communicates well?" It prompts a response before the person has thought about the subject. Rewrite it neutrally: "How would you describe how leadership communicates?"
How many leadership survey questions should I ask?
Fewer than most templates suggest. Research on 360-degree feedback recommends five to seven competencies that people can consider in one sitting. Two or three behavioral items per theme, plus a couple of open-text questions, is a manageable length.
Should leadership surveys be anonymous?
Yes, in most cases, but a promise alone is not enough. Set a minimum group size for reporting results, commonly cited as 5 to 10 people, and explain it in the invitation. Small groups can be identified from comments or demographics even when names are hidden.
What is the difference between leadership and manager survey questions?
Leadership questions evaluate the senior layer: direction, decisions, communication and accountability. Manager questions evaluate the person employees work with directly: expectations, feedback, support and trust. Use separate sections so respondents know whom they are rating.
What should we do after the survey?
Share the results, commit to two or three specific actions with owners and dates, and ask the key questions again within a few months. Skipping this step is the fastest way to lower participation next time.
Sources
- Leadership Survey Questions: 60+ Examples by Competency (SurveyMonkey)
- Rethink Your Employee Surveys: 6 Ways to Uncover Toxic Leadership Habits (SHRM)
- The Cognitive Flaw Hiding Inside Your 360-Degree Feedback (California Management Review)
- Survey Fundamentals: A Guide to Designing and Implementing Surveys (University of Iowa)
- How to Write Unbiased Survey Questions
- Questionnaire Design: Writing Survey Questions That Work (CASRAI)
- Engagement Survey Participation Communication Plan Template (MangoApps)
- Psychological safety check-in: 7 questions (CFIB)