Leadership Effectiveness Survey
Leadership Effectiveness Survey
Leadership Effectiveness Survey
1. Senior leadership articulates a clear and compelling vision for the organization's future.
2. I understand how my work connects to the organization's strategic priorities.
3. Senior leadership makes strategic decisions that I believe are in the organization's best long-term interest.
4. Senior leadership adapts strategy appropriately when the external environment changes.
5. What is the one strategic priority you feel leadership should focus on more in the next 12 months?
6. Senior leadership communicates openly and honestly about the organization's performance and challenges.
7. Senior leadership explains the reasoning behind major decisions rather than just announcing outcomes.
8. I trust that senior leadership is honest with employees, even when delivering difficult news.
9. Senior leadership creates channels for employees to raise concerns and ask questions upward.
10. Senior leadership demonstrates the organization's values in their everyday behavior.
11. Senior leadership actively builds a culture where all employees feel included and can bring their full selves to work.
12. Senior leadership holds themselves and others accountable to high standards of behavior.
13. Senior leadership prioritises employee wellbeing alongside business performance.
14. Describe one specific way senior leadership has positively shaped the culture of this organization.
15. Senior leadership invests meaningfully in employee learning, growth, and career development.
16. Senior leadership identifies and nurtures talent from diverse backgrounds and career paths.
17. Senior leadership creates an environment where feedback flows freely up, down, and across the organization.
18. Senior leadership builds a strong pipeline of future leaders by investing in succession and mentoring.
19. Senior leadership inspires me to give my best effort and perform at a high level.
20. I am proud to work for this organization and would recommend it as a great place to work.
21. Senior leadership celebrates success and recognises the collective achievements of the organization.
22. Senior leadership gives me confidence in the organization's ability to navigate future challenges.
23. Overall, how effective is senior leadership in guiding this organization toward its goals?
24. Senior leadership has improved meaningfully since the last time I provided feedback.
25. If you could change one thing about how senior leadership leads the organization, what would it be and why?Everything you need to know
01What is the Leadership Effectiveness Survey?
The Leadership Effectiveness Survey is a ready-to-launch questionnaire that measures how employees experience senior leadership across vision, strategic judgment, transparency and trust. With 25 questions, it asks people to rate statements such as whether senior leadership articulates a clear and compelling vision for the organization's future, and whether they understand how their work connects to strategic priorities. Run it when you want a structured read on leadership perception rather than anecdotes: after a reorganization, following a strategy shift, ahead of an annual planning cycle, or as a recurring pulse. The result is a clear picture of where leadership is trusted and where confidence needs rebuilding.
02Why run a Leadership Effectiveness Survey
Leadership perception shapes retention, engagement and how willingly people follow a strategy, yet it is rarely measured with any rigor. This survey turns that perception into evidence you can act on. Responses show whether employees believe strategic decisions serve the organization's long-term interest, whether leadership adapts strategy when the external environment changes, and whether difficult news is delivered honestly. That evidence informs concrete decisions: where to invest in leadership development, which communication habits to fix, and how to close the gap between what leaders intend and what employees actually feel. Tracked over time, the 25-question set becomes a dependable signal of leadership health across the organization.
03What this Leadership Effectiveness Survey covers
The 25 questions group into a few clear themes. Vision and strategic alignment asks whether senior leadership sets a compelling direction and whether people understand how their work connects to the organization's strategic priorities. Strategic judgment covers confidence in major decisions and whether leadership adapts strategy appropriately when the external environment changes. Transparency and communication looks at open, honest reporting on performance and challenges, and whether leaders explain the reasoning behind decisions rather than just announcing outcomes. Trust and integrity captures belief that leadership is honest even when the news is hard. An open-text question invites the one strategic priority employees feel leadership should focus on more in the next 12 months, adding qualitative context to the ratings.
04How to use this free template
Copy or download the full set of 25 questions and paste them into whatever survey tool you already use, such as Google Forms, Typeform or Microsoft Forms. No signup is required to use the template. Keep responses anonymous so employees answer honestly about senior leadership, and pair the rating statements with a consistent agreement scale. Add the open-text priority question at the end so people can expand in their own words. Share the link with your intended audience, set a clear closing date, then review the results by theme to decide where to focus.
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