Best questions for employee survey about leadership effectiveness

Here are some of the best questions for an employee survey about leadership effectiveness, and tips on how to create them. If you want to build such a survey instantly, you can use Specific’s AI to generate a tailored survey for your team, in seconds.

Best open-ended questions for employee survey about leadership effectiveness

Open-ended questions let employees express their perspectives in their own words, surfacing rich feedback on leadership. They’re especially helpful when you need deeper context or want to capture unexpected nuances—but keep in mind, they take more effort to answer and analyze. When you want honest, detailed stories about leaders, this is the way to go. Studies show that thoughtfully crafted open-ended questions yield valuable, qualitative data, but can sometimes result in lower response rates because they require more thought and effort from respondents. [1]

1. What makes you feel most supported by our leadership team?

2. Can you share a specific example of effective leadership you've experienced here?

3. What qualities do you believe are most important in our leaders?

4. How could leaders at our company communicate more effectively with employees?

5. In what ways have leaders empowered you to grow in your role?

6. What’s one thing you wish leaders at our company would do differently?

7. How do you feel about the transparency of leadership decisions?

8. Can you describe a time when you disagreed with a leadership decision? How was it handled?

9. What would you change to improve leadership effectiveness here?

10. Is there anything else you'd like to share about your experiences with company leadership?

Best single-select multiple-choice questions for employee survey about leadership effectiveness

Single-select multiple-choice questions are your go-to when you need to quantify perceptions or encourage responses from those who may be less comfortable giving long-form answers. They’re faster to answer, easier to analyze, and can get the conversation going. Sometimes, choosing among a few options is just less intimidating than writing it all out—plus, you can dig deeper using smart follow-ups. Surveys that blend open-ended and structured questions give you a well-rounded picture. [2]

Question: Which leadership quality do you value most in your direct supervisor?

• Clear communication

• Empowerment

• Support for growth

• Fairness

• Vision

• Other

Question: How satisfied are you with the overall effectiveness of our leadership team?

• Very satisfied

• Satisfied

• Neutral

• Dissatisfied

• Very dissatisfied

Question: How often do you feel your feedback is considered by leadership when making decisions?

• Always

• Often

• Sometimes

• Rarely

• Never

When to follow up with "why?" When someone chooses an answer but you want to understand their reasons, always ask “why?” For instance, if a respondent says they are “dissatisfied” with leadership, following up with “Can you share why you feel dissatisfied?” can uncover the specific behaviors or experiences behind their choice.

When and why to add the "Other" choice? When you know your list may not cover all perspectives, let employees choose “Other” and specify. Follow-up questions can uncover insights you never thought to include—sometimes the most valuable feedback comes from these outlier responses.

Using NPS question for leadership effectiveness

Net Promoter Score (NPS) isn’t just for customer feedback—it’s a practical way to gauge employee sentiment about leadership. The standard question asks how likely employees are to recommend their leaders to a colleague. It’s a straightforward measure, and when paired with follow-up prompts, it shows leadership’s impact at a glance. Curious to try it? You can spin up a tailored NPS survey for employees about leadership effectiveness with a couple clicks.

The power of follow-up questions

Follow-up questions turn feedback from static to dynamic. Instead of a dead-end response, you get a clarifying, real conversation. See our full guide on automated follow-up questions to learn more.

Specific’s surveys use AI to automatically ask tailored follow-ups—right in the chat—so every response gets the right probe or prompt. This not only clarifies answers but also saves hours compared to manual follow-up emails. The result? Natural-feeling interviews and richer context, fast.

• Employee: “I don’t always feel heard by management.”

• AI follow-up: “Can you share a specific example when you felt your input wasn’t considered?”

How many followups to ask? Two or three well-placed follow-ups are usually enough—after that, let respondents move on. Specific lets you customize this setting to avoid survey fatigue while still collecting depth.

This makes it a conversational survey—it feels like a chat, not a form. Respondents open up more, leading to higher participation and better data quality.

AI response analysis, text insights: Even with lots of open text data, it’s easy to analyze responses with AI. We’ve detailed how in our employee survey response analysis guide.

Automated follow-ups are new—you have to see them in action. Try generating a survey and watch how smartly the conversation flows.

Prompts for ChatGPT: writing better questions for employee leadership surveys

If you want to brainstorm or refine your own set of questions, try prompting ChatGPT or other AI tools:

Start general:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for employee survey about leadership effectiveness.

Performance improves with context. For example:

Our company has 200 employees in tech and creative roles. We want to understand how leadership impacts employee motivation, growth, and culture. Suggest 10 open-ended questions for our leadership effectiveness survey.

Then, for structuring your questions, try:

Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.

Once you see the categories (such as “communication”, “growth support”, “decision transparency”), you can prompt:

Generate 10 questions for categories communication and growth support.

This process helps you zero in on the most relevant issues for your own team.

What is a conversational survey?

Traditional manual surveys: static, impersonal forms, no follow-ups. Conversational surveys use AI to interact naturally, probing for depth and context in real time. With tools like Specific’s survey editor, anyone can build a smart, adaptive AI survey in minutes.

Why use AI for employee surveys? AI-powered, conversational surveys help teams get honest, contextual feedback and identify real opportunities for improvement—without survey fatigue. They boost engagement by making the survey experience feel like a friendly, professional chat. Specific leads the way, offering the best user experience and smooth feedback collection for both survey creators and respondents. You can explore our how-to guide on how to create an employee leadership effectiveness survey for step-by-step instructions.

For those looking for an AI survey example or searching for the best conversational survey maker, AI-generated surveys are the clear winner for speed, engagement, and actionable feedback.

See this leadership effectiveness survey example now

Unlock deeper leadership insights with a conversational survey that adapts, probes, and analyzes feedback in real time. Try it today and see how easy powerful employee feedback can be.