Leadership feedback surveys are crucial tools for organisations aiming to build strong leadership, increase employee engagement, and enhance overall performance. However, despite their importance, many organisations fail to maximise the value of these surveys, often leaving actionable insights on the table.
Strong leadership matters; not just in theory. According to Gallup, 80% of employees who received meaningful feedback in the past week were fully engaged in their work, showing how impactful effective feedback can be when done well. If your leadership feedback survey isn’t providing the actionable insights you need, it’s likely missing something crucial.
In this guide, we will explore common pitfalls in leadership feedback surveys and show you how to fix them. By tailoring your survey approach and asking the right questions, you can gather valuable feedback that drives true leadership development and organisational success.
Importance of Leadership Feedback Surveys
A leadership feedback survey is a tool used by organisations to gather feedback from employees on various aspects of leadership performance. These surveys help identify strengths and weaknesses in leadership, guide development plans, and improve organisational effectiveness. When used correctly, a leadership feedback survey can provide valuable insights into how leaders are perceived by their teams, which is critical for fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
However, many organisations struggle to make these surveys effective. Inaccurate data, poor response rates, and poorly designed questions are just a few of the common issues that hinder the effectiveness of these surveys.
Common Problems with Leadership Feedback Surveys
Before knowing how to fix your leadership feedback survey, firstly, understand the common problems companies face when using such tools:
1. Generic Questions Lead to Generic Feedback
One of the most significant problems with many leadership feedback surveys is the use of simple, generic and one-size-fits-all questions. While templates and survey software usually provide convenient question sets that are rarely related to the specific challenges or the needs of the company. This way, the feedback gathered is superficial and lacks the nuance necessary to truly improve leadership practices.
For example, a typical leadership feedback questionnaire might ask: 'Does your manager communicate effectively?” While this question may seem simple, it doesn’t offer the kind of specific feedback that a leader can act on. Without context, the feedback can be vague and unhelpful.
Fix: Create your own leadership feedback form customised to fit the culture, challenges, and expectations of leadership in your specific company to obtain actionable insights. Ask open-ended questions or provide scenarios that will encourage employees to give you more specific and constructive feedback. Questions like “What can your manager do better when leading the team through conflicts?” or “How does your boss inspire the team in times of trouble?” will be much more valuable for practical advice.
At Multirater Surveys, we offer a questionnaire template in our 360 degree feedback surveys that provides the basic questions and allows you to add or edit them as needed, so you can ask different questions to other members when rating others and receiving their feedback.
2. Lack of Anonymity Deters Honest Feedback
Employees may feel reluctant to provide their feedback because they do not want to face any kind of retaliation or concerns about confidentiality. If your leadership feedback survey lacks the anonymity needed to make employees feel comfortable sharing candid thoughts, the quality of the feedback will be compromised. This lack of transparency can lead to skewed or overly positive results, which won’t help in the leadership development process.
Fix: Ensure that your leadership feedback form is anonymous and that employees know their responses won’t be traced back to them. This encourages honesty and helps leaders receive more accurate feedback. Using survey platforms that guarantee anonymity and that protect employee identity is essential for fostering a culture of transparency.
3. Not Focusing on Leadership Development
A lot of leadership feedback questionnaires focus on rating a leader's performance, but they often fail to provide actionable recommendations for improvement. Simply measuring leadership effectiveness without suggesting ways to improve misses a key opportunity. Leaders may be left wondering how to address their weaknesses or enhance their leadership skills based on the feedback.
Fix: Use a leadership feedback questionnaire to assess not only how a leader is doing (in terms of leadership), but also what areas he or she might need to develop. Some of the questions you could ask include, ‘What do you think would be the most helpful thing for your manager to be more successful in their role?’ This kind of feedback promotes a growth mindset and gives leaders a roadmap for success.
At MyMentor Insights, we leverage AI-powered tech that intervenes with a course of action for employees, based on the feedback provided. Upon analysing the entire survey report, our AI tool condenses and recommends key areas for improvement. Whether it’s communication skills, team management or leadership vision, the AI breaks down those areas of feedback and sets custom goals that can be reached in small increments, like a proper development plan for self-improvement.
Leadership Feedback Examples That Drive Change
Below are practical ways to present a leadership development survey that leads to growth and development, thus enabling a better crafting of leadership feedback examples:
Example 1: Communication Effectiveness
Question: “How well does your leader communicate goals and expectations to the team?”
Good Response: “My manager does a great job in terms of outlining our team's objectives in weekly meetings. Sometimes, however, when it comes to individual roles within projects, the communication is relatively general.
What it tells you: The above response highlights the strength in communication and, at the same time, points toward a weakness related to role clarification. This leader now needs to provide communications with a full explanation, especially about the individual's responsibilities, to keep them crystal clear from misunderstandings.
Example 2: Leadership Style
Question: “How would you describe your leader’s approach to conflict resolution?”
Good Response: “My manager is calm and accessible when dealing with conflict. They also avoid difficult conversations, which sometimes results in some issues in our team being unresolved.”
What it says about the person: The ability of the leader to remain calm during difficult situations is recognised as a positive trait, but there is room for improvement in being upfront about issues rather than sidestepping them. This piece of feedback helps the leader to consider his/her style of resolving conflicts and work towards becoming more forthright in the process of resolving disputes.
Related Article: How To Strengthen Team Collaboration Through Effective HR Strategies
Using Leadership Feedback Surveys to Drive Leadership Effectiveness
To maximise the potential of a leadership feedback survey, your results should be connected to goals for a leadership effectiveness survey. This also entails listening, not just to what people say, but learning how to develop a plan for leadership.
Here are some steps you can take to ensure that your feedback as a leader is successful:
Step 1: Review the Results Cautiously
Once you have got the data, it’s time to analyse it carefully. Review trends in the feedback and identify strengths and weaknesses. Look for a pattern. If multiple people tell you that you suck at time management or delegation, then that’s an area of opportunity.
Step 2: Offer clear development plans
Rather than giving general feedback, help leaders understand exactly what they should do to improve. Such as if feedback is that you are unclear when sharing project objectives, take them to a communication skill lecture or send them to coaching.
Step 3: Monitor Progress Over Time
Feedback shouldn’t be a one-off event. Instead, it should be part of an ongoing process of improvement. After taking action on the feedback, schedule follow-up surveys or check-ins to monitor progress and design reports. This helps ensure that leaders are continuously growing and improving based on the feedback they’ve received.
Benefits of Leadership Feedback Surveys for Your Organisation
When properly used, the results of leadership feedback surveys can provide several positive outcomes for both your leaders and the company as a whole:
- Engaged Workers: When employees are heard, they become engaged and are more willing to work towards the success of the organisation.
- Better Leadership: The leaders can improve their quality and performance by learning from feedback and working on their deficiencies.
- Enhanced Team Performance: Leader growth translates to upgraded team performance as well, owing to the resultant collaborative work efficiency.
- Improved Decision-Making: With proper feedback, leaders can make informed decisions that will move their company towards success.
Conclusion
A feedback survey can be used as an effective means of improving the productivity level of leaders, provided it is done perfectly. The leader must ensure that they have created an effective survey mechanism and have taken the necessary precautions to ensure that the survey is carried out anonymously.
Remember, it is important to recognise that the task of every leadership feedback tool is not only to assess leadership qualities but also to equip leaders with information that could make them better and more accomplished. You can use the gathered information for personal development, and you will be satisfied with the results.
For organisations looking for an effective method to survey employees on their perceptions of organisational leadership, MultiRater Surveys has the capacity and ability to conduct an effective survey. Request a demo today and see how it can be a tool for leaders and organisations to become more effective and successful.