The Importance of Feedback Surveys for Leaders and Managers

Any type of leader or manager must send regular feedback surveys to their team.

Asking for feedback gives you the opportunity to hear firsthand about your team's work experiences - information that could be vital in improving morale, productivity - and lowering turnover.

Think about it.

When you're leading and managing a team, you're going out to be out of touch with what's happening "on the ground." You’re not on the front lines anymore. You’re probably not spending time with the team as much.

You're probably in strategic planning sessions, working on deliverables with your team, or building cross-functional relationships with other departments instead of collaborating with your team members.

Triangle conversations may start to form.

You may start to notice tension or conflict. Or that people aren't being completely honest with you during the 1:1s.

Or you may just have a sixth sense for the word on the street-rumors and gossip being passed around behind closed doors in private Slack or Zoom calls

If you want your team to perform at their best, get regular feedback from everyone on your team, especially those you work with directly. As a manager or leader, you’re responsible for encouraging and collecting feedback from the people who work for you.

Tell them why you are launching an employee feedback survey.

Don't just send out an un-thought out survey.

Instead of haphazardly sending out a Google feedback survey with no context, prep your team with a message that is honest about your intention behind the survey. Make it clear that you will actually do something with the results. If you try to solicit feedback and then ignore it, you'll potentially kill psychological safety and trust in your leadership.

Here’s an example message that I’ve sent to a team that I managed before:We are committed to building a team and culture full of psychological safety, growth, and one that fosters our unique Strengths. It’s been wartime lately and I want you all to know that you’ve been heard.

I am listening.

This survey was developed to give each team member an anonymous, safe space to share their unfiltered thoughts, feelings, and suggestions. I am committed to listening and understanding your needs. Whether that’s establishing guidelines on how we work as a team, re-visiting our team’s Strengths and values, building trust agreements, or starting from scratch, I hope to use the results of this anonymous survey to learn how you all are feeling now and take action with it.

This is the first step in the journey where we can feel engaged, connected, and operate at our maximum potential.

Ask these questions when asking for feedback in an anonymous employee survey

I like to use Google Forms because you can quickly create and collect feedback, and answers are confidential unless you make them viewable by collaborators.

Feedback form questions to consider

1. Please score our team on the following statements based on how you’ve been feeling over the last three months.

Checkbox options:

• Strongly disagree

• Disagree

• Neutral

• Agree

• Strongly agree

We are doing a great job communicating with each other.

I look forward to meeting with this team on Zoom/Google Meet/Teams.

I feel psychologically safe with this team. Worded another way, I feel 100% comfortable to speak up and be authentic.

I feel appreciated and motivated by this team.

Our team communicates well with each other.

I feel appreciated and motivated by the core team members I collaborate with on a daily basis.

I am happy with the amount of connection and engagement that I have with my team members.

I gain sufficient and valuable feedback from my leader.

I am happy with how we celebrate our wins on this team.

I am happy with the level of input I contribute to new projects or initiatives.

I am happy with the diversity of projects and tasks I have.

2. What does our team need to start doing in order to be operating more effectively?

3. What does our team need to stop doing?

4. What is one thing we are doing well, that we should continue doing?

5. Do you think there are any unresolved issues or conflicts affecting the team? If yes, please share details and the impact on the team.

6. What can leadership do to make you feel more effective, engaged, and comfortable in speaking up (identify recipient please).

7. What general feedback would you give the team lead to help them do a better job? (Identify recipient please).

8. What would you like to see your team lead stop/start/continue? (identify recipient please).

9.  In your opinion, what behaviour negatively impacts the group? Please be as specific as possible.

10. As a team, how can we improve our process around disagreements?

11. What is a previous moment of failure for our team that we haven't yet learned from? Worded in another way, what is an issue that keeps coming up that you think needs to be resolved once and for all?

12. How should we celebrate our wins?

13. How often do you want to revisit concepts around team culture and safety?

• Monthly

• Quarterly

• Semi-annually

• Annually

• Never

• Other

14. What fears or trepidation do you have around the team and/or company, if any?

15. What feels confusing right now? How can I improve the clarity or cadence of my communication?

16. Is it clear what needs to get done, and the level of quality that’s required for this work clear?

17. Am I being respectful of the amount of time you have to accomplish something? Can I be doing a better job of protecting your time?

18. Have I given you enough context about why this work is important, who the work is for, or any other information that is crucial to do your job well?

19. Do you have anything else to share anonymously?

20. This is a little cheat! But Gallup’s Employee Engagement Q12 Survey is also effective and something to consider if you’d like to outsource the feedback to a third party. They’ve studied over 2.7 million workers in 100,000 teams and have the science to support what people need to perform at their best. Here are the 12 statements that Gallup helps to measure through their program.

1. I know what is expected of me at work.

2. I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right.

3. At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day.

4. In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work.

5. My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person.

6. There is someone at work who encourages my development.

7. At work, my opinions seem to count.

8. The mission or purpose of my company makes me feel my job is important.

9. My associates or fellow employees are committed to doing quality work.

10. I have a best friend at work.

11. In the last six months, someone at work has talked to me about my progress.

12. This last year, I have had opportunities at work to learn and grow.

Are employee engagement surveys actually effective?

If you want to see real results, make sure to measure the success of your employee survey follow-up.

Post-surveys are not effective if you don't do anything with the feedback.

Take the feedback seriously, identify patterns, ideate what you can personally do to create change, create an action plan, and communicate the findings (and subsequent solutions) to the team.

Remember to send a follow-up feedback survey in three to six months time to measure the differences of the changes you have (hopefully!) made.

Employee feedback is the key to making your life easier as a leader

If you’re looking for greater productivity, an increase in morale, and an honest view of what’s happening on your team when you’re not around, consider launching an anonymous feedback survey.

If you think your team would be comfortable giving honest feedback without the fear of repercussions, consider making the survey non-anonymous. You may be surprised at what people will tell you when you ask.

Learn more about your team members and develop better working relationships with our CliftonStrengths (formerly StrengthsFinders)Team Building workshops.