Leadership Feedback Questionnaire: 32 Sample Questions Based on the IWOP Leadership Model

A leadership feedback stands or falls with its questionnaire. It decides whether the leader can do anything with their report in the end, whether employees take the questions seriously, and whether results can be compared across leadership levels.

The most important thing is fit: the questions have to suit your organization, its leadership guidelines, its leadership levels and its language. A questionnaire that does not deliver numbers nobody can work with. That is why we do not have a finished standard questionnaire but a model and an item pool from which a questionnaire is built for each organization. The IWOP leadership model with its 32 standard items, which this article shows, is an example and a starting point, not a finished product. It shows how a good questionnaire is structured and how concretely items need to be worded.

What a good questionnaire is built on

Four rules have proven themselves in more than a thousand leadership feedbacks:

• Behavioral focus. Every item describes observable behavior, not a trait. “The leader explains decisions in a comprehensible way” can be answered. “The leader is a good decision-maker” cannot.
• Self- and others’ ratings with the same items. The leader answers the same questionnaire in the first person. Only the comparison of both views turns means into information.
• Dimensions instead of a list of questions. Items are bundled into dimensions that are evaluated as a whole in the report. This creates fields of action instead of isolated findings, and the scales can be checked statistically.
• Short enough for honest answers. 30 to 45 items are enough. More reduces participation and care, especially when employees rate several leaders.

The IWOP leadership model: four levels, two focuses

Leadership is something different at every level. A team lead is measured by collaboration in the team, a division head by structures and goals, executive management by orientation and change. Our model therefore arranges leadership behavior into four levels of demand, from personal to strategic. And because leadership does not only work inward, it distinguishes two focuses at each level: the leader’s own team, and the organization with its customers and interfaces.

This yields eight dimensions. For each there are four standard items that appear in almost every leadership feedback, and a pool of further items from which we tailor the questionnaire to the organization. Existing leadership guidelines or competency models can usually be placed in this grid directly: a principle like “We lead at eye level” lands under team spirit and appreciation, “We think from the customer’s perspective” under network and service.

The 32 standard items as an example

This is what the model looks like filled with items. All items start with “The leader …” and are answered on a five-point scale from “does not apply at all” to “fully applies.” The order follows the model from the personal to the strategic level, each time first the view of the team, then of the organization. Expand the dimensions you are interested in.

The overall judgment per dimension

Each dimension closes with an item that bundles the individual statements: “Overall, the leader should still improve on the topic of team spirit and appreciation.” In the report, this overall judgment shows whether employees see a need for action even when the individual values are unremarkable. And it provides the second axis for the portfolio, in which rating and need for action are set against each other.

The real step: tailoring to your organization

The 32 standard items cover the model, but not your organization. The questionnaire only becomes good once it takes up the topics that matter to you right now and uses the words that are common in your organization. From the pool we add what your guidelines, your topics or a current situation require. A few examples:

• Health and workload: The leader makes sure nobody is overloaded over a longer period. The leader does not pass their own stress and pressure on to their employees.
• Equality and inclusion: The leader supports the compatibility of family and work. The leader protects their employees from discrimination and disadvantage.
• Leadership routines: The leader holds annual appraisal interviews. The leader runs meetings in a structured and results-oriented way.
• Decision-making: The leader involves employees in decision-making processes. The leader follows through on decisions even when difficulties arise.
• Recognition: The leader praises good performance appropriately. The leader sets an example of what they demand from their employees.
• Relationship: I enjoy working with the leader.

Which items are added is clarified during the concept phase, on request with a short preliminary survey in which the project group or selected leaders assess the relevance of pool items. The result is a questionnaire that is scientifically constructed and still speaks the language of the organization. In practice, the scales reach reliability values between 0.75 and 0.95.

Scale and importance

The agreement scale

All items use the same five-point agreement scale: does not apply at all, rather does not apply, partly applies, largely applies, fully applies. Added to this is the option “no answer,” so that nobody has to guess when they could not observe a behavior.

The importance rating

Optionally, employees answer a second question per item: how important is this behavior to you? This importance rating makes the questionnaire somewhat longer, but it provides the basis for the action portfolio: an item with a medium rating and high importance belongs at the top of the agenda, an item with a medium rating and low importance does not.

Self-rating: the same questions in the first person

The leader answers all items about themselves: “I handle pressure well.” It is important that both versions remain identical in content, otherwise the comparison in the report is not robust. For managers and peers in a 270° or 360° feedback, the others’ version applies, if necessary without the items they cannot observe.

Open questions

Two to three free-text questions at the end complement the scale values with what no item can ask. Proven ones: What should your leader definitely keep doing? What should they change? The answers go into the report unabridged but without a sender. Participants are told this while filling in the questionnaire.

How long may the questionnaire be?

32 standard items, eight overall judgments, some items from the pool and two open questions add up to 45 to 50 questions. That takes about ten to twelve minutes. Anyone who makes the questionnaire much longer should know that in many organizations employees rate several leaders, and care declines with every additional questionnaire. Shorter also works: focusing on four dimensions gets you down to 20 items, but loses comparability across leadership levels.

From questionnaire to report

The questionnaire is the beginning. The report shows, per dimension, the means from others’ and self-rating, the distribution of answers and the result lines of both perspectives in comparison. If the others’ rating deviates from the self-rating by one scale point or more, the report marks the spot as a blind spot or a hidden strength. Results only appear above a minimum number of responses per perspective agreed in advance, in practice usually three for leadership feedback, so that individual answers cannot be identified. How the whole process runs from goal setting to the results meeting, which perspectives are worthwhile when, and how report ownership is arranged is described on our page about leadership feedback with Survkit. If you want to combine leadership feedback with an employee survey, you will also find there how both run in one round.