Leadership Feedback Sample Report: How a Results Report Is Structured

The pages of a leadership feedback report explained: overview, portfolio, detailed results and open answers, each illustrated with a sample page from Survkit.

Philipp Hund

Philipp Hund

Managing director of IWOP, leads the development of Survkit

Updated: September 2026

The results report is what remains of a leadership feedback. The leader receives it first, usually as a PDF, and uses it to prepare the conversation with their team. It therefore has to do two things at once: show at a glance where self-rating and others’ rating diverge, and still remain sober enough that nobody feels exposed. This article walks through the page types of our report using an example: a fictitious leader, nine responses from the team, and a questionnaire based on the IWOP leadership model.

The report is laid out in landscape format so that the results tables, with their result lines and frequencies, have enough room. Every page carries its page number at the top right, and a table of contents at the beginning links to all pages. The cover is followed by an “About this report” page with the process, the key facts of the survey and a reading guide to the scale, the result lines and the minimum number of responses. How many pages a report has depends on the number of dimensions: the summary is followed by one detailed results page per dimension, and then by the open answers.

The overview

The most important page. All dimensions are listed one below the other, one row per dimension.

The four columns

From left to right:

  • Count: how many responses from the others’ rating went into the dimension. Below the minimum number, the row stays empty.
  • Results: two mean-value chips, on the left the others’ rating with the black square, on the right the self-rating with the blue circle. The colour of each chip follows the scale from red to green.
  • Result lines: both means on the scale from 1 to 5, connected into lines across all rows. Where others’ rating and self-rating are one scale point or more apart, an arrow appears between the markers: red pointing left for a blind spot, meaning others see the leader more critically than the leader sees themselves, green pointing right for a hidden strength.
  • Frequencies: how the answers are distributed across the five scale points, shown as a bar with counts. A mean of 3.4 can mean “everyone thinks it is average” or “half are delighted, half are disappointed”. The bar shows which of the two it is.
Overview 4 COUNT RESULTS RESULT LINES FREQUENCIES 12345 1 2 3 4 5 Dimensions A: Skills & abilities 9 4.3 4.5 4 14 17 B: Commitment & identification 9 4.5 4.8 3 12 21 C: Team spirit & appreciation 9 3.4 4.5 ← 5 10 14 5 D: Network & service orientation 9 4.1 4.0 6 13 14 E: Structures & processes 9 3.6 4.3 4 9 16 6 F: Quality & goal attainment 9 4.4 4.3 3 13 19 G: Orientation & vision 9 3.9 4.0 3 7 16 10 H: Openness to change & strategic thinking 9 4.4 3.3 → 4 11 20 Others’ rating Self-rating → Hidden strength ← Blind spot The response scales of the items are shown on the detailed results pages.Frequencies: absolute number of responses, summed across all items of the dimension on the overview level.
Overview: eight dimensions, dimension C with a blind spot, dimension H with a hidden strength.

What stands out in the example

In the example, two rows jump out. On team spirit and appreciation, the leader rates themselves at 4.5 while the team gives 3.4: a blind spot. On openness to change it is the other way round: at 4.4, the team sees more than the leader, at 3.3, credits themselves with. Both are reasons for a conversation, and very different ones.

Items with high and low agreement

The overview is followed by the five items with the highest and the five with the lowest agreement, across all dimensions. This page answers the question every leader asks first: what is going really well, and where is the fire? It is deliberately placed before the detail pages so that the strengths do not get lost.

Items with high and low agreement 5 COUNT RESULTS RESULT LINES FREQUENCIES 12345 1 2 3 4 5 A3: The leader has very good professional knowledge of their area. 9 4.8 5.0 2 7 B1: The leader carries out tasks with commitment and motivation. 9 4.7 5.0 3 6 B2: The leader is honest and highly credible. 9 4.6 5.0 1 2 6 F1: The leader makes sure deadlines are met. 9 4.6 4.0 4 5 H1: The leader sees opportunities rather than risks in change. 9 4.6 3.0 → 4 5 COUNT RESULTS RESULT LINES FREQUENCIES 12345 1 2 3 4 5 G3: The leader promotes the improvement of processes and work structures in the team. 9 3.7 4.0 1 2 5 1 E2: The leader sets realistic goals and states them clearly and comprehensibly. 9 3.3 5.0 ← 1 1 2 4 1 E3: The leader informs employees in good time and sufficiently. 9 3.3 4.0 2 3 3 1 C4: The leader deals with conflicts constructively and seeks solutions everyone can accept. 9 3.2 4.0 1 1 3 3 1 C3: The leader takes employees’ personal interests and needs into account. 9 2.9 4.0 ← 1 2 3 3 Others’ rating Self-rating → Hidden strength ← Blind spot The response scales of the items are shown on the detailed results pages.
Items with high and low agreement: the five best items at the top, the five weakest at the bottom.

The portfolio

Not every dimension with a weak rating is equally important. At the end of each topic block in the questionnaire, employees therefore indicated how important the topic is to them. The portfolio relates the two: the rating on the horizontal axis, importance on the vertical axis, with the dividing lines at the respective means. Quadrant I at the top left, important and rated lower, offers the greatest leverage. Quadrant II at the top right contains the strengths worth maintaining.

Portfolio of dimensions 6 I II IV III 4.1 4.1 A B C D E F G H 4.9 3.3 Importance 3.2 4.9 Rating Dimensions A: Skills & abilities (4.3 / 4.2) B: Commitment & identification (4.5 / 3.9) C: Team spirit & appreciation (3.4 / 4.7) D: Network & service orientation (4.1 / 3.6) E: Structures & processes (3.6 / 4.4) F: Quality & goal attainment (4.4 / 4.0) G: Orientation & vision (3.9 / 4.1) H: Openness to change & strategic thinking (4.4 / 3.7) Horizontally the rating, vertically the importance ofthe dimension, both from the others’ rating. Thedividing lines sit on the respective means;quadrant I (important, but rated lower) offers thegreatest leverage.
Portfolio: dimensions by rating and importance; quadrant I is where action is needed.

Detailed results per dimension

Each dimension has its own page with the same columns as the overview, now per item. This is where the full wording of each statement appears, so that the leader can see what a value refers to. The example makes clear that the blind spot on team spirit and appreciation is not equally large across all four items: on treating employees with appreciation, the two views are close together; on taking personal needs into account, there is a wide gap.

C: Team spirit & appreciation 9 COUNT RESULTS RESULT LINES FREQUENCIES 12345 1 2 3 4 5 C1: The leader always treats their employees with appreciation. 9 3.9 5.0 ← 1 2 3 3 C2: The leader is team-oriented and fosters positive collaboration. 9 3.7 5.0 ← 1 2 5 1 C3: The leader takes employees’ personal interests and needs into account. 9 2.9 4.0 ← 1 2 3 3 C4: The leader deals with conflicts constructively and seeks solutions everyone can accept. 9 3.2 4.0 1 1 3 3 1 Others’ rating Self-rating → Hidden strength ← Blind spot Response options: 1 – does not apply at all; 2 – rather does not apply; 3 – partly applies; 4 – largely applies; 5 – fully applies
Detailed results page: the four items of the dimension team spirit and appreciation.

Open answers

At the end of each topic block, employees could say two things in their own words: what should the leader keep doing, and what should they change? Both answers from one person appear side by side in a single row, verbatim, unabridged and without attribution. If an answer would allow conclusions about the person, it is hidden, and the report says so in a footnote.

Open answers 15 TOPIC STRENGTHS AREAS FOR DEVELOPMENT Team spirit & appreciation Always there to listen when things really get tough. Thedoor is always open then. Appreciation sometimes gets lost in day-to-day work; aquick thank-you would already help. Team spirit & appreciation Conflicts are addressed rather than sat out. Notice personal strain earlier, not only when someone isoff sick. Structures & processes Clear responsibilities since the restructuring. Goals are often communicated late, and then things gethectic. Openness to change New ideas are seriously considered rather than brushedaside. Free-text answers are reproduced verbatim and without attribution to individuals.
Open answers: strengths and areas for development per topic, one row per person.

What the report does not show

No analysis below the minimum

No raw data, no individual answers, no analysis below the minimum number of responses per perspective agreed in advance. For leadership feedback this is usually three responses in practice, because teams are often small; in the example there are nine. Line managers and the self-rating are the exception: they are shown as individual people, and they know this beforehand. How the minimum is chosen and what else the system does to prevent individuals from being identified is explained on our page about the employee survey with Survkit.

Self-rating: the leader decides

On request, the report is available in two versions, with and without the self-rating, so that the leader can decide for themselves whether to share their self-image with the team.

Aggregated reports for divisions and the organization

For divisions and the organization as a whole, aggregated reports are produced that contain only the others’ rating. Individual leaders cannot be identified in them.

From report to conversation

The report is material, not a verdict. Ideally, the leader gets support in interpreting it, followed by the workshop with the team. How the whole process runs from clarifying goals up to that point, which perspectives are worthwhile when, and who sees the reports is described on our page about leadership feedback with Survkit. The questions that feed into the report are shown in the article on the leadership feedback questionnaire.