Manager effectiveness survey questions

What this survey is for

This set asks a team about the things a manager actually controls: whether expectations are clear, whether support arrives, whether decisions are explained, whether treatment is consistent. It is development feedback, and it should be designed so a manager can read it and know what to do differently on Monday.

Two decisions determine whether it helps or harms. First, who sees the results: the manager always, their own manager usually, nobody else by name. Second, whether it feeds a rating. Tie this to pay or promotion and you will get kinder answers and worse management. The 360 feedback guide covers the wider multi-rater case; this is the narrower, more frequent upward read.

The core question set

Twelve questions in four themes. Ask about observable behaviour, not personality.

Clarity

• My manager explains what is expected of me.
• My manager tells me how my work connects to wider priorities.
• When priorities change, my manager explains why.

Support

• My manager is available when I need a decision.
• My manager helps me remove obstacles I cannot remove alone.
• My manager gives me feedback close enough to the work to be useful.

Fairness

• My manager treats people in this team consistently.
• My manager recognises contribution accurately, including work that is less visible.
• I can disagree with my manager without it counting against me.

Development

• My manager and I have discussed my development in the past six months.
• My manager gives me work that stretches me.
• My manager follows through on what we agree.

Open questions

• What should your manager keep doing? Optional, free text.
• What should your manager change? Optional, free text.

Response scale and scoring

Use a five-point frequency scale rather than agreement: never, rarely, sometimes, usually, always. Frequency is easier to answer honestly about another person's behaviour and produces more actionable results than agreement with a trait.

Report the percentage answering usually or always, by theme, plus the two free-text lists. Set a minimum of four responses before a manager sees anything, and three responses before a theme breakdown is shown. Do not rank managers in a league table. Do look at the distribution across the organisation to find where management development is needed, and at the spread within a single team, because a split team tells you more than its average.

Adjust it for your sector

Who counts as "my manager" is the first thing to settle, and it differs by sector. Matrix and project structures need the question qualified.

Professional services

Separate the engagement manager from the line manager in the wording, because both direct the work in professional services firms. Add "My manager protects my development time against chargeable pressure".

Construction and property

Name the role: site manager, foreman or contracts manager, not "manager". Add "My supervisor acts on safety concerns I raise" and run it per site, since the same person manages differently under programme pressure.

Technology

Qualify between engineering manager, tech lead and product counterpart. Add "My manager shields my focus time" and "My manager helps me grow technically, not only in delivery", which is where technical staff most often find line management thin.

Banking

Add "My manager supports me in raising risk and conduct matters" and "My manager's expectations are consistent with the control requirements I work to". Keep the results clear of the conduct process so people answer freely.

Healthcare

Separate clinical supervision from line management explicitly, since they are frequently different people. Add "My supervisor makes time for clinical supervision" and keep the window open across a full rota so night staff respond.

Energy

Add "My supervisor stops work when conditions require it, without pressure to continue" and qualify between offshore supervisor and onshore line manager. Collect across a full rotation.

Media and agencies

Qualify between creative director, account lead and line manager. Add "The feedback I get on creative work is specific enough to act on" and read results by account team, where the day-to-day direction happens.

Public sector

Add "My manager explains how policy decisions affect our service" and use grade bands in the demographics. Expect long reporting lines, so ask people to answer about their immediate manager and say so clearly.

Education

Qualify between head of department, phase leader and senior leadership. Add "I get useful feedback on my teaching practice from my line manager" and run it mid-term, away from report-writing weeks.

Universities

Separate line management from academic leadership, because a head of school, a research principal investigator and a professional services manager play different roles. Add "Expectations across my teaching, research and administration are managed fairly".

Hospitality

Qualify between duty manager, general manager and head of department. Add "My manager publishes the rota far enough ahead" and "My manager handles shift swaps fairly", which dominate the experience of management here.

Retail

Qualify between shift supervisor and store manager. Add "My manager backs me up with difficult customers" and report by store, with the response threshold enforced so small teams stay protected.

Manufacturing

Name the role as team leader, line leader or shift manager. Add "My team leader explains line changes before they happen" and "My team leader acts on equipment problems I report". Run it at handover with a low reading level.

Anonymity, consent and small teams

Upward feedback is the highest-risk survey in this repository, because the manager being described also controls the respondent's work. Set and publish the minimum: no report below four responses, no theme breakdown below three, no verbatim comment shown that could identify its author. Where a team is too small, aggregate two cycles or give the manager coaching from their own manager instead of a report.

Say who sees the results before anyone answers, and keep that promise exactly. Train managers on how to receive the feedback: thank the team, name one change, do not interrogate the comments for an author. A manager who hunts for who wrote something has ended your programme, whatever the policy says.

From results to action

The manager writes one commitment, shares it with the team and reviews it at the next cycle. That is the whole mechanism, and it works better than a long development plan nobody revisits.

Their own manager should discuss the results in a one-to-one, treating low scores as a coaching need rather than a disciplinary signal, unless the comments disclose misconduct, which follows the proper route instead. Track the commitment where the manager's other objectives sit, so the next cycle can test whether anything changed. That is the connection New Dynamics is built for.

Frequently asked questions

Should upward feedback affect a manager's rating?

Not as a score. What a manager did with their feedback is legitimate evidence for their own appraisal, and judging them on the numbers themselves teaches score management, selective team composition and quiet pressure on respondents. Keep the measure developmental and hold managers accountable for their response to it.

How often should we run it?

Twice a year suits most organisations: often enough to show whether a change stuck, rare enough that teams are not asked to assess the same person repeatedly. Annual is acceptable where teams are small or turnover is low. Quarterly upward feedback is usually too much.

What if a team is too small to report on?

Do not report. Combine two consecutive cycles, or replace the survey with structured conversations run by someone independent. Publishing a report from two responses breaks the anonymity you promised and tells the manager very little, which is the worst of both outcomes.

About New Dynamics

New Dynamics is a Bristol-based performance management business. Our multi-manager reviews handle the case where several people direct one person's work, which is where upward feedback usually gets complicated. Book a demo and bring your current structure.