Manager Evaluation Survey Questions: Examples and Implementation Guide

A manager evaluation survey is a feedback survey in which employees anonymously rate the leadership behaviors of their direct manager: how clearly they communicate expectations, how much feedback they give, how well they support development and how fairly they treat the team. Its purpose is not to rank managers but to show each manager their strengths and development areas through their team's eyes. Below you will find sample questions by category and recommendations on how to run the survey.

Why evaluate managers?

The direct manager is the person who shapes an employee's experience in the organization more than anyone else. In engagement surveys, the relationship with the manager almost always emerges as one of the areas with the greatest impact on engagement, and in exit surveys it is among the top reasons for leaving. Yet most managers never hear, in any systematic way, how their team sees them.

A manager evaluation survey:

• Gives every manager concrete, comparable feedback from their own team,
• Determines what leadership training and coaching programs should focus on,
• Makes recurring leadership issues across the organization visible,
• Makes it possible to track managers' development over the years.

While the manager category in an engagement survey provides an organization-wide picture, a manager evaluation survey gives each manager their own report. You can find the manager questions used in engagement surveys in our article on employee engagement survey questions.

Manager evaluation survey vs. 360-degree review

The questions below can be used in both approaches; in a 360-degree review, the wording is simply adapted to the person giving the rating.

Manager evaluation survey questions

All items are answered on a 5-point scale ranging from "Strongly disagree" to "Strongly agree." The items are written to measure behaviors the team can observe, not the manager's personality.

Direction and expectations

• My manager clearly communicates what is expected of me.
• My manager sets clear priorities for the team.
• My manager connects our team's goals to the organization's goals.
• When priorities change, my manager explains this in a timely way and gives the reasons.

Feedback and coaching

• My manager gives me regular feedback on my work.
• The feedback my manager gives is specific and constructive.
• My manager also notices and acknowledges the things I do well.
• When I run into a problem, my manager helps me find the solution myself.

Development support

• My manager is genuinely interested in my development.
• My manager knows my career goals.
• My manager supports me with assignments that help me build new skills.
• My manager gives me time to take part in training and development opportunities.

Communication and transparency

• My manager shares news about the organization with the team in a timely way.
• My manager explains the reasons behind decisions.
• I can reach my manager when I need to.
• My manager runs team meetings efficiently.

Trust and openness

• I feel comfortable sharing my ideas and concerns with my manager.
• My manager listens to and considers different points of view.
• I am not afraid to talk to my manager about a mistake I made.
• My manager keeps their word.

Fairness and consistency

• My manager treats everyone on the team fairly.
• My manager distributes tasks and responsibilities fairly.
• My manager's assessments are consistent.
• My manager handles disagreements impartially.

Recognition

• My manager recognizes my contributions.
• My manager makes the team's successes visible within the organization.
• My manager gives credit for success to the team, not just to themselves.

Empowerment and support

• My manager gives me room to decide how I do my work.
• My manager takes action to resolve problems that prevent me from doing my job.
• My manager takes the team's workload into account.
• My manager stands up for the team in front of senior management when needed.

Change management

• My manager keeps the team informed and supported during periods of change.
• My manager is open to trying new ways of working.
• My manager gives the team confidence during times of uncertainty.

Role modeling and values

• My manager acts in line with the organization's values.
• My manager demonstrates the behaviors they expect from the team.
• My manager respects employees' work-life balance.

Overall evaluation

• Overall, I am satisfied with my manager.
• I would recommend working with my manager to a friend.

Open-ended questions

The most useful open-ended questions in a manager evaluation are those that give the manager directly actionable suggestions. The "start, stop, continue" format is ideal for this:

• What is one thing you would like your manager to start doing?
• What is one thing you would like your manager to stop doing?
• What is your manager's greatest strength that you would like them to continue?

The 10 most effective manager evaluation questions

If you are running a short evaluation or want to add manager evaluation to your engagement survey, the following set is a good starting point:

1. My manager clearly communicates what is expected of me.
2. My manager gives me regular feedback on my work.
3. My manager is genuinely interested in my development.
4. My manager explains the reasons behind decisions.
5. I feel comfortable sharing my ideas and concerns with my manager.
6. My manager treats everyone on the team fairly.
7. My manager recognizes my contributions.
8. My manager takes action to resolve problems that prevent me from doing my job.
9. I would recommend working with my manager to a friend.
10. What is one thing you would like your manager to start doing? (open-ended)

How should the survey be run?

• Protect anonymity: Report a manager's results only when at least 5 responses have been received. Combine smaller teams with the next unit up. Remove any wording in open-ended comments that could identify a person before reporting. Tell employees clearly that responses go to HR or an independent firm, not to their manager. For other safeguards, see our article on anonymity and KVKK (Turkey's Personal Data Protection Law) in employee surveys.
• Prepare managers in advance: Before the survey starts, explain that its purpose is development, how to read the results and how to share them with their teams. Unprepared managers may respond defensively to negative feedback.
• Add a self-assessment: Having managers rate themselves on the same items lets them see the gap between their own perception and their team's. This gap is often the most instructive part of the report.
• Keep it short: 25–35 items and 2–3 open-ended questions are enough. Shorten the survey further for employees who evaluate more than one manager.
• Do not link it directly to pay and promotion decisions: If results are tied to these decisions, managers may pressure their teams for good scores, and employees may hesitate to answer honestly.

How should the results be used?

1. Personal report: Each manager receives their own report containing their category scores, a comparison with the organization and unit averages, the gap with their self-assessment and the open-ended comments.
2. Strengths and development areas: The report highlights the three highest- and three lowest-scoring items. The manager is not expected to change everything at once, but to focus on one or two development areas.
3. Sharing with the team: When managers share what they learned from the results and the areas they will focus on with their team, it shows the team that their feedback was taken seriously and increases participation in the next evaluation.
4. Development plan: Coaching, mentoring or leadership training is planned for the development areas, and progress is tracked in the next evaluation.
5. Organization-wide analysis: Reviewing all managers' results together reveals which behaviors leadership programs should focus on across the organization.

We explain the impact of manager behaviors on engagement, and the practices that increase engagement, in our article on how to increase employee engagement. For the changing definition of leadership, see also our article on new-generation leadership approaches.

Common mistakes

• Asking personality questions: Items like "My manager is charismatic" neither tell the manager what to do nor avoid bias. Measure behaviors.
• Reporting small teams: The results of a three-person team make it easy to guess who said what, and destroy honesty in the next evaluation.
• Using results for rankings: Ranking managers by score and announcing the results turns the evaluation from a development tool into a contest.
• Handing over the report and walking away: A report delivered without support and follow-up becomes, for most managers, a report card they don't know what to do with.

Frequently asked questions