Leader Transparency and Trust at Work Survey

Thanks for taking a few minutes on this! We're looking at how openly leadership shares information, decisions, and even their own mistakes — and how that affects trust. Your responses are completely confidential and anonymized. Honest answers help most. About 5 minutes.

In the last quarter, how often did your direct leader explain the reasoning behind a significant decision (e.g., a reorg, budget cut, strategy shift) to your team?

• Never
• Once
• A few times
• Regularly (monthly or more)
• Not applicable / no major decisions occurred

How much do you agree with each statement about your leadership?

Overall, how much do you trust your organization's leadership to act in employees' best interest?

How comfortable do you feel admitting a mistake or a gap in your knowledge to your manager?

Which of these topics would you most want your organization to be more transparent about?

• Company financial performance
• Strategic decisions and priorities
• Compensation and promotion criteria
• Layoffs and restructuring plans
• Individual and team performance feedback
• Leadership's own mistakes and uncertainties
• Diversity and inclusion metrics

Thinking about what builds your trust in a leader, distribute 100 points across these factors based on how much each matters to you.

• Honesty, even when the news is bad
• Competence and good judgment
• Consistency between words and actions
• Willingness to admit mistakes
• Genuine care for employees

Which channel has been most effective for you in receiving transparent updates from leadership in the last 3 months?

• All-hands or town-hall meetings
• Direct manager 1:1s
• Company-wide email or newsletter
• Internal chat channels (e.g., Slack)
• Informal conversations
• I haven't received meaningful updates

Ask the respondent to describe one specific, recent moment when a leader was either unusually open or unusually guarded (about a decision, a mistake, or bad news). Reconstruct what exactly was shared or withheld, how it made the respondent feel about that leader's honesty versus their competence, and whether it changed how much information the respondent now shares upward in return. If they say leaders rarely disclose anything personal or uncertain, probe what disclosing a mistake or limitation would need to look like for it to actually build trust rather than seem like weakness.

How long have you worked at this organization?

• Less than 1 year
• 1-3 years
• 3-7 years
• 7+ years
• Prefer not to say

Which best describes your role level?

• Individual contributor
• People manager
• Senior or executive leader
• Prefer not to say

That's everything — thank you for your honesty. Your responses will be pooled with others to help leadership understand which kinds of openness actually build trust, not just feel good.