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Employee & HR

Upward Manager Feedback: Coaching, Clarity & Support

An upward-feedback survey where direct reports rate their manager on coaching, clarity of direction, fairness, and day-to-day support, plus behavioral questions about 1:1s and feedback frequency. An AI follow-up digs into a specific recent example behind the lowest-rated area so managers get concrete, actionable coaching notes instead of just a score.

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Sample questions

A preview of what’s in the template. Every question is editable before you launch.

13 questions · ~7 min
Q01
Message

Thanks for taking a few minutes to share honest feedback on your manager. Your individual responses are kept confidential and used to help your manager grow — this takes about 5 minutes.

Q02
MatrixRequired

How much do you agree with the following statements about your manager?

6 rows × 5 columns
  • Gives me clear, actionable feedback
  • Actively helps me grow my skills
  • Recognizes my contributions
  • Is fair and consistent in how they treat people
  • Removes obstacles that get in the way of my work
  • +1 more
Columns: Strongly Disagree · Disagree · Neutral · Agree · Strongly Agree
Q03
Opinion ScaleRequired

How clearly does your manager communicate what's expected of you in your role?

Scale: 1 – 7
Min:Not clear at allMax:Extremely clear
Q04
Opinion ScaleRequired

How fairly does your manager treat everyone on the team, including in decisions about assignments, credit, and opportunities?

Scale: 1 – 7
Min:Not fairly at allMax:Extremely fairly
Q05
Rating ScaleRequired

Overall, how effective is your manager at helping you do your best work?

Range: 1 – 5
Min:Not effectiveMax:Extremely effective
Q06
Multiple ChoiceRequired

In the last 30 days, how often did you have a scheduled 1:1 with your manager?

  • Never
  • Once
  • Every other week
  • Weekly
  • More than once a week
Q07
Multiple ChoiceRequired

In the last 30 days, how often did your manager give you specific, actionable feedback (not just general praise)?

  • Never
  • Rarely
  • Sometimes
  • Often
  • Almost every time we talked
Q08
Ranking

If your manager could improve in only one area, which would matter most to you? Rank from most to least important.

  1. Giving clearer direction
  2. Coaching my skill development
  3. Recognizing my work
  4. Being more consistent and fair
  5. Removing roadblocks
  6. Making more time for me
Drag to rank
Q09
AI Interview

Probe the respondent's rating of their manager's fairness and coaching in more depth: ask for one specific recent example where the manager handled something well or poorly, exactly what the manager did or didn't do, and what a better version would have looked like. If most ratings were high, ask what single thing would still make the relationship even better; if fairness was rated low, ask directly whether they've seen favoritism or inconsistent treatment and get specifics.

Q10
Long Text

Is there anything else about your manager's coaching, communication, or support you'd like them to know?

Q11
Multiple Choice

How long have you been reporting to your current manager?

  • Less than 3 months
  • 3-12 months
  • 1-2 years
  • More than 2 years
  • Prefer not to say
Q12
Multiple Choice

Which team or department are you part of? (Template note: replace with your own team/department list before launching.)

  • (Replace with Team A)
  • (Replace with Team B)
  • (Replace with Team C)
  • Prefer not to say
Q13
Message

Thank you for your candid feedback! Responses across your team will be summarized and shared with your manager to support their development — individual answers stay confidential.

What’s included

  • AI follow-ups

    Adaptive probes on open-ended answers that pull out detail a static form would miss.

  • Attention checks

    Built-in safeguards against rushed answers and low-quality respondents.

  • AI-drafted copy

    Wording, ordering, and branching written by the AI — tuned to your research goal.

  • Auto report

    Themes, quotes, and a plain-English summary write themselves once responses come in.

How it compares

We reviewed the closest templates from other survey tools. Here’s what they do well — and where this template goes further.

Why this template

  • An adaptive AI follow-up interview question automatically probes the respondent's lowest-rated area (fairness/coaching), asking for a specific recent example so managers get concrete coaching notes instead of just a score.
  • Combines standard rating/matrix questions (overall effectiveness, agreement statements on coaching and support) with behavioral, checkable questions on actual 1:1 frequency and feedback frequency in the last 30 days.
  • A ranking question forces respondents to prioritize the single most important improvement area rather than rating everything as equally important.
  • Closing conversational message signals responses are aggregated into a team-level summary, and QuestionPunk's automated quality scoring and auto-generated reports turn open-text answers into structured takeaways without manual read-through.

SurveyMonkey

40+ Manager Feedback Questions (+ Editable Survey Template)

This is primarily a question-bank/guide page (40+ sample manager-feedback questions) paired with an editable static template, rather than a single ready-to-send adaptive interview. It covers similar ground to ours (coaching, clarity, fairness, support) but leaves question selection and follow-up depth entirely to the survey builder. Useful as a reference for question wording, less so as an out-of-the-box behavioral+probing instrument.

What it does well

  • Large, well-organized library of manager-feedback question options to draw from
  • Backed by an established, widely-used survey platform with broad distribution and reporting tools
  • Covers common manager-feedback themes similar to ours (communication, fairness, support)

Where it falls short

  • Static, pre-written questions only — no adaptive AI follow-up that digs into the specific low-scoring area with a real example
  • No voice AI interview option or guided/screen-share task capability
  • No automated per-response quality scoring or auto-generated coaching report — turning 40+ questions into actionable notes requires manual analysis

Frequently asked questions

What questions are in the “Upward Manager Feedback: Coaching, Clarity & Support” template?

The template includes 13 ready-to-use questions, starting with: “Thanks for taking a few minutes to share honest feedback on your manager. Your individual responses are kept confidentia…” · “How much do you agree with the following statements about your manager?” · “How clearly does your manager communicate what's expected of you in your role?”. The full set is previewed above, and every question is editable.

How long does this survey take to complete?

Respondents typically finish the 13 questions in about 7 minutes.

Can I customize this template?

Yes — every question, answer option, and the ordering is editable before you launch. You can add or remove questions, or ask the AI editor to rework the survey around your research goal.

Is this template free to use?

Yes. Open it in the editor and start customizing right away — no account required to try it, and the free plan covers launching your survey.

Ready to launch?

Open this template in the editor. Every part is yours to change before the first respondent sees it.

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