Top Questions to Ask Senior Management

If you want to get a good idea of how your company is doing, there are some questions to ask senior management members that can help. Asking directed questions will help you get an inside look at the daily process of each team in your company. This is a great way to get feedback focused on specific areas of the company.

Of course, to get the best information, you need to ask the best questions. In this article, we’ve pulled together the best questions to ask senior management to get the feedback you’re looking for.

Questions to Ask Senior Management

Asking questions tailored to getting the information you’re looking for is a great way to check on the morale of your company. These questions help boost engagement and morale.

What Wins Have You and Your Team Experienced this Week?

Starting out your conversation by asking about positive experiences is a good way to break the ice. When your manager is able to boast about their team, it will leave them feeling relaxed, leading to more honesty as the conversation continues.

When you’re working with questions to ask senior management, you should remind them to celebrate both big and small wins. Every positive experience a team has is worth celebrating!

What Barriers Have Caused Your Team to Stumble Lately?

If teams want to make it through challenges, the first step is realizing what barriers are keeping them from their goals. When asking this question, remind your manager that it’s completely normal to feel stuck in issues at work from time to time. If necessary, bring up a recent roadblock you experienced at work to build the trust to have an open conversation.

Once you identify barriers, the next step is coming up with a plan to move past them. This is your opportunity to provide coaching and feedback while working through the questions to ask senior management. Open up a dialogue between the two of you to brainstorm ideas that will help the team move past their current concerns.

Where Can I Help You Be More Successful?

This question helps show that you’re willing to help in any part of the team dynamic. When you’re eager to help out where a team needs it, it helps anyone below you feel more engaged and motivated. Seeing an executive in the trenches with entry-level employees helps obtain a relatability that’s key to building trust.

When you ask this question, it’s essential that you follow through on the requests that come in. If you aren’t willing to work in whatever area needs help, then that’s a part of your position that needs improvement before asking this question. Don’t ask a question and leave your senior management with empty promises.

How’s Your Morale Lately? What About Your Team?

This is one of the more important questions to ask senior management. Asking this question gives managers a chance to be open about areas where they’re struggling to stay positive while at work. It also gives them the chance to bring up areas of concern for the team’s morale before it gets out of hand.

This type of question helps promote better communication between you and your senior management which will then trickle down to better communication between them and their team members. Plus, you can use the opportunity to give suggestions on how to boost morale based on what you learn.

How Satisfied Are You In Your Role? Why?

Asking your senior leadership how satisfied they are in their positions will give you an idea of how happy they are. You need happy leadership because their approach to work becomes contagious to their direct reports. If you have unsatisfied leadership, you’ll likely notice a lack of productivity and motivation across the board.

Satisfaction in a job shows you a basic happiness level. If your leadership feels satisfied with their position, ask them what elements make them feel that way. This can give you an idea of what’s working well in leadership.

On the other hand, if you have an unsatisfied member of management, you need to find out why as well. Digging into this could help unearth concerns about the daily processes your leadership works through. It could also be a sign that a particular leader simply isn’t in a role that fits them best. Either way, you can use what you learn and improve their overall satisfaction.

What Is Something Good That Happened to You Recently, Either Here or Outside of Work?

Asking this question shows your leadership that you’re engaged in getting to know them on a more personal level. When you make an effort to build relationships with your employees, it will build their trust in you as a person and their leader.

Not only that, but getting to know people at work will help you get a better idea of their passions and interests, both professionally and personally. This will allow you to better tailor development opportunities and incentives to meet what matters most to individuals. All of this will work together to create a happier, more productive work environment.

What’s One Thing You Would Improve About the Work We Do?

When it comes to questions to ask senior management, this one can be scary. However, it’s a great tool to learn about ideas you may not have heard otherwise. Asking this question forces your leadership to think outside the box and come up with an innovative solution to an area of work.

The great part about this question is that everyone has unique ideas and perspectives on the work your company does. With this, it may surprise you how many great suggestions you can get from people who know the process at work as well as you do.

If You Owned the Company, What’s One Thing You Would Change?

This may seem similar to the previous question, but they’re drastically different. While the last question focuses on innovation with techniques at work, this question can show you the personal improvements you can make.

This question helps you better see the more human side of the company and is a sneaky way of receiving feedback on how you’re performing as the current owner or high executive. When you hear the changes that senior leadership would make, take them and truly consider them. The results may show you impressive ways to better improve the company’s approach from the highest positions.

What Team Members Have Been Excelling Lately?

Most questions to ask senior management focus on the person you’re asking. However, this question allows the manager you’re talking with to consider the successes of their team members. If you ask this question regularly, your leaders will begin paying closer attention to individual successes on their team.

When management is looking for success, recognition becomes more common on the work floor throughout all departments. This can be a huge boost for morale because all employees enjoy recognition for the hard work they’re doing.

These answers can help you with new hires as well. Take note of the behaviors that management consistently recognizes as helpful. These traits are ones you can begin screening for during the hiring process to build up your team. They can also help you notice areas that should be a bigger focus in developing current employees.

How Can I Improve as a Leader?

This is a scary question to ask. However, after these questions to ask senior management, it’s time for you to open yourself up for honest feedback. Every good leader is open to accepting feedback on their performance. The truth is, everyone can improve on their job, and having an outsider point out potential improvement areas is a good place to start.

The more you ask this question, the easier it will become to receive the responses. Plus, it might surprise you the type of feedback you receive. Remember to take all feedback with an open mind and to leave all bias at the door. Feel free to take notes about the feedback you receive. It’s also a great idea to follow up with the person who gave you feedback and show them the changes you’ve implemented since your last meeting.

Making yourself vulnerable and open to feedback will help the people around you become more receptive to feedback as well. Before you know it, you’ll be fostering an environment where feedback comes naturally, and everyone focuses on becoming better versions of themselves.

The Takeaway

Questions to ask senior management are a great tool to use to check the health of your company. The best way to see how things are working in the daily aspect of your company is to ask the people who are working in every department. Asking questions and promoting an honest and open dialogue will help you get the type of information you need.

When you dig deep into the questions, you’re asking. You’ll get the tools you need. From there, you can implement feedback and see the results of your dedication and hard work.