Executive Team Performance Pulse Survey

This brief Pulse assesses the shared practices and operating conditions that influence how effectively the senior leadership team performs. Respond based on your experience during the selected period.

Individual responses should be treated as confidential and reported only through team-level patterns, averages, ranges, and themes.
Use the same window each time when comparing results over time.

Scale: 1 Strongly disagree · 2 Disagree · 3 Somewhat disagree · 4 Neither agree nor disagree · 5 Somewhat agree · 6 Agree · 7 Strongly agree

ALIGN

Shared direction, priorities, stakeholder focus, and meaning.

A1. Our senior team is aligned on the most important priorities right now.

A2. We share a clear understanding of success, including the outcomes, stakeholders, and tradeoffs that matter most.

A3. Our messages to the organization are consistent and reinforce the same direction.

A4. We adjust our priorities when customer, employee, market, or other stakeholder needs materially change.

DECIDE

High-quality, timely decisions with appropriate involvement, clear ownership, and commitment.

D1. We make timely decisions using the right information and involving the right people.

D2. Decisions are made at the appropriate level rather than being unnecessarily elevated or delayed.

D3. Decision rights and ownership are clear, including who is accountable for next steps.

D4. Once a decision is made, we support it consistently unless new information requires reconsideration.

ENGAGE

Trust, candor, constructive challenge, and enterprise collaboration.

E1. People raise tough issues directly and early rather than later or outside the room.

E2. Disagreement is handled constructively and improves the quality of our thinking and decisions.

E3. We demonstrate one-team behavior rather than protecting our individual function, role, or turf.

E4. Team members can acknowledge concerns, uncertainty, or mistakes without fear of being dismissed or penalized.

EXECUTE

Coordinated ownership, accountability, barrier removal, and follow-through.

X1. We consistently convert priorities into clear owners, timelines, and next steps.

X2. We hold each other accountable directly when commitments slip.

X3. We surface and address execution barriers quickly rather than allowing them to create delay or drift.

X4. We coordinate effectively across functions when results depend on shared ownership.

SUSTAIN

Leadership capacity, learning, adaptability, and capability for continued performance.

S1. We maintain enough leadership capacity to address immediate demands and longer-term priorities.

S2. We reflect, learn, and adjust our approach rather than repeating the same patterns.

S3. Our pace supports sound judgment and consistent leadership behavior under pressure.

S4. We actively strengthen the leadership, talent, and organizational capabilities needed for future performance.

About the Executive Team Performance Pulse

This pulse captures individual perspectives and reports results only at the team level. The goal is to surface patterns in how the senior leadership team is operating together, not to evaluate individuals. Aggregated results highlight strengths, potential risks, and focus areas across alignment, decision-making, engagement, execution, and sustainment. The data is used to support productive leadership discussion, clearer priorities, and informed action that strengthens both results and organizational health.

Thank you for completing the Executive Team Performance Pulse. Your input will be combined with other responses from your leadership team and used only at the team level. The results will help highlight strengths, surface potential risks, and focus leadership attention on what most supports effective execution and organizational health.

If you have questions about how the results will be used, please contact your executive sponsor. You may also contact us at info@burnsleadership.com.

This pulse focuses on the leadership behaviors that research shows matter most at the senior level. Follow this link to learn more about the model and research that informed the design of this survey.

Learn more