Are We Making Progress

as Leaders?

How do you know? 

Are your values, vision, mission, and plans 

being deployed? 

Does your leadership team understand 

and support them?

Are they communicated to, understood by, and 

supported by all members of your workforce?

Are your communications effective? 

Is the message being well received? 

Use This Tool to Quickly Assess 

Your Leaders’ Perceptions

In today’s environment, if you are standing still, you are falling behind. Making the 

right decisions at the right time is critical. Following through on those decisions is 

challenging: deploying strategy is much more difficult than developing strategy. 

If deployment is so challenging, the questions are, Are you making progress? 

Would your workforce agree? How do you know?

Are We Making Progress as Leaders? and the companion document for employees, 

Are We Making Progress?, are designed to help you know. These tools show you 

whether your perceptions agree with those of your workforce. They will help you 

focus your improvement and communication efforts on the most critical areas. 

The questionnaires are organized by the seven Baldrige Criteria for Performance 

Excellence®

 categories, part of the Baldrige Excellence Framework®. These 

questionnaires identify opportunities for improvement and direct you to more 

detailed questions in the Criteria. They also may help you identify some ideas 

for making improvements and recognizing opportunities for innovation.

Ask your leadership team to complete this questionnaire. It will challenge you 

to address issues critical to your organization’s success.

Get Started Today!

Download Are We Making Progress 

as Leaders?

https://www.nist.gov/baldrige/

self-assessing/improvement-tools/

are-we-making-progress-leaders

If necessary, modify the questionnaire 

to address your specific needs 

(e.g., add questions, use language 

specific to your organization).

Distribute the questionnaire to your 

leadership team.

Download the companion document, 

Are We Making Progress?, to see if 

your leaders’ perceptions agree with 

those of your workforce.

(Im)Prove Your Performance® Baldrige Performance Excellence Program • www.nist.gov/baldrige
Strongly Strongly

isagree Disagree Undecided Agree Agree

m	 m	 m	 m	 m

m	 m	 m	 m	 m

m	 m	 m	 m	 m

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m	 m	 m	 m	 m

D

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1

1A Our workforce knows our organization’s mission 

(what it wants to accomplish).

1B Our workforce knows our organization’s vision 

(where it wants to go in the future).

1C Our leadership team is ethical and demonstrates 

our organization’s values. 

 

1D Our leadership team creates a work environment 

that helps our employees do their jobs. 

1E Our leadership team shares information 

about our organization.

1F Our leadership team asks employees what 

they think.

2

2A Our leadership team asks employees for their 

ideas when preparing for the future.

2B Our organization encourages totally new ideas 

(innovation).

2C Our leadership team adopts new technology for 

our organization when preparing for the future.

2D Our employees receive information that helps them

determine whether they are making progress on 

their work group’s part of our organization’s plan.

2E Our organization makes changes quickly when 

needed to address sudden disasters or new ideas.

Are We Making Progress as Leaders?

Your perceptions as a leader are important to our organization! 

There are 41 statements below. For each statement, check the box that best matches how you feel (strongly 

disagree, disagree, undecided, agree, strongly agree). How you feel will help us decide where we most need 

to improve or change. We also have the opportunity (using the Are We Making Progress? questionnaire) to 

compare the perceptions of our leadership team with those of our workforce to see if there are differences. 

We will not be looking at individual responses but will use the information from our whole leadership team 

to make decisions. It should take you about 10 to 15 minutes to complete this questionnaire.

Senior leaders, please fill in the name of organization or unit being discussed.

Note: This refers to what is meant each time the word “organization” is used below. In addition, “employees” is used 

interchangeably with “workforce,” which includes all people performing work for the organization.

____________________________________________________________________

Are We Making Progress as Leaders? • www.nist.gov/baldrige
Strongly Strongly gree Disagree Undecided Agree Agree

	 m	 m	 m	 m

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Disa

m

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3

Note: Your employees’ customers are the people who 

use the products of their personal work.

3A Our organization treats all customers fairly.

3B Our employees know who their most important 

customers are. 

3C Our employees regularly ask their customers what 

they need and want. 

3D Our employees are allowed to make decisions 

to satisfy their customers.

3E Our employees also know who our organization’s 

most important customers are.

4

4A Our employees know how to measure the quality 

of their work.

4B Our employees use this information to make 

changes that will improve their work.

4C Our employees know how the measures they use 

in their work fit into our organization’s overall 

measures of improvement.

4D Our employees get all the information they 

need to make changes to their work when our 

organization makes unplanned changes.

4E Our employees know how our organization as a 

whole is doing.

5

5A Our employees cooperate and work as a team.

5B Our leadership team supports, encourages, and 

enables employees to develop their job skills so 

they can advance in their careers. 

5C Our employees are recognized for their work.

5D Our organization has a safe workplace.

5E Our managers and our organization care about 

our workforce.

5F Our leadership team and organization are committed

to including and embracing people from varying 

backgrounds and treating everyone fairly. Are We Making Progress as Leaders? • www.nist.gov/baldrige
Would you like to give more information about any of your responses? Please include the number of 

the statement (for example, 2A or 7D) you are discussing.

Strongly Strongly 

gree Disagree Undecided Agree Agree

	 m	 m	 m	 m

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Disa

m

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6

6A Our employees can get everything they need to 

do their jobs.

6B Our organization has good processes for

doing its work.

6C Our organization regularly reviews and improves 

its processes.

6D Our organization protects important assets 

(property), data, and information (security and 

cybersecurity). 

6E Our organization is prepared to handle an emergency.

7

7A Our employees’ work products meet all requirements.

7B Our workforce knows how well our organization 

is doing financially.

7C Our organization has the right people and skills 

to do its work.

7D Our organization removes things that get in the 

way of progress.

7E Our organization obeys laws and regulations.

7F Our organization practices high standards and ethics.

7G Our organization helps our employees help 

their community.

7H Our employees believe our organization is a

good place to work.

7I Our employees are committed to our 

organization’s success.

Contact

For information on the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program: www.nist.gov/baldrige | 301.975.2036 | baldrige@nist.gov

Are We Making Progress as Leaders? Revised 2022

Photo credits: ©Pressmaster/Shutterstock

Baldrige Performance Excellence Program • National Institute of Standards and Technology • Department of Commerce