Questions to Ask Senior Leadership in a Town Hall
Questions employees can ask in an all-hands or town hall, covering what has changed in the plan, the metrics leadership watches, tradeoffs, job security, pay, and the commitments made at the last one.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What has changed in the plan since the last town hall?
Why ask it
Comparing this meeting with the last one is how you find out whether the plan is stable. Leaders who present every quarter as new usually are not tracking their own commitments.
Which number are you watching most closely this quarter, and where is it now?
Why ask it
Asking for the metric and its current value prevents an answer that names a priority without a number. If nobody will state the figure, it is either bad or not actually being tracked.
What are we saying no to this year in order to do the priorities you just listed?
Why ask it
Strategy is only real when something gets dropped. A priority list with no matching stop list means every team keeps its existing work and adds the new work on top.
How was the decision you just announced reached, and who was consulted?
Why ask it
Process questions are usually safer to ask in public than the decision itself, and the answer shows whether consultation happened or was announced. Who was in the room predicts who will be next time.
What is the one thing you would want everyone here to do differently on Monday?
Why ask it
This converts strategy into an instruction, which is what most of the audience actually needs. A leader who cannot name one action has not translated the plan for the people executing it.
What are we hearing from customers that we have not acted on yet?
Why ask it
Known but unaddressed customer feedback is the gap between what the company hears and what it does. Raising it in public makes it harder for the item to stay unowned.
How will we know in six months whether this worked?
Why ask it
A success test with a date attached is what separates a strategy from an aspiration. Write down the answer and bring it back in six months.
What happened to the commitments made at the last town hall?
Why ask it
Following up on previous promises is the most useful town hall question and the one most rarely asked. It also sets the expectation that commitments are being recorded.
Are further layoffs or restructures expected in the next two quarters?
Why ask it
People will speculate regardless, so a direct question is fairer to everyone than the rumor cycle. Note whether the answer is a commitment, a refusal, or a non-answer, because all three are informative.
How do pay reviews and promotion budgets work this year, and what is the range of outcomes?
Why ask it
Compensation questions are usually deferred to managers who have not been briefed either. Asking for the mechanism and the range gets something checkable instead of reassurance.
Where do you see duplicated work across teams, and who is fixing it?
Why ask it
Duplicate effort is obvious from below and invisible from above, and naming it in an all-hands creates a record. Watch whether anyone is actually made responsible for resolving it.
What is stopping us from moving faster on the things we already agree about?
Why ask it
This separates disagreement from friction. If everyone agrees and nothing moves, the obstacle is usually process, headcount, or an approval nobody wants to name in public.
How do you want bad news to reach you, and what happens when it does?
Why ask it
The channel is a legitimate public question and the answer is usable by everyone listening. A leader who says their door is always open has not built one.
Whose work here do you think is underrated internally?
Why ask it
Asking a leader to praise a team they do not manage tests how far their attention reaches. It is also a rare generous question in a format that tends toward complaint.
Which feedback from the last engagement survey did you decide not to act on, and why?
Why ask it
Survey results are usually presented as an action plan with the rejected items removed. Asking about the discarded ones is how you learn what leadership chose not to change, and whether they will say so.
What are competitors doing better than us right now?
Why ask it
Executives are prepared for this but usually only answer it when asked directly. How specific the reply is shows how closely they actually watch.
What are you personally spending your time on this month?
Why ask it
Where the top of the company spends its own hours predicts what will get attention and what will not, regardless of the priority list on the slide.
Which submitted questions did you decide not to answer today?
Why ask it
Pre-submitted questions are filtered, and asking about the filter is a fair way to raise what was cut. Even a partial answer tells people their questions are being read.
What would make you change course on the current plan?
Why ask it
Asking what would change their mind gets at how firm the plan is and what evidence they respect. Leaders who cannot name a trigger are committed regardless of results.
What should we expect to hear about next, and when?
Why ask it
Closing on what comes next and when gives everyone a date to hold, and turns a broadcast into a sequence people can follow.
Asking questions in an all-hands
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Getting your question asked
Submit early and in one sentence
Questions are usually collected in advance and sorted by whoever runs the meeting. A short, clearly worded question with no preamble is far more likely to be selected than a paragraph.
Use the upvote system if there is one
On platforms where colleagues can vote, a question phrased as something many people want answered will rise. Ask about the mechanism or the tradeoff rather than your own team's issue.
If you ask live, keep it to fifteen seconds
Stand, say your name and team, ask one question, and stop. Long questions in a room of hundreds lose the audience and give the leader room to answer the easy part.
Asking hard questions without damage
- Ask about process, mechanism, and numbers rather than motives.
- Use facts that are already public inside the company, and cite where they came from.
- Do not name individuals or single out a team's failure in a public forum.
- Accept a deferral, then ask who owns the answer and by when.
- Ask on behalf of a common concern rather than a personal grievance.
- Stay level in tone. A hard question asked calmly is much harder to dismiss than the same question asked with heat.
Common mistakes
Three questions in one
Multi-part questions get the most comfortable part answered and the rest quietly dropped. Choose the single part you most want answered and hold the others for later.
A complaint dressed as a question
Statements ending in do you agree invite a polite deflection and cost you credibility with the room. If you want something changed, ask who owns the decision and what would change it.
Raising a personal matter in public
Your own pay, promotion, or manager belongs in a private conversation. Asking in a town hall puts leadership in a position where the only available answer is a general one.
After the town hall
- Write down every commitment with its date and owner while the recording is still fresh.
- Follow up directly with the person named as owner, briefly and in writing.
- Share what was actually said with anyone on your team who missed it, including the deferrals.
- Bring the unanswered question back next quarter, in the same words.
- If a commitment slips twice with no explanation, treat that as the answer to the original question.