Questions to Ask Senior Leadership in a Town Hall
Questions to ask executives at town hall meetings and all-hands Q&As, written for employees facing a row of senior leaders instead of a single CEO. The 54 questions follow the order a town hall takes: six to ask first if you only get one turn, then strategy, results, how decisions get made, jobs, pay and workload, and the follow-up that holds leadership to what it said on stage, with a few easier ones to close the session.
Want questions from the whole vault instead? Try the random question generator.
The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Ask first
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, and it needs no slide to hang on. If a target, a date or a budget has moved, the follow-up is what caused it.
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. A listed company may not be able to give figures it has not yet published, so if the value is refused, ask for the direction instead: up, flat or down.
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 will we know in six months whether this plan is working?
Why ask it
A success test with a date attached is what separates a plan from a hope. Write the answer down, along with who gave it, and bring it back at the town hall nearest that date.
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. With several executives on stage you may get a different action from each, and that tells you the plan has not yet been boiled down to one.
How was the biggest decision of this quarter reached, and who was consulted?
Why ask it
Asking how a decision was made is easier to do in public than disputing the decision, and the reply shows whether people were consulted or simply told. Listen for which departments were in the room, because they are likely to be the ones in it next time.
Strategy
Which of this year's priorities is furthest behind, and what is being done about it?
Why ask it
Town hall slides tend to show the priorities that are on track. Asking for the one that is behind, by name, gets you the item most likely to force a change of plan later in the year, and tells the team working on it that leadership knows.
If you had to rank the priorities on that slide, which is first and which is last?
Why ask it
A ranked list and an unranked one look the same on a slide. A pause, or two different answers from the stage, means the ranking has not been settled above you either, and that is why your team keeps being told everything is urgent.
Where do the people on this stage still disagree about the plan?
Why ask it
This one needs several executives in the room, which is what sets a senior leadership town hall apart from a CEO's. A named disagreement, such as sales wanting speed while finance wants margin, explains the mixed instructions teams receive. If the reply is that everyone is aligned, ask what the last argument was about.
What outside the company's control could do the most damage to this plan?
Why ask it
Interest rates, one large customer, a supplier, a regulator: most plans lean on something the company cannot steer. You are listening for a fallback, or for the admission that there is only a hope the thing holds.
What would make you change course on the current plan?
Why ask it
A useful reply names a trigger: a revenue figure, a lost contract, a date. Whatever they name is also the evidence they take seriously, so it is the evidence to bring if you ever want to argue for a change.
What did we try last year that you would not do again?
Why ask it
An honest answer names a project, a market or a restructure and says what it cost. Phrasing it as 'we' means nobody on stage has to disown a colleague's idea, and hearing it makes a failed attempt easier to admit lower down.
How does this year's plan change the work of teams that were not mentioned today?
Why ask it
Support, finance, facilities and other internal teams often sit through a town hall without hearing their work named. Asking on their behalf either gets a real answer or shows the plan was written around the revenue teams, which those teams are better off learning now.
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 often a process, a shortage of people, or a sign-off that sits with someone on the stage.
What is each of you personally spending the most time on this month?
Why ask it
Ask for one sentence from each executive so it does not use up the whole Q&A. Where they put their own hours says what will get attention, whatever the priority slide lists, and it is an easy one for a nervous first-time asker.
Results
In plain terms, how is the company doing financially right now?
Why ask it
Results slides are built for people who read accounts, and much of the audience does not. The plain version is three things: whether the company is making money, whether its cash is going up or down, and how long it could carry on as it is. A listed company can only repeat what it has published and a private one chooses how much to share, so take what is offered and ask where staff can read more.
Where did we miss the target last quarter, and what did you take from the miss?
Why ask it
Pick a miss the slides already admitted, if there is one, so the question reads as curiosity and not as an ambush. The second half matters more: a lesson with a change attached is an answer, and 'market conditions' on its own is not.
Which result from last quarter surprised you most?
Why ask it
Surprise marks the spot where the forecast and the business parted ways, in either direction. Executives can answer it comfortably, which makes it a good opener when the Q&A starts and the room is still quiet.
Which part of the business is carrying the rest right now?
Why ask it
Many companies have one product, region or customer group that pays for the others. People in the areas being carried deserve to know it, and people in the profitable one will want to hear what their results are funding.
If next quarter comes in under plan, what gets cut back first?
Why ask it
It asks for the order of savings, which many leadership teams have worked out even when they do not publish it. Travel, contractors and unfilled vacancies often go before jobs, but the order differs by company, and hearing it lets people judge their own exposure without anyone on stage having to forecast a bad quarter.
What are we hearing from customers that we have not acted on yet?
Why ask it
Support and sales staff in the audience usually know the answer already, so this doubles as a check on whether the same complaints have reached the top. If the executives name one, ask who owns it now.
Which customers did we lose this year, and what did they say on the way out?
Why ask it
Lost accounts rarely make the town hall deck, and the reasons customers give when leaving are the bluntest criticism a company receives. Address it to the head of sales or customer service if they are on stage, since they will have heard those reasons first hand.
What are competitors doing better than us right now?
Why ask it
A reply that names a competitor and one specific thing, such as their pricing, their delivery time or a single feature, shows the executives are watching closely. Be wary of 'nobody does what we do': people who talk to customers every day will know whether it is true.
Which measure do you think this company leans on too much?
Why ask it
Every dashboard has a figure that is easy to hit and says little, and the people doing the work usually know which one. An executive who names it is telling you they can see how the target bends the work. It is also a polite way to raise a target your own team thinks is distorting things.
Where is the company spending more this year, and what is paying for it?
Why ask it
New investment comes from somewhere: growth, borrowing, or a cut to another budget. The finance lead can usually answer in two sentences, and those two sentences say which teams are being fed and which are doing the feeding.
Decisions
What problem was the latest reorganization meant to solve, and how will you tell whether it has?
Why ask it
A restructure often arrives as a new chart with no test attached. Asking for the test in front of everyone gives the whole company a way to revisit it in a year. If nothing has been reorganized lately, ask it about the last big system or office change instead.
When two departments want the same budget or the same people, who settles it?
Why ask it
With several executives side by side, this is really a question about how they work with each other. A clear answer names a person or a forum. A vague one explains why requests that cross two departments sit unanswered for weeks.
Which decisions do you want made lower down than they are today?
Why ask it
Leaders often say they want teams to act without asking, and teams often do not know which calls are theirs. One concrete example, such as refunds under a set amount or hiring within an agreed budget, is something a manager can act on that same week.
Which approval step would you remove tomorrow if you could?
Why ask it
It invites the executives to criticize a process and not each other, so it tends to get a candid reply. If one of them names a step, the follow-up is who could remove it, and that person is often sitting two chairs along.
What was the last decision this group reversed, and what changed your minds?
Why ask it
A leadership team that can point to a reversal shows that evidence from below can still move it. Notice what did the moving: data, a customer, a resignation, or pressure from the board. That is the kind of argument to bring next time.
Where do you see duplicated work across teams, and who is fixing it?
Why ask it
Two teams building the same report or paying for the same tool is easy to see from below and hard to see from the top. Bring one real example without saying who is at fault, and watch whether an executive takes it on by name or the reply stops at 'we should look at that'.
How are you deciding where AI tools get used here, and who checks what they produce?
Why ask it
Plenty of staff are already using these tools, or being told to, without a rule on what is allowed. Asking for the policy and for the person accountable when the output is wrong is safer ground in a public meeting than asking whose job is next. Rules on data and privacy differ by country and industry, so ask what applies in your office.
Which decision are you closest to making that we should be getting ready for?
Why ask it
Executives cannot always share an outcome, but they can often say what is under review: a pricing change, an office lease, a systems move. Even a topic and a rough month lets teams avoid starting work that the decision would undo.
Jobs and pay
Are layoffs or another restructure expected in the next two quarters?
Why ask it
People will speculate anyway, so a direct question is fairer to everyone than the rumor cycle. Executives can rarely rule cuts out and may not be free to discuss them before a formal process starts, so listen for the form of the reply: a commitment with a date, a plain 'we cannot say', or a change of subject.
If roles were at risk, how would the people affected find out, and how much notice would they get?
Why ask it
This is about the process, which leaders can describe even when they cannot say whether cuts are coming. Notice periods, consultation and severance depend on the country, the contract and sometimes a union agreement, so ask how it works at your location and do not treat a general answer as a promise.
Is there a hiring freeze, in name or in practice, and when will the open roles be filled?
Why ask it
Many teams live with a freeze nobody announced: vacancies that sit unapproved for months. The words 'in practice' close off the reply that there is no official freeze. A date, or the condition that would lift it, is what managers need to plan around.
When someone leaves and is not replaced, who decides which of their work stops?
Why ask it
By default nothing stops and the neighboring desks absorb it. Raising it in front of the whole leadership group puts the choice back with whoever decided not to backfill the role.
How will pay reviews work this year, and what range of increases should people expect?
Why ask it
Pay questions tend to get passed to line managers, who often have not been told either. Asking for the timetable, the budget and the range gives you something to check your own letter against, and it stays a question about the system and not about your salary.
How are bonuses or profit share tied to the results you showed today?
Why ask it
People do the arithmetic in their heads during the results slides anyway. Ask for the formula and the date the figure is set, not the amount, and do not expect a commitment on payout from the stage. Schemes differ by level and country, so check afterwards which one covers you.
What are you doing about long-serving staff who are paid less than new hires in the same role?
Why ask it
It is a pay complaint that gets repeated in corridors and almost never said into a microphone. Keep it to policy: whether salaries are checked against market rates, how often, and who can ask for a review. The head of HR is likely to take it.
What is the plan for office attendance over the next year, and what would change it?
Why ask it
People choose housing, childcare and commutes on the strength of this answer, so a plain 'no change planned this year' is valuable and so is an honest 'under review'. The second half brings out the reasoning, whether that is a lease, a belief about collaboration or one person's preference.
What workload do you consider sustainable, and how would you find out a team was past it?
Why ask it
The first half gets a statement of values. The second half is the real question, because it asks what signal reaches the executives: overtime figures, sick leave, resignations, or nothing at all. If the only signal is people quitting, it arrives too late for the team concerned.
Which skills will the company need more of in two years, and how do we get them?
Why ask it
It turns a worry about the future into something a person can act on. A full answer names the skills and says whether there is budget and paid time for training, or whether the intention is to hire them in.
How often are senior roles filled from inside the company, and what would raise that?
Why ask it
Anyone deciding whether to stay looks at who got the last few director jobs. The executives may not have the figure to hand, which is a fair reason to request that it be shared after the meeting. An agreement to publish it each year is a good result.
Follow-up
What happened to the commitments made at the last town hall?
Why ask it
Name one commitment if you can, with the meeting it was made at, so the reply cannot be a general 'good progress'. Asked every time, it also tells the stage that someone in the audience is keeping a list.
When did a question from one of these meetings last lead to a change?
Why ask it
If the executives can name one, people will keep submitting questions. If they cannot, treat it as a prompt and not a verdict: the format is supposed to carry information upward, and this checks whether it does.
How do you want bad news to reach you, and what happens when it does?
Why ask it
Everyone listening can use the answer, whether it is a named person, an anonymous form or a skip-level meeting. 'My door is always open' is not a channel, so if that is the reply, ask for an example of bad news that reached them that way and what they did with it.
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.
Which submitted questions did you decide not to answer today?
Why ask it
Questions sent in beforehand are usually sorted by whoever runs the meeting, and asking about the sorting is a fair way to raise what was cut. Even a partial answer tells people their questions are being read.
For the questions you could not answer today, who will reply, where, and by when?
Why ask it
'We will get back to you' has no owner until someone asks for one. A name, a channel and a date on the record is the most useful thing to get out of a deferred question, and anyone in the audience can ask for it, not only the person who was deferred.
How will managers be briefed on today, so that we hear the same thing from them?
Why ask it
The follow-up questions land on line managers the next morning, and they were often in the same audience hearing the news for the first time. If a briefing note or a managers' call is planned, say you would like it to go out before the town hall next time.
What do you wish we understood about your jobs that we probably do not?
Why ask it
A generous question after a run of hard ones, and it can produce the frankest minute of the meeting: the pressure from owners, lenders or regulators that shapes decisions people below only see the results of. Save it for near the end, once the executives have relaxed.
Which team outside your own area do you think is underrated here?
Why ask it
It asks each executive to praise a team they do not manage, which tests how far across the company their attention reaches. The team that gets named will remember it, and so will the ones that never come up.
What should we expect to hear about next, and when?
Why ask it
Keep this for when the moderator calls for one last question. A date for the next update, even a rough one, stops the weeks after a town hall filling up with guesses, and it tells you when to bring back anything left open today.
Asking questions in an all-hands
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Getting your question asked
Choose the group that fits the agenda
The list is sorted the way these meetings run. If the executives are presenting results, take one from Results; after a reorganization, go to Decisions or Jobs and pay. With no idea what is coming, the six under Ask first work whatever is on the slides. Two prepared questions are plenty, since someone else may ask your first.
Say which executive you are asking
With several senior leaders on stage, an open question goes to whoever is most comfortable answering it. Naming the role, such as the finance lead for spending or the head of HR for pay policy, gets the person who actually holds the answer. If you want more than one view, say so: asking two of them to answer separately is how a disagreement becomes visible.
Submit early and in one sentence
Where questions are collected in advance, someone sorts them before the executives see the list. A one-sentence question with no preamble is easier to pick, and easier to read out to the room, than a paragraph.
Use the question tool if there is one
On platforms where colleagues can vote, a question phrased as something many people want answered will rise, so ask about the mechanism or the tradeoff and not your own team's issue. Whether an 'anonymous' post can be traced depends on the tool and how your company has set it up, so find out before posting anything you would not say with your name on it.
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 blame a named colleague or single out one team's failure in front of the whole company.
- 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.