The best team assessment questions are short statements your people rate on a scale, followed by two open questions: what is working, and what is in the way. Below you will find 40 questions grouped by theme, a simple way to score them, and guidance on turning the answers into action. You can run the whole thing in under ten minutes per person.
TL;DR
- Ask about five areas: purpose and goals, trust and psychological safety, communication, roles and accountability, and results.
- Keep the survey short. Validated tools like the 20-item TDM-20 show you do not need a long questionnaire, and past 5 to 8 minutes you gather more noise than signal.
- Rate each statement on a 1 to 5 or 1 to 7 scale, then add one concrete example of a recent success and one barrier.
- The gaps between team members' scores are often more useful than the average.
- Pair the survey with a DISC assessment so you understand why people see the team differently.
Table of Contents
- Why a team assessment is more than a mood check
- 40 team assessment questions by theme
- Add two open questions
- How to run it in under ten minutes
- How to score and read the results
- Questions for hiring teammates
- Perspective: why we pair surveys with DISC
- Using the 5 Cs for nonprofit and volunteer teams
- Start with DISC Assess
- Common mistakes to avoid
- FAQ
- Sources
Why a team assessment is more than a mood check
A team survey that only asks "How happy are you here?" tells you how people feel today. It does not tell you whether the team is producing good work, or why it is not. Team effectiveness combines shared understanding of goals with disciplined behavior: clear communication, clear roles, and honest follow-through. Researchers who build team training programs describe it in just these terms, as a mix of awareness and information exchange, psychological safety, and adaptation and correction.
So the strongest assessments compare two things: how the team feels and what the team produces. If everyone reports high satisfaction but deadlines slip and quality drops, you may be looking at artificial harmony rather than a healthy team. The questions below are designed to expose that difference.
A few ground rules before you start:
- Decide what you will do with the answers. If you will not act, do not ask.
- Make it anonymous where the team is small. In a team of five, even demographic questions can identify people. Skip them.
- Use one scale throughout. A five-point agreement scale (strongly disagree to strongly agree) is easy to read and score. Edmondson's psychological safety items use a seven-point scale, which gives a bit more nuance if you want it.
- Mix in a few reverse-worded items so people do not click straight down one column. Remember to flip those scores when you tally.
40 team assessment questions by theme
Each question below is a statement. Ask your team to rate each one from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). You do not need all 40. Pick five to eight from the areas that matter most right now, which keeps you inside the length that people will actually finish.
Purpose and goals
A shared mission is where team culture starts. Gallup's team-management guidance names common purpose as the first of five tactics and suggests managers ask what positive feedback the team receives most often, as a way to see whether people understand the same mission.
- Our team has clear goals for this quarter.
- I can explain how my work supports the team's mission.
- Everyone on the team would describe our priorities in roughly the same way.
- We know how we will measure success.
- When priorities change, we hear about it quickly.
- We review our results often enough to correct course.
- I understand what our customers, clients or community expect from us.
- Our goals feel challenging but achievable.
Trust and psychological safety
This is the area where wording matters most. Amy Edmondson's seven-item scale is the standard reference, and it covers things like whether mistakes are held against you and whether members can bring up tough issues. The items below follow the same ideas in our own words.
- If I make a mistake on this team, it is not held against me.
- People on this team can bring up tough issues.
- It is safe to take a risk here.
- It is easy to ask other team members for help.
- No one on this team would deliberately undermine my efforts.
- My skills and talents are valued and used.
- I can say what I really think in team meetings.
- When someone disagrees with the leader, it is welcomed.
Communication
- I get the information I need to do my job on time.
- Our meetings are worth the time we spend in them.
- We tell each other the truth, even when it is uncomfortable.
- I know the best way to communicate with each of my teammates.
- Misunderstandings are cleared up quickly rather than left to fester.
- We share good news and bad news at the same speed.
- Feedback here is specific and usable.
- Remote or part-time teammates are as informed as everyone else.
Roles and accountability
Psychological safety and accountability are two sides of one coin. A team that is "nice" but never calls out poor performance lacks accountability. A team that is tough but afraid to admit mistakes lacks safety. Measure both, or the score you get will flatter you.
- I know exactly what I am responsible for.
- I know what my teammates are responsible for.
- Team members call out behavior that hurts the team.
- Poor performance is addressed directly, not ignored.
- People follow through on what they commit to in meetings.
- Decisions have a clear owner.
- I would be comfortable giving a peer tough feedback.
- Our leader holds themselves to the same standards as everyone else.
Results and growth
- We deliver quality work consistently.
- We put team results ahead of individual credit.
- We learn from what goes wrong instead of assigning blame.
- We celebrate wins, large and small.
- Conflict on this team usually leads to better decisions.
- I am proud to be part of this team.
- I see myself growing here.
- I would recommend working on this team to a friend.
Add two open questions
Ratings give you a number. Stories give you a direction. A widely used team diagnostic, the questionnaire built around the five dysfunctions of a team, is designed to evaluate a team's susceptibility to a chain of problems that starts with absence of trust and ends with inattention to results. That chain is a useful reminder that low scores in one area usually trace back to an earlier one.
To get at the cause, always finish with:
- Describe one recent success our team had, and what made it possible.
- Describe one thing that slowed us down in the last month.
These two prompts turn "3 out of 5 on communication" into something you can actually discuss on Monday morning.
How to run it in under ten minutes
Length is the quiet killer of team surveys. Research on the validated Provider-PTE questionnaire shows how many dimensions a full instrument can cover (team processes, roles, outcomes), but its 41 items are a research tool. For a working team, the 20-item TDM-20 shows a shorter form can work, and a targeted pulse of 7 to 10 questions is enough for most check-ins.
Here is a practical rhythm:
- Pick your focus. Choose one or two themes from the list above.
- Select 7 to 10 statements, plus the two open questions.
- Announce the purpose and the date you will share results.
- Collect responses in one week. Send one reminder.
- Share the results with the whole team, including the uncomfortable parts.
- Agree on one or two changes and a date to re-check.
Repeat quarterly, or after any major change such as a new leader, a merger of two teams, or a busy season that strained people.
How to score and read the results
Average each theme, but do not stop there.
- Look at the spread. When scores differ a lot between team members, that gap is itself the diagnostic. It points to hidden misalignment in expectations, and it is often more informative than a high or low average.
- Compare themes. A team that scores high on trust but low on accountability is comfortable but not stretching. A team that scores high on accountability but low on safety is probably performing through fear.
- Check against outcomes. Put your scores next to real results: deadlines met, client feedback, turnover. If feelings and outcomes disagree, ask more questions before drawing a conclusion.
- Watch the trend. One reading is weak evidence. A score that moves after you change something is strong evidence.
| If you see this | It may mean | Try this |
|---|---|---|
| Low trust, low conflict | People are holding back | Start meetings with a low-stakes check-in; model admitting a mistake |
| High trust, low accountability | Comfortable but avoiding hard talks | Set explicit commitments and review them weekly |
| Wide spread on goals | Different people hear different priorities | Rewrite goals together and repeat them in writing |
| High satisfaction, weak results | Possible artificial harmony | Review the work itself, not just the feelings about it |
Questions for hiring teammates
If you are assessing a candidate rather than a current team, the questions change. "Are you a team player?" invites a rehearsed yes. Better prompts ask for a story, such as "Tell me about a time you worked in a team where something went wrong." Interviewers use these to see whether someone takes accountability and learns from conflict, not whether they seem pleasant. Ask for the situation, the task, the action and the result, and listen for what the candidate did. University careers offices publish sample competency questions on communication and teamwork that you can adapt.
For mission-driven organizations, it also helps to think about how conflict and accountability play out in security and safety-focused teams, where handling disagreement well is part of the job.
Perspective: why we pair surveys with DISC
At DISC Assess, we work with small businesses, nonprofits, coaches and office teams, and we see the same pattern again and again. A survey tells a leader what the team reports. It rarely explains why two thoughtful people look at the same meeting and score it differently.
That is where a DISC assessment helps. One person hears "direct feedback" as clarity, another hears it as criticism. One wants fast decisions, another wants time to consider. When the scores spread out on a question like "We tell each other the truth," the explanation is often a difference in tendencies, not a lack of goodwill. Giving people a shared vocabulary for those tendencies makes the survey conversation kinder and more productive.
Our model integrates temperament and character, so it speaks to growth as well as behavior. For faith-based teams, our Christian version places those insights within discipleship and the fruit of the Spirit. We have been supported by Prism Counseling & Coaching for over a decade, and we built DISC Assess for leaders without HR departments or certification requirements: simple to use, affordable, and ready the same day.
My advice is to treat the survey as the question and the DISC report as the context. Do the first, then use the second to talk about it with grace.
— Tres
Using the 5 Cs for nonprofit and volunteer teams
Gallup's framework of common purpose, connection, communication, collaboration and celebration is easy to turn into a short pulse. Ask one or two statements per C. For nonprofit boards, staff and volunteers, the leadership skills that nonprofit teams need can help you decide which of those five areas deserve the most attention. We also cover this ground in our own guides on why team cohesion matters for nonprofit success and conflict styles in the nonprofit workplace.
If you want to compare approaches before choosing one, our team assessment tools comparison walks through the options by type. If you are ready to put a process around it, the team dynamics assessment workflow lays out the steps a manager can follow.
Start with DISC Assess
You can pilot this with very little risk. A single Individual Assessment is $29, and the Classic DISC Assessment (non-faith) or the Christian DISC® Assessment (faith version) with a full report is $49 each. Many leaders take one themselves first, then decide how to roll it out.
For a whole team, the Group Admin Account is $299 one-time and lets you manage participants and results from one place. Our Professional package with admin account and assessments bundles the pieces for group use. We also offer an Unlimited Membership, self-guided and live group training, and individual coaching. Pricing for those is not published, so reach out through the site for details.
A simple plan: run a seven-question pulse this week, have everyone take a DISC assessment next week, and hold one 45-minute conversation comparing the two.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Asking too much. Surveys that run long produce rushed, shallow answers.
- Asking leading questions. "Do you agree our communication is excellent?" tells people what to say.
- Treating the average as the answer. Look at the spread and at the comments.
- Skipping the follow-up. If nothing changes after a survey, the next one will get fewer honest responses.
- Using assessment results to rank people. The goal is to improve the team's conditions, not to score individuals.
FAQ
What are good questions to ask in a team assessment?
Use statements about clear goals, trust, communication, role clarity, accountability and results, rated on a 1 to 5 scale. Add two open questions: one recent success and one barrier. Seven to ten items are enough for a regular check-in.
How many questions should a team survey have?
Fewer than most managers expect. The validated TDM-20 uses 20 items, and a targeted pulse of 7 to 10 is often enough. If completion takes more than 5 to 8 minutes, you risk gathering more noise than signal.
How often should I assess my team?
Quarterly works for most teams, with a short pulse in between if something big changes. Re-ask the same core questions each time so you can see the trend, and share what you changed in response.
Should team assessment surveys be anonymous?
Usually yes, especially in small teams where people may fear that candid answers will be traced back to them. Tell people how results will be reported, and avoid demographic questions that could identify someone on a team of five or six.
How is a DISC assessment different from a team survey?
A team survey measures how people experience the team's goals, trust and results. A DISC assessment describes individual behavioral tendencies, which helps explain why people experience the same team differently. They work best together.
Sources
- TEAM ASSESSMENT (five dysfunctions questionnaire), Stanford Law School
- Psychological Safety Survey Questions for Teams, Sprad
- Team Functioning and Beliefs About Team Effectiveness in Inter-Professional Teams, PMC
- Implementing an evidence-based competency model for science team training and evaluation: TeamMAPPS
- Introducing the TDM-20: A Validated 20-Item Instrument to Measure Team Development
- The 5 Tactics of Teamwork, Gallup
- Competency questions, University of Oxford Careers Service