How can you measure customer-centric leadership?
Most scientific leadership surveys fall short on two counts. First, the majority lack a behavioral focus because they measure attitudes or personality characteristics rather than what leaders actually do. Second, not a single validated survey exists that captures customer-centric leadership. Organizational psychologists have yet to connect strategy, leadership, and customer value in a behavioral measure.
The CF15™ fills that gap. It is a science-grade, behavioral survey that measures customer-centric leadership across five clusters. Science-grade means three things: each behavior cluster is measured by multiple items rather than a single question to increase validity; results are consistent across repeated use; and scores are comparable across teams and organizations, allowing for benchmark insights over time.
CF15™
The Customer-First Leadership Survey
Introduction
Customer value is created by the entire organization, not only by those who interact with customers directly. In this survey, a customer is any person or organization that buys your company's products or services. Customer experience is shaped by thousands of internal decisions, processes, and interactions that happen far from the front line.
Leaders in enabling functions — such as legal, HR, finance, or operations — may rarely interact directly with customers. Their contribution to customer value occurs through the people they enable: when legal flags unacceptable risk, sales can focus its energy on the customers worth winning; when HR designs effective onboarding, new hires begin serving customers sooner; when finance builds the investment architecture that supports the right priorities, product and commercial teams can deliver more customer value.
Please rate this leader based on how they lead within their role and mandate. For leaders in customer-facing roles, this includes their direct interactions with customers. For leaders in enabling roles, that means how effectively they help others create customer value. This includes the decisions they influence, the advice they give, and the degree to which they keep the end customer visible in their actions.
Consider how the leader seeks and uses customer understanding in ways appropriate to their role and responsibilities. This may involve direct customer contact, observing customer experiences, using customer evidence, or learning through colleagues who interact with customers.
Base your ratings on behaviors you have directly observed.
Response Scale
For each statement, indicate how frequently you observe this behavior:
1 = Almost never
2 = Rarely
3 = Sometimes
4 = Often
5 = Almost always
Insight
CF1. This leader asks how the work they do affects customers.
CF2. This leader shares customer insights across the organization.
CF3. This leader creates opportunities to discuss what customer insights mean for the organization.
Direction
CF4. This leader explains which customer needs matter most and why.
CF5. This leader explains how the organization can deliver greater value to customers.
CF6. This leader involves others in setting goals that improve customer value.
Voice
CF7. This leader asks others to speak up about customer-related concerns.
CF9. This leader raises concerns when internal priorities put customer value at risk.
CF8. This leader convenes the people needed to resolve customer-related conflicts.
Change
CF10. This leader removes or escalates roadblocks to customer value.
CF11. This leader explains how proposed changes will improve customer value.
CF12. This leader asks others to test ideas for improving customer value.
Development
CF13. This leader gives specific feedback to others on how their actions affect customer value.
CF14. This leader holds others accountable for actions and results that affect customer value.
CF15. This leader helps others adapt their work when customer needs change.
Overall Recommendation
Please indicate your level of agreement with the following statement:
1 = Strongly disagree
2 = Disagree
3 = Neither agree nor disagree
4 = Agree
5 = Strongly agree
I would recommend this leader as a role model for customer-first leadership.
Sources:
Brown, M. E., & Treviño, L. K. (2006). Ethical leadership: A review and future directions. The leadership quarterly, 17(6), 595-616.
Fischer, H. E., Boone, W. J., & Neumann, K. (2023). Quantitative research designs and approaches. In Handbook of research on science education (pp. 28-59). Routledge.
Fischer, T., Dietz, J., & Antonakis, J. (2024). A fatal flaw: Positive leadership style research creates causal illusions. The Leadership Quarterly, 35(3), 101771.
Gilson, L. L. (2024). Why be creative: A review of the practical outcomes associated with creativity at the individual, group, and organizational levels. Handbook of organizational creativity, 303-322.
Hoch, J. E., Bommer, W. H., Dulebohn, J. H., & Wu, D. (2018). Do ethical, authentic, and servant leadership explain variance above and beyond transformational leadership? A meta-analysis. Journal of management, 44(2), 501-529.
Michie, S., Atkins, L., & West, R. (2014). The behaviour change wheel. A guide to designing interventions, 1, 1003-1010.
Rousseau, D. M., & Ten Have, S. (2022). Evidence-based change management. Organizational Dynamics, 51(3), 100899.
Wang, G., Oh, I. S., Courtright, S. H., & Colbert, A. E. (2011). Transformational leadership and performance across criteria and levels: A meta-analytic review of 25 years of research. Group & organization management, 36(2), 223-270.
Yukl, G., Mahsud, R., Prussia, G., & Hassan, S. (2019). Effectiveness of broad and specific leadership behaviors. Personnel Review, 48(3), 774-783.