There’s little new about 360 degree feedback – it’s been around for quite a while. When it pops up in Dilbert cartoons or episodes of The Office, you know its mainstream!
If you haven’t experienced it, in a nutshell this is the process:
Feedback is given through a structured questionnaire by your boss, your direct reports, and your peers. They feed back on your strengths and the areas where, in their opinion, you could be better – let’s call them your “development needs” or “opportunities”. So in essence you get input from people who know you and work with you from all sides. hence the name of “360 Degree Feedback”
Done well, 360 programmes are a route to individual team members getting feedback to improve in important aspects of their performance – areas that could be stalling their career progress or even causing major conflict within a team. Beware, though – there are risks to using 360 if it is not carried out and managed properly. Outcomes that you don’t want could include mistrust, anger and conflict. At worst, team morale is at risk of being lower than at the outset.
7 Reasons why 360 Programmes Fail:
- Lack of involvement or commitment from the boss.
360 programs that get driven by HR without much attention from the boss are not effective. Whatever the boss gives importance to gets the attention of his/her reports. The boss has to be a believer that this stuff helps the team.
- Vague or inappropriate questions.
For a 360 questionnaire to be effective it needs to offer specific and tangible outputs. If it doesn’t, you’re likely going to have a hard time translating your team’s profiles into specific and measureable actions. Selecting the right tool is crucial in getting back information that can be acted upon.
- People make unconstructive comments that are personal and negative.
There are many people who have had very bad 360 experiences. This is usually because people they work with choose to take the opportunity to “have a dig” or get something off their chest – whether right or wrong. You can imagine that this is a sure fire way for the exercise to be devalued and fall into disrepute. It’s crucial that all involved are clear that the aim is to be constructive, not personal. If you ask yourself the question “Would I be prepared to read this comment about me?” and the answer is “Yes”, then fine. If not, perhaps the comment needs phrasing differently!
- The feedback process doesn’t include a plan of action.
You will have a rich vein of feedback that can be used to transform performance. but only if it gets acted upon. The worst type of programme is the one where people give their input and nothing useful ever becomes of it. Changing behaviour requires acting differently. otherwise things stay as they were.
- Following up only once isn’t enough.
So, your process includes a feedback session and an action plan. but it’s not enough on its own. It is well recognised that to change a habit – i.e. to change behaviour – people must act in the new way repeatedly – and that needs more than one reminder! The action plan needs to be revisited regularly for it to have lasting impact. How often? Well, we’d suggest a quarterly review over two years. then the time will be right to carry out the process again to refresh the feedback and find out how people’s perceptions have changed.
- The feedback isn’t fully confidential.
It’s no surprise that those new to the 360 process often worried about how their inputs will be used – and if it will be treated as confidential. It is crucial that everyone involved appreciates and trusts that it is a confidential process; that there won’t be any unhelpful come back that could affect their own future treatment. Many businesses consider using third party coaches to help deliver and manage the feedback process. This gets over the concerns that may surface about the consistency and objectivity of internal coaching. When you think about it, there needs to be independence here as all members of the team or department are involved with the feedback, so there must at least be an internal coach from HR if not someone from outside.
- Ignoring strengths and only focusing on weaknesses.
Let’s face it, we all know of companies where the entire focus is in fixing what’s broken, rather than building on the considerable strengths and positives which already exist. Taking a positive “coach” perspective – seeing everyone as having significant untapped potential and helping them to unlock this potential – is the best way by far to get the most from the people in your team. The bottom line is that to get the best from anyone we want them to recognise and accept their “weaknesses”. whilst at the same time building and relying on their strengths. After all, it is those strengths that got the person to where they are in their career.
So – if you take on board these examples of “worst” practice and build your 360 process around the polar opposites of the points made above, chances are that your organisation will enjoy a positive 360 experience. and benefit from great steps forward in unlocking the potential of your team and all its members.
Done badly, 360 degree feedback can create divisions, lower morale and increase staff turnover. done well, they can be a major part of driving accelerated growth for both team and organisation.
We can help you!
Everything DiSC® 363 for Leaders is a different type of 360 instrument. As well as being informed by the established and proven DiSC behavioural model, 363 for Leaders offers the following:
- Designed for leaders at every level – emerging leaders, high potential leaders as well as experienced managers and executives.
- Focused on 8 approaches to leadership – Pioneering, Energising, Affirming, Inclusive, Humble, Deliberate, Resolute, and Commanding Approaches – 363 for Leaders concentrates on the areas that are truly relevant to high performing leaders.
- CommentSmart® is our comprehensive selectable feedback tool which avoids the negativity of open-ended responses which can derail the whole process. It also speeds up the feedback completion time for raters.
- As well as clearly highlighting areas of strength in a leader, 363 for Leaders also provides 3 specific strategies for leader development that form the basis for an action plan based directly on the feedback given.
- 363 for Leaders is completed on-line through your own EPIC account. This ensures that the administrator can easily manage multiple responders, whilst ensuring complete confidentiality for both leaders and team members alike.
- Finally, to support the feedback process over time – ensuring that changes in behaviour are embedded for good – 363 for Leaders includes a Coaching Supplement that ties in the feedback to the leader’s own behavioural preferences and priorities – helping make change stick!
