360 Feedback Blog

This is a great article summarising 10 Strategies for focusing on What’s Strong, rather than What’s Wrong, in counselling and therapy.

The Strategies could equally apply to making your 360 Degree Feedback, and the coaching and development that support it, positive and empowering for managers and employees.

You can do this by:

• Defining what great performance looks like, and building your 360 Degree Feedback around the actions that indicate great performance
• Focusing only on less strong behaviours if those behaviours are critical for the individual in doing their job and achieving their objectives.
• Discussing with individuals how they can practically put their strengths to best effect when doing their job
• Using strength based questions to solve problems, such as ‘How can you use this area of strength to bring about the results you want’?

In this article, the writer gives an example of an executive who was able to understand the negative 360 Degree Feedback he received through discussing his values with the 360 Coach.

“During a coaching session a derailed executive said: “I want my kids to be proud of me.” After reporting any negative behavior I would ask, “Would your kids be proud of you if they knew you were doing this?” When the answer was “no” he thought twice about acting in a negative manner. The result was a decrease in those actions that were derailing his career”.

It’s really important to discuss your 360 Degree Feedback with someone you trust, whether it’s your manager, coach, mentor, or just a good friend.  Talking to someone else about the positive and the negative feedback can help you get perspective and much more value from the feedback.

A survey just out talks about how 5000 employees described the management style of the people they work for.

“The survey found that the three most common leadership styles in the UK were authoritarian (according to 21%), bureaucratic (16%) or secretive (12.5%) - which sounds more Politburo than progressive. Only 10% described their bosses as accessible, and just 7% as empowering”.

This leaves me wanting to know more:

What management style did employees think was the most effective?  Surely the best management style is the one that’s right for the particular situation you’re trying to resolve.

And I’d love to know what how the managers and leaders of these employees see their own management style, and what scores they would get in a 360 Degree Feedback!  You can bet your life they wouldn’t say they were authoritarian, beaurocratic or secretive…they’d say they were assertive, organised and discreet!

In this article John Herlihey of Google explains the company’s view of the importance of performance reviews and 360 Degree Feedback:

“We measure people every 90 days. We get 360-degree feedback on people every 180 days and that feedback is published to the whole company. People want reality. Ninety per cent of the rewards end up going to 10pc of the people”.

3 monthly reviews and 6 monthly 360 Feedback is certainly tough and takes a lot of effort and commitment from the company the staff. 

Critically, What it does do is keep people really focused on what the key things they need to do, on what they learn and how to put that learning into practice.

Google’s focus on constant review, feedback and action is probably one of the reasons for its success.

In this article in the New York Times, Vineet Nayar, chief executive HCL Technologies, talks about how his 360 Degree Feedback results are available for everyone in the company to see, all 50,000 of them!  And 3800 managers also get 360 Degree Feedback, and that’s published on the internal web.  He believes this is critical for building transparency, trust and reverse accountability in his organisation.

A word of warning and an illuminating discussion thread about bosses, employees and 360 Degree Feedback in today’s Guardian.

Ruby is one of my favourite comediennes and she’s now doing management training! Here an article in the Times recently on her philosophy of how to help people behave better in the workplace.

I like the simplicity but I do think there’s more to it than that….here’s my response..

At the end of a recent episode of the Apprentice USA, Donald Trump, having pointed his pistol finger and fired the first candidate, concluded his remarks by saying ’she had to go…people don’t change’.

Is he right?  Are people just the way they are, or can they change their behaviours if they really want to?

I think DT has a point: the person he fired ignored all the feedback from the other candidates which was telling her that she didn’t listen and that she was a disruptive influence.  Her response was that people (especially women) were intimidated by her.  She would not, or could not, hear the feedback.  I have come across people like this and I don’t think they can change.  Because they don’t want to.

People who really want to change, though, will do so.  At an exreme level, you can see this in people who take on new religious beliefs in adult life can can often change their lives completely, and those of the people around them.  Maybe because their will to change is so profound and internalised…

As a people development professional I have also seen people take painful but ultimately successful journeys to change their behaviours.  I have reviewed my own behaviours at certain times in my life (after some 360 Degree Feedback) and made a decision to do some things differently.

What’s the view from people development professionals out there?  Can people really change?

In this article in Business Week, the brilliant coach Marshall Goldsmith sets out the 5 key steps that anyone can use to become a more effective leader.  The first of these is to obtain 360 Degree Feedback.

After that it’s critical to listen to the feedback, make a clear decision about what you’re going to do differently and keep getting feedback as you go.

I would add that the more visible and up front you are about the feedback you have had, and how you are actively using that feedback, the more people are going to see your commitment to your own development as a leader.

I found this great summary of questions people often ask about 360 Degree Feedback, and some of the criticisms that can be levelled against the process.

Here’s our response (we’ve repeated the comments/questions at the beginning of each paragraph):

It’s right that 360 focuses on managers and above; this is because 360 is most effective when measuring management, communication and leadership skills, and it’s at manager level that those skills become important.

There are indeed some key things that need to be in place for 360 Degree Feedback to be effective and valuable.

1) giving appraisals is a difficult task.
Yes appraisal can be difficult, but managers need to be trained in giving appraisals.  360 Degree Feedback is an additional tool to help with appraisal, because it gets feedback from multiple perspectives; it is one form of appraisal, not the only one.

2)there may be a gap between an organization’s business objectives and what 360-degree feedback programs measure.
I so agree with you - it is critical that the 360 Degree Feedback measures the behaviours that are needed for the organisation’s business objectives.  This is normally the first thing we do when designing 360 Degree Feedback.

3)time and cost associated with 360-degree feedback also are stumbling blocks
Yes, there is time and cost involved in doing any people development work.  However good communication and positioning of the 360, and careful planning, can reduce the impact of the activity. And a tool that helps employees, their managers and the organisation to understand skills gaps and strengths, is critical to the organisation’s success.

4) Reviewers and those being reviewed fail to follow up after feedback.
Follow up is essential - as with any people development tool, using it and then forgetting about it is a waste of time and money, and creates negative attitudes in the organisation.  The 360 should be integral within the people processes of the organisation, should be meaningful, and should be aligned with other activities like appraisal, training needs analysis and management and leadership development.

For a free guide on 360 Degree Feedback Best Practice, go to our website Track Surveys and download the document.