360 Feedback Blog

In this poll, reported in the US, 68%  of managers believe that looks have an impact on the way managers rate job perforamance.

If this survey is to be believed, Attractiveness comes only below Experience and Confidence in recruitment situations, and trumps Education and a sense of Humour - apparently known as the ‘Hottie’ effect!  The author advises those of us who are non-Hotties not to despair but to make the best of whatever assets we have…..

On a more serious note though, how can we overcome these biases which appear to be inbuilt in most of us and can make a big difference in how employees’ performance is judged?

The first answer is Awareness: once we’re aware of our biases, our assumptions and things like the Halo and Horns Effect, we can start to adjust our opinions of that person and inject some objectivity into our appraisal of their performance  (for more on Halo/Horns, go to 360 Degree Feedback and download our paper entitled What Not To Do When Giving Great Feedback ).

Second is judging people on what they have actually done, so setting SMART objectives is critical (Specific, Measurable, Action-based, Relevant and Timely).

Third is making sure that your own judgement is not the only one that counts….tools like 360 Degree Feedback are very important in ensuring that a number of different people have input into the appraisal, and that there is consistency in assessing performance, especially in hard to measure areas like management, leadership and team working.

This article talks about the negative effect that feedback, including 360 Degree Feedback, can have on the recipient when insensitively given.

In addition, we always advise people who are going to give face to face or anonymous feedback to:

- Say out loud what you think you’re going to say to the person; you will know pretty quickly whether it’s going to come across as negative and critical
- Ask yourself how you would feel if someone gave you the feedback you are going to give the recipient - put your own name in the sentences….
- Keep practicising until you find the right words, then use these in the feedback
- Be careful that you are not putting a halo around everything the person does, just because you like them, or because you think they’re a bit like you
- On the other hand, don’t have a downer on them because of one thing they did a long time ago, or because they disagreed with you

As this article says, being a leader, and staying there, is tough, and it’s getting tougher.

The author’s tips for surviving as a leader include:

• Know yourself
• Play to your strengths, and
• Avoid your derailers (that is, the behaviours that take you off-track and jeopardise your success)

That’s why it’s absolutely critical for all leaders, whether they’re just starting to lead a team, or they’re leading a big corporation, to use 360 Degree Feedback and coaching to get a really clear picture of their strengths and weaknesses, and how other people see them.

In this article, the brilliant Marshall Goldsmith talks about an exercise he conducts in providing Feedforward, as well as feedback, to people who are looking to change their behaviours and improve their leadership skills.

For me the critical points are that:

1. This is an important supplement to feedback, including 360 Degree Feedback - we always recommend that colleagues provide Feedforward in some way….How Mary can manage team meetings more effectively, Things I would like to see Mary start doing,  or What I would like to see Mary continue doing…

2. There is a more positive response because the Feedforward can feel less judgemental than feedback

3. It’s critical that people receiving feedback are able to listen and take it on board - more on this in another blog - but Marshall Goldsmith is big on saying ‘Thanks for your feedback’ and then keeping quiet!

In this video interview in today’s Guardian, the author of The Black Swan, Nassim Nicholas Taleb has some very interesting things to say about power, knowledge, beliefs and behaviours. 

From a workplace point of view, we see that people behave differently on their own, within their team, within the organisation, and then collectively, as an organisation, interacting with the outside world.   Collective beliefs and behaviours have a big influence on the individual, so when we’re looking to make individual or organisational change happen, we need to analyse and understand what those collective beliefs and behaviours are, and how they are skewing the behaviours of individuals. 

Maybe if we’d done that with the banking sector a few years ago, we could have avoided some of the consequences of the actions and groupthink that have led to the current economic problems.

360 Degree Feedback

Recent research published in this Science Daily article shows that the timing of expected feedback impacts individuals’ performance, and that the sooner you give someone feedback, the more effect it has on her or his performance.

So the message from this study appears to confirm what managers and supervisors have known for a long time - that you should give feedback immediately and often to influence someone’s behaviours.  By doing this as a matter of course, individuals will come to expect quick feedback and therefore perform better. 

But how does this affect 360 Degree Feedback, which is usually given once or twice a year, and therefore must necessarily suffer from the time lag between the activity and the feedback?

360 feedback should never be just a repetition of particular episodes or events that have already been discussed (or should have been discussed) when they happened.  We often find that when these events are put into a 360 feedback they can skew the discussion away from the key messages on strengths and development needs.

So what should happen if I give you immediate feedback, like this, right after a meeting:
“I was upset that you didn’t give me an update before the client meeting.  I felt that you left me out.  I would appreciate if you could update me in good time before the next meeting”.

So what if I’m completing a 360 Degree Feedback on this colleague six months later?

Do I repeat this in the 360 free text boxes, and do I score my colleague as ’Hardly ever keeps me informed on important issues’?   Or do I just forget about it?

My advice would be to leave this out of the 360 feedback if the action or behaviour has been dealt with and changed by that person by the time the 360 comes around. 

There is no point in bringing it up again and making it a problem if it has ceased to be one.  What would be great would be to say ’X has really made an effort to provide me with information before client meetings and I really appreciate this’. 

If X is still doing the same thing, then a reference to it should be made, something like: ‘X is aware that I feel I am not kept updated with information before client meetings’.  There is no value in repeating lots of detail that has already been discussed, although the main point still needs to be made.

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.