Even people with skin like a rhino can nervous opening their 360 degree feedback report. Everyone you work with has rated you on your behaviour, skills and experience. Everyone. There's no place to run to and no place to hide.
Your boss tells you what they think of you. Your team tells you what they think of you. Your colleagues and customers tell you exactly what they think of you. And then you have to figure out what to think of yourself. Scary!
We all know feedback can be useful. At its simplest it tell you to do more of what people like, and do less of what they don't like.
Avoid these common mistakes in your feedback and be ready to spot them in the feedback you receive...
Being Nice If you don't want to offend, then don't give bad ratings! But you'll continue to get reports late, be missed off distribution lists or talked over in meetings. Honest feedback is the best gift you can give someone. I bet you would rather you were told than continue to do something badly?
Being Bland You may be asked to give feedback on someone you don't know well or deal with infrequently. Avoid giving bland, middle of the road ratings and consider skipping the questions you can't answer or comment on. Bland feedback is the equivalent of a matching socks and handkerchief gift set.
Halo Polishing It's natural for work mates to become personal friend and this can put a rosy glow over feedback. Focus on each question individually and think about specific work related examples to justify ratings.
Straight for the Jugular When you feel the need to draw blood with drains up feedback, think again. Why did you have to wait until the survey to get the knife out? How about tackling the problem behaviour when it happens?
Seriously though 360 degree feedback can be fun and it can be useful too. My first 360 feedback report was still something I referred to from time to time ten years later! Make opening your next feedback report less scary by taking heed of these common mistakes and avoiding them.