Five Ways to Maximize the Impact of Developmental 360-Degree Feedback
I recently found myself in an engaging conversation with a group of peers regarding the seemingly endless number of bad 360-degree feedback experiences. In each of these stories, the “experience” led to more harm than good.
Here’s one: On a non-profit’s CEO’s one-year anniversary, the Board of Directors collected 360-degree feedback. The Board solicited input from not just a focused group of colleagues, but rather the entire close-knit organization. To top it off, the Board chose to share the collected feedback in a public forum for all to hear. Imagine for a minute the humiliation and embarrassment that CEO felt having his strengths and opportunities exposed not at his choosing but by his superiors. Consider also the impact of this approach on organizational trust and morale. How willing do you think the organization’s employees and Board members will be to provide honest and candid feedback again in the future? My guess is not at all.
The good news is that when executed properly, 360-degree feedback can be a tremendous opportunity for leaders to demonstrate vulnerability with their colleagues, build trust and gain valuable insight regarding strengths and development opportunities. In my experience, there are five critical ingredients to a results-focused and impactful developmental 360-degree feedback process.
1. Ensure the process is developmental in focus: 360-degree feedback is most effective when the feedback is collected and shared in a fashion that is solely focused on developing the leader’s awareness of strengths and opportunities for further improvement. Voluntary vs. required participation by the leader and raters (colleagues providing feedback) is a best practice, and the collected feedback is never to be used for performance evaluation or salary planning purposes. Anything less undermines the effort’s credibility and eliminates the likelihood of lasting impacts in the form of positive behavioral change.
2. Guarantee confidentiality of results: The 360-degree feedback report is for the leader and about the leader. The feedback does not belong to human resources, the leader’s manager or the Board of Directors. While an accredited coach or human resource partner may work with the leader to review and interpret the 360 feedback report, the report must not be shared with others in the organization. Establish this contract with all stakeholders before beginning the process. Be prepared to stand your ground on this principal.
3. Emphasize rater anonymity: Anonymity is essential to creating an environment in which raters will feel comfortable sharing the crucial insights most beneficial to the leaders’ continued development. Each rater needs to understand that his/her input will be collected as part of a broader feedback pool to ensure anonymity. Most 360 instruments do not protect the anonymity of the leader’s manager, which makes perfect sense. Managers are accountable for providing ongoing feedback to their direct reports. A 360 is not a justification for a manager to surprise a direct report with first time feedback. If rater anonymity can’t be guaranteed (common for leaders with only one or two direct reports), 360-degree feedback is not the appropriate development tool.
4. Involve a Coach: Effective 360-degree feedback raises the leader’s awareness of strengths and opportunities by fostering reflection and personal discovery, and building accountability. Not all leaders are ready to embrace feedback and some will downright question the accuracy of the results. Leverage a coach to help the leader to interpret, own and act on the feedback. The coach can be an internal resource such as a human resources business partner, or for more senior leaders, you may want to tap the expertise of an external executive coach. In my experience, external executive coaches add value by reinforcing confidentiality, creating a space for the leader to be vulnerable and ensuring accountability to after-action. I have had repeated success using peer-coaching triads as a method for supporting feedback interpretation, ownership and follow-through.
5. Require follow-up and follow-through: Most 360-degree feedback efforts fail to achieve intended business results due to a lack of appropriate and immediate follow-up with raters and accountability to development action.
a. How to follow-up with raters:
i. The leader should send a simple email thanking the group for the feedback emphasizing his/her desire to better understand and act on the insights.
ii. I encourage the leaders with whom I work to invite one or two raters to provide additional context. For example, perhaps over lunch or a cup of coffee, the leader might say “Matt, I learned through the 360-degree feedback process that my peers think I could be more empathetic. Can you think of a specific example of a time when I could have been more empathetic? I’d really like to understand how I can improve in this area.”
b. How to create accountability to development action:
i. The process incudes a step requiring the leader to create a simple development action plan based on the insights gleaned from the 360. The plan identifies behaviors or actions to start, stop and continue as well as a clear timeline for action. The leader should discuss this plan with his/her manager to ensure alignment and to seek support to achieve the development goals.
ii. Additional accountability and impact can be achieved when the leader shares his/her development plan with peers and direct reports. This last step, which requires the leader to demonstrate a level of vulnerability, builds accountability, credibility, trust and more lasting results.
Bonus Tip: Select the Right Tool
360-degree feedback tools are widely available from many reputable sources. Be intentional about selecting a proven tool that focuses on a targeted set of behaviors relevant to the development objectives you seek to achieve. Tools specific to first-level managers, executives, emotional intelligence and other needs are available. Match the tool to your intended audience and need. Similarly, the diversity of available tools will allow you to find an instrument that is best aligned to your organization’s core values and leadership behaviors.
· Select a tool with which your human resource partners and coaches are already familiar and confident (most 360-assessment tools require accreditation to administer).
· Consider tools that align to other personality assessments you are already leveraging in your organization such as DiSC or MBTI.
· Select a tool with a targeted set of behaviors to be evaluated. This will ensure your leaders are able to focus on strengths and development areas without the distraction of irrelevant behaviors. In my experience, a tool summarizing feedback on 16 behaviors is optimal. Anything less is too few and anything more is overwhelming.
Finally, some 360-degree feedback tools come with supportive resources to aid development planning. Kouzes and Posner’s Leadership Practices Inventory and the Everything DiSC 363 tool are examples.
As a performance consultant and coach, the tips above are best practices I’ve refined over the last two decades based on my own experiences – good and bad. I see strong and reliable value in thoughtfully planned and executed developmentally-focused 360-degree feedback processes. Lasting behavioral change and business impact are directly correlated to our ability to create an environment conducive to the sharing and interpretation of candid feedback.
What tips or best practices can you share?
Matt Swayhoover is the founder of Viaduct Performance Consulting, a Northern Virginia-based business focused on helping individuals, teams and organization bridge the gap between potential and business results. As principal performance consultant, Matt collaborates with clients to identify and courageously address the obstacles that constrain high performance.
Learn more at www.viaductperformance.com
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