Are you considering how 360 feedback can enhance your employees’ or leaders’ growth? A 360 feedback tool can provide valuable input that helps prepare employees for leadership positions. It can also help current leaders rise to the next level by addressing their weaknesses and leveraging their strengths.
With the increase in working remotely, 360 feedback can be particularly important today. In an office, a boss can more easily observe a leader or employee’s interactions with others. When working remotely, the boss can’t see all of these interactions, which factors into several of the benefits of 360 feedback discussed below.
A 360 feedback tool serves as an essential way to gather input on a leader’s performance. Combined with regular one-on-ones with a boss, along with annual, biannual, or quarterly performance reviews, 360 surveys will dramatically enhance their growth.
This 360 Feedback Tool is Based on the 3×3 Executive Presence Model
Garfinkle Executive Coaching has designed the 3×3 Executive Presence Model along with a 360 review process based on this framework. You will learn the specific 9 executive presence competencies needed to take your career to the next level. This feedback is firmly planted in measuring 9 behaviors that identify a leader with executive presence.
The key benefits of 360 feedback are as follows.
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Detecting Hidden Blind Spots
Often direct reports and coworkers may avoid bringing up issues for fear of backlash or hurt feelings. Leaders then don’t realize how others truly perceive them—and they don’t receive the input needed to make important changes. A 360 review process encourages all respondents to share their honest opinions, knowing their feedback will remain anonymous.
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Reducing Bias
Since they share a well-rounded array of feedback, 360 reviews are less likely to be heavily biased than a review by just one person. If an employee has a strained relationship with his boss, or if the boss tends to make overly harsh evaluations, 360 feedback can provide a more realistic perspective. A 360 leadership assessment synthesizes a range of viewpoints that speak to the leader’s performance from different angles. Direct reports, superiors, peers, and others the leader interacts with can all take part in the survey—even clients and vendors can participate.
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Identifying Patterns
Looking at feedback from a broad range of people can reveal patterns in how the leader behaves in certain contexts. Do the leader’s relationships with direct reports suffer, while relationships with peers and superiors are strong? Is the leader articulate in small-group meetings with peers, but not in meetings with superiors? Feedback from just one person might not thoroughly address these issues. But with feedback from a broad range of people, you’ll see recurring themes that highlight opportunities for growth (as well as strengths).
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Identifying Hidden Strengths
Some employees may not realize they possess innate leadership qualities. Perhaps because they’re introverted or don’t fit the traditional mold of a leader, they may not view themselves as leadership material. Many such people may be newer leaders who haven’t fully learned how to leverage their strengths, but even seasoned leaders are prone to miss the importance of some of their core abilities. Learning about their strengths can build the confidence that improves their performance in other ways, fueling their growth. And of course, they can make a point of using these strengths more frequently.
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Prompting Nuanced Feedback
By asking targeted questions on the areas most relevant to leadership, a good 360 tool will get to the root of issues. Informal feedback from peers or even bosses might not be as detailed and well-structured. The latter often refers to one incident (“You were late on delivering that report”) rather than drawing conclusions based on behavioral patterns. In contrast, a 360 feedback tool guides respondents in giving nuanced feedback within a structured framework.
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Convincing the Leader of the Need for Change
When receiving feedback from just one person, it’s easy for a leader to dismiss it. The leader might think, “Well, Susan is just still annoyed about that thing I forgot to do last month. She’s reaching for something else to complain about.” When presented with feedback from a group of people, it’s much harder for the leader to ignore it. A 360 feedback tool can provide a leader with undeniable evidence of the need to make particular changes.
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Guiding Professional Development
Leaders gain a framework for personal development based on the feedback they receive. Working with an executive coach, they can identify next steps and design a longer-term growth plan to address their needs for growth. An executive coach will also help leaders interpret the feedback they’ve received, synthesizing the various perspectives voiced in the review.
Some workplaces may fear the anonymous nature of 360 feedback will lead respondents to be overly harsh. However, that doesn’t usually prove to be the case. By and large, people want to help their colleagues grow. They want their working relationships to improve. And they want to see their team grow stronger. Thus, most people give constructive feedback based on genuine needs for growth as well as strengths.
To ensure a successful 360 performance review, work with a skilled executive presence coach. This will provide leaders with a mentor who can help them understand and integrate the feedback. Contact Joel today to get the ball rolling!
Joel also conducts executive presence training to corporations wanting their employees to elevate their executive presence.
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