Successful 360 Degree Feedback

What's all the fuss about 360 Degree Feedback?

360-degree feedback is controversial, no doubt about it. Why? Because it’s often done improperly, or poorly; it’s all in the execution. In some cases, data is misused, participants are debriefed improperly, the wrong people are sampled, the instrument used is too long or confusing, confidentiality is breached, or development planning fails to result in lasting behavior change.

On the other hand, 360-degree feedback data is hard to beat if you want to get a manager’s attention to jumpstart needed behavior change. Hearing exactly what you need to change from the people closest to you is great data. In fact, if implemented properly, who wouldn’t want specific, candid and honest feedback to be able to leverage personal strengths and identify and prioritize development needs?

So, what is 360 Degree Feedback?

360 Degree feedback is performance-appraisal data collected from 'all around' an employee: his or her peers, subordinates, supervisors, and sometimes, from internal and external customers. Its main objective usually is to assess training and development needs and to provide competence-related information for succession planning, not promotion or pay increase.

How do I make sure we get the most out of 360 Degree Feedback?

1. Select a survey or tool that fits your organization and the roles you plan to include. For example, we have a couple of flagship products, the Leadership Effectiveness Profile and the Management Effectiveness Profile, that many clients use to solicit 360 Degree Feedback. But we also have some assessment tools for specific competencies like our Communication Effectiveness Profile or Team Building Effectiveness Profile which might be a much better fit in certain situations. Be sure to ask vendors for a sample output report so you can see what dimensions are assessed and how.
2. Be careful when allowing participants to select their own raters; make sure someone “in the know” reviews the rater list so that it includes key contacts – not just the participant’s “buddies” who will give him or her good ratings;
3. Don’t under or over-sample; as a general rule-of-thumb, include between 6 – 10 raters to get the best data.

Learning More
If you want to learn more on this topic, we've got a few suggestions. We've just finished a new Guide to Effective 360 Degree Feedback that can be downloaded from our webstore for free. Click here to check it out.
You can also browse through our catalog of online assessments at http://store.readytomanage.com/store/c/11-Online-Assessments.aspx many of which are available for administration as 360 Degree instruments. A sampling of our topics available as 360 Degree Assessments is listed below.
Change Management
Coaching Effectiveness
Communication Effectiveness
Creativity & Innovation
Ergonomics Focus
Ethical Behavior Profile
Financial Acumen
Generational Style Assessment
Goal / Objective Setting Interviewing style
Listening Effectiveness
Management Style
Meeting Effectiveness
Networking Effectiveness
People Development
Personal Effectiveness
Presentation style
Problem Solving and Decision-Making Effectiveness
Project Management
Quality Effectiveness
Sales Effectiveness
Service Effectiveness
Situational Communication
Situational Leadership
Situational Presentation
Situational Problem-Solving
Stress Management Teambuilding Effectiveness
Time Management