??What benefits does 360 Feedback bring to my business??

Leadership & Management Programmes

Coaching and Mentoring

Team Development

Obtaining client buy in to projects

There is no single paradigm that defines leadership for organisations (otherwise many of us would be out of job).  Although different expert and academic sources will argue over the merits of one model of leadeship or another, there is generally common agreement that leadership is situational.  There is however also fairly common agreement upon the basic competencies and best practices that comprise leadership and management.  The issue is how best to translate best practice in any particular organisation.

360 Feedback enables an organisation to define the situational model of  leadership by taking the standard competencies and defining behaviours for them that are specific to the culture within the company.  In this way detailed, relevant feedback can be obtained at both an individual and organisational level.

It is a great starting point to any intervention or programme for development because it provices specific and relevant feedback to individuals so that they can more effectively focus their development.  It also provides normative data for HR professionals within organisations to assist in defining and budgeting for training needs together with providing an ongoing tool for monitoring overall progress.

An example;

One of the classic problems for any ethical organisation is that of separating out the ever increasing burden of "forced" leadership, in terms of coporate governance, state legislation, financial services monitoring etc from the "freedom to breathe" that will allow them to innovate, create and overcome competition in their market. This in turn can often lead to frustration and conflict in executive meetings.  To make matters worse many directors of companies are unclear as to their legal responsibiity.  Most companies overcome this by separating executive and director meetings.  Director roles are fairly well defined and homogenous and, apart from different national  legislative differences, can be easily monitored via a standard set of competences and behavours (the big mistake that many companies make is that they do not actually separate and monitor directorial behaviours from executive behaviours).  Executive leadership is situational and while the competencies may the same from one company to the next, the behaviours will vary significantly.

HR consultants who recognise these issues can provide more appropriate interventions by including both generic Board Competence frameworks together with customiseable Executive and Management frameworks that can be configured to obtain the best possible feedback for their clients. 

The use of 360 Feedback for individual coaching and mentoring is one of the fastest growing areas of 360 use.  Coaching is a formidable form of intervention to assist individuals to articulcate and focus on what is important to their personal and career development and then support them to achieve the goals they set over a period of time.

360 Feedback can be used at three points within a coaching/mentoring intervention.

1) At the outset a generic 360 can be used to confirm the different views of current performance from interested parties.  This can be a very useful catalyst in exploring and deciding upon areas of development to focus.

2) Once a goal or series of goals has been defined, then a specific 360 feedback questionnaire can be created that highlights the behaviours that will confirm current peformance.

3) The 360 Feedback can be used at intervals to obtain independent external feedback on progress for both the individual and the coach to consider.

Many coaching consultants are wrapping this 3 phase approach into a formal  "package" that they offer their clients.  The 360 is seen as a valuable and customiseable element of the package that makes is truly unique for each invidual.

We have already seen how 360 feedback is used to add value at both an organisational and individual level.   By using a subtle variation on the terminology for feedback providers it can also be extremely useful as a catalyst in Team Development Programmes.

1) The team as an entity

A team programme must by its very nature mean that there is a systemic element for the team that requires development.  This generally requires both internal focus (how well the team work together, the contribution of individuals and inter-personal dynamics) and external focus (the contribution of the team to its environment, the effectiveness of the output from the team, the world view of the team).

360 Feedback is also a great team for determining the external or world view of the team.  However to make this effective and translatable the team needs to consider its inputs (suppliers) and outputs (customers) as well as those who provide support to the teams main purpose.  By grouping in this manner, and requesting feedback for a "team" (as long as it is a recognisable entity) 360 Feedback can provide incredibly valuable current performance data that will enable the team to focus on the elements of its service that require the greatest development.

2) Team dynamics

Here is the more standard role for 360 Feedback.  Focusing on the feedback from team members to each other, and then sharing the results can lead to significant learning.  The caveat with thisuse of 360 Feedback is that such learning is not always easy to understand or experience and should really only be used by practitioners who have the relevant experience of working through intense situations.

We have recently had two experiences relayed to us where consultants have successfully used 360 Feedback as an interventiong tool to "get a prospect off the fence".

One specific example from quite a large consultancy is of a prospectively large piece of development work that had put out for tender.  The consultancy went through the loopholes of meeting with the client on several occassions.  It became apparent to our client that the although the budget was there, the potential client did not have clear understanding or agreement of the what they really needed.  After several months and no real movement (so nothing new there then?), they decided to risk a short (in this case loss leading) 360 Feedback exercise with the board and executive team to obtain some metrics on current performance.

By highlighting common areas of development need withing the board they managed to overcome the inertia and uncertaintity that had been prevailing for months.  The total exercise cost them in the region of £500 and a days consultancy, for which they have to date booked in excess of £25,000 in development fees.

The topics for the next three months include;

June	The Cardinal Sins of 360 Feedback
July	360 Statistics and Damned Lies
August	Open Forum - Any Questions?

• Topics of real interest to 360 Feedback users.
• Hear how 360 is being used in other companies
• Learn the benefits and pitfalls from others' experiences
• Interact and gain experience from other 360 users.
• Effective and enjoyable learning
• Bite size chunks of time
• No travel cost or time lost

We look forward to seeing you sometime soon.  

It won't be the same without you!!