An insightful article within the Harvard Business Review Blog, as one would expect, regarding the results of Scott Edinger's experience in conducting a 360 degree feedback proccess as part of a leadership development initiative within a firm at it's Chinese Headquarters.

Initially, it seems to be that there is a clear 'East/West' divide, with leaders in China being perceived more favourably by their respondents against the same leadership dimensions, as compared to their US counterparts; a myriad of reasons come to the fore as to why this might be and no doubt one could speculate endlessly.

However, I liked the switch of focus within the article that simply asked a different question; looking to similarities rather than differences. This drives the article to a more interesting conclusion which highlights actually how regardless of culture, the expectations of business leaders is somewhat consistent; the ability to inspire, motivate, and get results.

Our own experience mirrors this in many ways; despite clients having tailored competency frameworks which underpin 360 degree feedback for their leadership development initiatives, those desired leadership competencies have many universal & common themes each time.

The culture of an organisation then, will then more often imprint itself through language, terminology, phrasing and style of the competencies.

Great leaders create followers, and more leaders, wherever they find themselves.

John

 

 

 

 

A topic we often discuss with clients is where the responsibility should lie with regard the 360 degree feedback debrief; this being the face-to-face session where the recipient explores and discusses their 360 feedback report.

We would say ideally that the debrief should be conducted by someone outside of that person's line management; this could be someone from HR, L & D or someone external to the company, with the caveat that whomever it is should be suitably skilled/trained.

However, we recognise that this is not always practically possible; the internal resources within HR and L & D just cannot dedicate the time required to take all recipients through a 90 minute debrief, and the budget doesn't stretch to external facilitation.

So it falls to the line manager, which prompts the question; how should a line manager debrief a 360 degree feedback report? The first answer must be again, with skill; line managers need to be effectively trained to conduct such a debrief conversation.

The challenges for line managers in conducting debriefs are numerous; their feedback is in the report, they can find it hard to switch from 'performance review' mode, they can find themselves jumping in with solutions to development areas which haven't been fully explored.

Line managers need to step back within a debrief; their role is to be curious, ask questions which raise awareness not ask for rationale, listen intently, trust in the recipient and not jump to resolution.

It's a different mode of thinking and a significant 'gear shift' downwards; only for 90 minutes, but it can make the world of difference to the outcome.

John

 We recently announced the release of our newly revised 2011 edition of our whitepaper, "Succesfully implementing 360 degree feedback; a guide for HR professionals" - a key difference with this new version is the amount of detail around 360 feedback reporting.

It's a crucial element; the report has to be easy to understand such that the recipient can draw meaning and insight to aid their thinking around their own development.

Too often reports are lengthy, repetitious, overly analytical and with data that provides no discernible benefit.

Fundamentally, the report dictates the type of conversation one will have in the face-to-face debrief; a range of different styles is shown below:

If it's reflective (Style A) of everyone's ratings without averaging, then the conversation will spend more time drawing out those differences between the different categories of respondent; a question might be:

One can quickly see that how the feedback is presented is as important as getting the feedback in the first place.

If you would like the whitepaper sent to you automatically, then you can sign-up and confirm your interest in the box opposite.

John

As a runner of advancing years, I find myself more and more conscious of aches and pains, and less and less able to recover quickly if I have been training too hard.

I visited a physiotherapist for the first time when my tendons had become too inflamed and simply weren't recovering; his approach was slow, methodical and comprehensive.

He examined my stance, my gait, my balance, and my legs; at each point he observed and then asked me to observe.

"Do you notice how your left foot turns inwards more than the right?" Of course I hadn't, but now was acutely aware that it patently did.

"What happens when you run uphill? Downhill?"

"Can you feel this muscle as you rotate about the hip?"

Each time, I became more aware of how my body was running; what movements it was making and what might be exacerbating a particular problem.

He then worked in tiny steps down the tendons, and pressed down, asking what degree of pain I felt (which I hasten to add, when he hit the exact spot, was quite a large degree...)

As you can imagine, as I left with this new found awareness (and a rather stringent rehabilitation exercise regime), I was suddenly making different decisions as to how I should walk, run, carry, etc - the raised awareness was the first crucial step to understanding what was creating the pain and then be able to better judge how to alleviate it.

360 Degree Feedback can work in a similar way; the report gathers in all the feedback and presents the fact, for example, that the recipient is a 'pain in the tendon' to his direct reports.

In a face-to-face debrief with some further skilled examination, questions and exploration, the recipient can really become aware of this issue; how bad is the pain? Is it always there? Is everyone agreed there is a pain? And when you help them hit the exact spot, they are in a much better position to register that pain!

I have drawn that analogy as far as possible; back to standing on my tip-toes....ouch!

John



 

We have discussed before what feel the role of a 'debriefer' is - a debriefer being the person who sits down with a recipient of a 360 degree appraisal cycle and shares the results with them face-to-face.

I suggested that the role of such a debriefer was to act as an intermediary between the recipient and their feedback report - with this in mind, we can consider what the key skills of such a person should be.

Before the session begins, a debriefer should prepare adequately for the session itself - they require the ability to analyse the report in isolation and begin to assess what the themes are that are emerging, patterns that repeat, ratings and comments that differ between different relationship groups, e.g. do the peers believe something very different to the direct reports or boss?

Once into the debriefing session, the debriefer needs to be able to place the recipient at ease sufficiently such that they feel free to express themselves - I find this no different in many respects to any 1-2-1 interaction, but the key difference I feel is that the recipient understands the nature of the session i.e. what YOU are there to do, and that the conversation is confidential - if it isn't you must say this though.

Establishing some position of trustworthiness is critical to being able to support the recipient through the process.

Not unsuprisingly, listening is an essential skill - actively listening to the recipient and gauging what it is they are really saying will provide you all you need to move constructively through the session.

A temptation is to think about what you are going to say next; how to solve the issue, offer advice, move to action or simply to ask another question.....resist all of these! Listen and you will know what it is the next step..

Asking questions is another key skill in a 360 feedback debrief, but probably warrants another post, so I am going to leave it for now.

All of these skills are discussed in detail during our 1-day training programme for anyone tasked with handling the face-to-face debriefs, be they HR, L & D professionals or Line Managers; feel free to get in touch if you would like to know more.

John

An interesting thread developed on a discussion forum recently regarding the question of whether 360 degree feedback should inform salary review.

The overwhelming response which we concur with is 'No'; tying in the subjective opinion from a host of other people around an individual's behaviours, with how much that individual's pay should go up (or down) can create a lot of ill feeling in the workplace and is inherently flawed.

360 feedback should be primarily development focused; the idea being that it helps raise awareness of the individual around desired organisational behaviours and allows them to plan their development accordingly.

This topic and a range of other considerations when implementing a successful 360 degree feedback process are highlighted in our whitepaper which you can download from this blog or via our website.

John

I presented a session at a recent CIPD meeting regarding the importance of feedback in the workplace, be that through a model for performance appraisal, 360 degree feedback or otherwise.

The gist of the presentation was to position feedback as just one element of a much larger 'eco-system'; just as flossing is one crucial element of an oral & dental hygeine regime, so is feedback as a key element of an effective performance management regime.

Setting feedback in this context then naturally prompted the question 'so what?'; recent CIPD research concluded that in turn performance management was a primary vehicle of communication between a line manager and their employees.

Following this thread upwards through further research by the CIPD and Institute of Employment Studies (IES), connected effective communication between a line manager and an employee as a foundation for higher levels of engagement.

Engagement is good for business; the David MacLeod report, which I referenced in an earlier post, found pretty compelling evidence that engagement was instrumental in sustained organisational success with increased 'bottom line' results.

When you look at feedback in this context, it suddenly becomes really important that line managers give it and employees get it.

However, context is not enough; we still need the right mindset and approach to usefully embed feedback in an organisation, something I will return to in future posts.

Now where did I leave that floss?
John

We often work with 360 degree feedback clients in creating their competency frameworks from first principles; taking their strategy, stated values, desired culture and any other relevant material together in order to capture what they deem important to the future success of the business.

Ultimately a series of competency headings and behavioural indicators emerge which form the basis of their 360 degree questionnaire; at a very pragmatic level, the behavioural indicators need to satisfy at least 4 criteria:

• Essence; do they successfully capture the essence of what is desired?
• Language; is the language suited to the organisation?
• Simplicity; will the statement be easily understood by all potential respondents?
• Observable; does the indicator highlight an observable behaviour?

We would add that sometimes a fifth condition should be met, and that is 'Inspiring'; does the statement offer something for one to aspire to?

360 feedback has the possibility to not just provide feedback for individuals in support of their development, but to help shift organisational cultures; it's worth taking time on the questions.

John

Here is a guest post from Kevin Watson - details at the end of this article.  The article continues our theme of inviting people we trust and know to write articles on topics linked to 360 degree feedback and performance appraisals.  If you would like to write an article then "get in touch".

7 principles of feedback

1. Choose correct timing for feedback:

Feedback is most effective when given as soon as possible after the behaviour has been observed. Immediate feedback will help to reinforce a desired behaviour and make it more likely to happen again.

2. Ask for self assessment:

Asking the person for his or her own assessment first will involve them in the feedback and helps to generate a dialogue between the coach and coachee. As people are often well aware of their own strengths and weaknesses, encouraging them to voice their own opinions before providing your own will help them take responsibility for their own performance.

3. Focus on specifics:

When you focus on a specific behaviour, you avoid the risk of personality differences and the other person will be more willing to accept the feedback. For example, when providing corrective feedback:

Do: "When you were talking to customer xyz, I noticed that you forgot to use her name"

Don't: "You are not building rapport with the customer"

And when providing praise:

Do: "When you spoke to customer xyz, I noticed that you used really good open and closed questioning techniques"

Don't: "You communicated well there"

4. Limit feedback to a few important points:

Good leaders identify one or two critical areas and help the person address them one at a time. Restrict your feedback to one or two important points so that you do not overwhelm the other person with too many things to consider.

5. Provide more praise than corrective feedback:

Positive reinforcement is one of the strongest factors in bringing about change. Unfortunately most people only focus on the negative.

6. Give praise for expected performance:

People deserve to be praised for doing their job to the expected level. However, too many people take the expected level for granted.

7. Develop Action Plans:

Work together to identify the desired performance or result and how it can be achieved. Decide when the steps will be accomplished.

Call to action!

On a scale of 1 to 10 (where 1 is poor and 10 is excellent) rate your performance against each of the principles above when providing feedback to your team and colleagues.

Finished? What do you notice? Is there any one principle that is particularly stronger than the others? What do you do that makes this so strong?

Which principle is relatively weaker than the others and what can you possibly do to strengthen this? When can you start to exercise your feedback skills in this principle and with whom?

Kevin Watson

My Own Coach Limited

http://myown-coach.co.uk

Kevin Watson is a coach, trainer and consultant supporting personal and team development by pushing beyond those self imposed boundaries and inspiring a call to action, helping them become stronger and measurably more successful in their own terms.

He is an accredited coach with the CIPD and Oxford School of Coaching & Mentoring and a Master Practitioner of NLP.

His professional experience spans over 25 years in retail and was part of the senior team responsible for taking Selfridges from an old department store to the shopping experience it is today.

I was checking something today and noticed that we had roughly 1000 360 degree feedback appraisals completed yesterday in our system.   It made me think.  If those had to be sent out on paper, I'd guess they would be 5 pages long;  3-4 questionnaire pages including open format questions and some sort of instruction page.  So, 5000 pages.  That is a lot of paper.

The great god google states that it takes one tree to create 8,333.3 sheets of paper (the sort of accuracy that some of our competitors generate from their 360 reports!).  Add in some people looking at their reports online rather than printing them and a good dollop of performance appraisal forms that we had completed yesterday as well and I suspect it is a tree's worth of paper.  Sort of interesting.

Brendan

This is a guest post from Kevin Watson.  We've known Kevin for a number of years and worked with him supporting his projects or using his great skills and experience where we have needed his expertise to support our clients.  We recommend him without reservation.  Here are his thoughts on the 360 degree feedback session.

"At first glance, going through a 360 degree feedback report with someone can appear just like a coaching session.

Sure, there are many similarities as you guide that person through the report, exploring the different perceptions, drawing attention to the important trends & patterns that help reach a deeper understanding of his or her performance as viewed by the different respondents.

 
As with coaching, the person is guided by the quality of questions asked and it is equally as important that these come from a place of non judgement, empathy & congruence.

However, a closer look will show a key difference from coaching and this can be critical for a successful debrief session.
 

Most coaching sessions follow a structure found in the GROW model. In this ever popular framework, the coach will help clarify the goal or outcome (Goal), explore the reality of the current situation (Reality), generate a number of possible options that can achieve what he or she wants (Options) and seek to gain commitment to a clear plan or strategy (Will).

However, the debrief session differs from this as it does not seek to draw out solutions or commitment from the recipient.
 

Instead, it recognises the need for feedback to simply be recognised as valid and for the person to have time & space to enable this deeper level of acceptance.
 

Only once this has been achieved can the coaching cycle be completed at a later time.
 

Put another way, maybe the framework to use for a great debrief session is simply GR!"
 

Kevin Watson

My Own Coach Limited

http://myown-coach.co.uk

 

Kevin Watson is a coach, trainer and consultant supporting personal and team development by pushing beyond those self imposed boundaries and inspiring a call to action, helping them become stronger and measurably more successful in their own terms.

He is an accredited coach with the CIPD and Oxford School of Coaching & Mentoring and a Master Practitioner of NLP.
 

His professional experience spans over 25 years in retail and was part of the senior team responsible for taking Selfridges from an old department store to the shopping experience it is today.

One of the core skills required of a 360 degree feedback debriefer is that of asking questions; naturally during our training programme, we delve into what type of questions these might be.

Given that one of the primary purposes of the debrief is to facilitate a balanced understanding of the feedback in the report, on the part of the recipient, ones questions should encourage the recipient to explore and reflect on the feedback.

Consequently, a 'good' question will often reveal more of a given situation, circumstance or context, to both you and more importantly to the recipient i.e. what assumptions have they built up in their day-to-day working? How far do they see the impact of their behaviour?

These type of powerful questions do not often come naturally, but a useful way to construct a question can be considering it's component parts; the construction, the scope and the assumption.

Construction refers to the what, who, when, where, how, and why?
Scope refers to you, they, your manager,the team, the department, the organisation.
Assumption refers to an underlying belief you may wish to challenge.

For example, if the recipient believes his fellow team members are inefficient in delivering projects, this presents you the opportunity to test the assumption:

WHAT leads you to believe THE TEAM is INEFFICIENT? WHEN do you see THE TEAM being inefficient?

It would be all too easy to accept their assumption that the team is inefficient and be drawn into resolution mode too early by asking, 'What needs to happen to make the team more efficient/less inefficient?'.

Better to ask as many questions as possible; change the construction, broaden or narrow the scope, and test the various underlying assumptions which inform their current view of the world.

John

We were delighted to run this session for the third time on Wednesday; thanks again for all those who attended and expressed an interest in our thoughts on 360 feedback.

As ever, we are really interested to understand how people are using 360 degree appraisal in their organisations, their good and not so good experiences, and their desire to conduct the process again with a keen eye on 'best practice'.

The session provided ample opportunity for attendees to discuss their experiences within groups, as well as exploring a 'real' 360 degree feedback report which highlighted the need to ensure the face-to-face debrief with a recipient was well prepared for.

Some questions raised and answered were, 'What sort of rating scale should I use?', 'How can ensure recipients don't just select their friends as respondents?, and 'When is the best time to share the report?'.

It was very enjoyable and interesting to have proper debate around the different schools of thought and approaches; 360 degree feedback practice, as with many things, is a broad church and pragmatism should help rule the day.

We will be running a session again later in the Autumn; please contact us if interested in attending, and we look forward to seeing some more of you in due course.

John

Just a reminder for the date of our next seminar entitled "How to successfully implement a 360 degree feedback process within your organisation", on Wednesday 21st July 2010.

This popular seminar is now running for the third time and offers attendees a great opportunity to learn, share best practice, ask questions and network.

By the end of the seminar, you will:

• Understand the critical factors that will ensure success when introducing 360 degree appraisal into your business
• Take away a checklist to help you work logically through the implementation process
• Appreciate the key principles that will help you design a great questionnire, communicate effectively to get company wide 'buy-in' and facilitate face-to-face debriefs.

If you cannot join us for the seminar then please do sign up for the webinar opposite, where we will be sharing the same content.

You can register for either event through the 'Free Stuff' registration form to the right hand side of this blog post or here

We hope to meet and speak with some more of you next month.

John