Measuring leadership qualities and competencies leads to greater self awareness, specific leader skill-Building and inspired leaders. 360 Feedback is one of the best tools for measuring leadership qualities and competencies, but it works only if you avoid the top thirteen errors.
You CAN determine exactly what's hindering your ability to inspire your team. 360 feedback results highlight your strengths and pinpoint development areas.
With the results of a 360 Feedback report you get honest feedback from your team. This is priceless information that you can use as a catalyst for inspiration and high performance.
If you've never heard of 360 Feedback - here's a short explanation:
360 Feedback involves getting anonymous feedback about specific leadership traits and competencies from people who observe the leader in action on a regular basis. Raters include: direct reports, peers, managers and sometimes, customers. The results are used to help a leader leverage strength's and close development gaps
When I suggest 360 feedback to help leaders improve productivity, I hear one of three comments: "I love it!" "I hate it!" or "What is it?"
If you love or hate it - chances are you feel the wayyou do because the facilitators of the process did or didn't do some of the top thirteen 360 Feedback errors.
If handled right, 360 feedback is very effective because the results help you see specifically how what you are doing or not doing is impacting others. You gain honest insight into others' perceptions of your behaviors.
This information is priceless and a gift. It can save you weeks and months, because you're able to uncover what people really think and feel. With this knowledge you can craft a specific action plan to leverage strengths and close gaps.
Employees are hungry for feedback.
Team members need a positive and constructive way to say what they think. Leaders (we all do really) need honest and specific insight into what's working and what's not working regularly to make timely adjustments.
So, if you're planning a 360 Feedback project to measure leadership qualities, you're on the right track. I want to make sure that your project is successful and that you get the results you're after.
The Top 13 Errors People Make When Using 360 Feedback
Here's the top errors that can sink your ability to measure leadership qualities/360 feedback project:
Subjects and raters do not receive enough communication up front. All involved MUST understand WHY you're doing 360 feedback and HOW the information will be used.
Surveys results are used in place of or with performance appraisals. 360 feedback results are considered when determining raises and promotions. Results should be used for development purposes only. Tying results to pay, kills the ability to get honest feedback and creates all sorts of mis-trust. Don't let this big error sink you!!
Subjects and raters do not receive instructions on how to give positive and helpful feedback. Instructions should be provided verbally and in writing and are as simple as:
'Do not rate higher or lower than deserved.'
'When writing comments, describe both positive and constructive aspects.'
'The best comments are very specific and include examples.'
'Avoid emotional comments, whether positive or constructive.'
Not using a secure,online system to ensure anonymity of raters. If raters do not feel assured that the feedback they offer is confidential, they'll not share their true perspective. Leaders miss an opportunity to address any 'festering' issues.
The survey you're using is canned and not tailored to you and your company's needs. If the items being measured are not specifically important to your team and company now, the feedback's not pertinent and probably will not be acted upon. Use a survey you can tailor.
The selected raters do not really see the leader in action on a regularly basis, so their feedback is light, potentially inaccurate and overall, not very helpful.
You have less than three raters for each category, for example only two peers or only two direct reports. This makes your ability to assure confidentiality an issue. Have three or more raters in each relationship area, as often as possible.
You have too many items on the survey. More than 40 items and your raters get fatigued. This causes the quality of the feedback to decline dramatically.
The survey does not provide specific and actionable development recommendations for lowest scoring areas.
Leaders only focus on their weaknesses and they leave the process and review session discouraged and feeling threatened. All development plans should include equal focus on leveraging strengths and closing development gaps. This process, when done right, is encouraging and helpful. Leaders feel sure, more confident about what they offer and insight into how they can specifically improve.
Leaders are allowed to pick more than 2 development areas to focus on. People can only change one thing at a time, successfully. Pick one or two high impact development areas you can 'attack' for improvement.
Leaders do not get back to their rater team with a summary of their results and their action plan. Raters hate it when they take time to give feedback and don't hear back. This breeds resentment and causes the leader's team to judge the leader more harshly in the future.
There's no follow up with the leaders who were surveyed. No development discussions, no benchmarking process to see improvement, and the 360 Feedback project becomes just another 'flavor of the month' exercise. Follow up is crucial. Many 360 tools provide the ability to re-asses in 8-12 months, comparing the new scores to previous scores. This helps the leader stay focused and accountable to improvement.
You can measure your leadership qualities and competencies. Use 360 Feedback results to make fast and specific progress that will improve performance and productivity.
Marshall Goldsmith has coached hundreds of leaders. He's considered America's top executive coach and offers practical information on how to measure leadership qualities, competencies and behavioral change in this New York Times bestseller.
To listen to and watch a 12 minute overview of the key ideas expressed in his book. Click on his book, the graphic on the left now.
Goldsmith has been called the world's greatest teacher of leadership on the planet'. Now that you've gotten an good overview, find out more about the 20 workplace habits Goldsmith recommends that you break,
order this insightful book now.(Opens a new window.)
Here's another great link with more insight about measuring leadership qualities. It's a one-hour talk leadership guru Marshall Goldsmith gave to Google's leadership. Enjoy!
