Why should anyone be led by you?
In 2000, Robert Giffee and Gareth Jones published an article in Harvard Business Review (HBR) entitled, "Why Should Anyone be Led by You?" Five years later, they published the first edition of a book by the same name, subtitled, "What it Takes to be An Authentic Leader." The authors wrote about putting this question to the executives they encountered regularly in their business program classes and otherwise. When they did, a hush came over the room.
When multi-rater or 360-degree assessments are implemented in an organization, often the company will evaluate and compare a number of 360 assessments and assessment partners. The following is a list of criteria to consider when comparing and contrasting options for 360 assessments and assessment partners:
For decades now, I have conducted 360 feedback and coaching discussions with leaders at all levels, representing numerous companies, industries, and regions of the world. For the majority of these feedback/coaching discussions, I have worked with The PROFILOR® 360 assessment. I have also trained many HR teams in conducting feedback/coaching sessions, both in one-on-one and group format, using The PROFILOR®. In conducting these HR workshops, I have discovered that many teams have the same questions and concerns about conducting one-on-one feedback sessions. In this article, I will share more about the way a conversation should happen to facilitate the most productive and impactful feedback/coaching session. Future articles will provide additional information on conducting high-impact feedback/coaching sessions.
This job aid is designed specifically to help leaders and employees have strong and productive development discussions after a 360-degree assessment process. It is organized into three phases related to these development discussions: preparing for the discussion, having the meeting, and following-up after the meeting. The following sections are organized according to these phases.
This Leader’s Guide is designed specifically to help leaders and employees have strong and productive development discussions, across time and on single occasions. Having these kinds of discussions help to ensure that the leader knows what is important to the employee’s engagement and feeling valued by the organization. They also help to ensure leaders and employees have the information they need to explore various career directions and opportunities for employees.
It is well understood that 360 feedback provides an individual with the insight to build skills and add value to the organization, but what benefit can an organization derive from the broad use of 360 feedback?
In our last article, titled, “Assessment Strategies and Standards: Ten Best Practices for Companies,” posted February 8, 2022, we discussed the following best practice: Ensure the validity and reliability of assessments used for employment decisions.
We noted the following about this best practice:
There are thousands of tests/assessments on the market today, and almost every test developer/publisher will say that their test is valid and reliable.
Harvard Business Review (HBR) published a January-February 2023 issue titled, "What Most Companies Get Wrong About Managing Talent." A feature article in the issue by Mark Mortensen and Amy C. Edmondson called "Rethink Your Employee Value Proposition: Offer Your People More Than Just Flexibility" discussed an employee value proposition composed of four interrelated factors.
Multi-rater or 360-degree assessment is a type of assessment that provides a 360-degree perspective for the person being assessed. The perspectives typically included are: self, managers, peers, direct reports, and others (often customers, for example). Feedback is collected from all of these perspectives regarding a person’s effectiveness related to various competencies and behaviors. All of this information is collated into a report that gives a person a 360-degree view of how others perceive their effectiveness in the competencies and behaviors assessed.
