Who should see the feedback report? (Part 8 of 10) July 1, 2011
Posted by talentinnovations in 360 degree feedback, 360 feedback, Coaching, Development, Report.Tags: 360 degree feedback, coaching, data, feedback report, ownership, report
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8. Who should see the feedback report?
The debate here is around who „owns‟ the information in the feedback report. Is it the focus, because the information is about them, or is it the organisation, because the report has been provided as part of the development or performance management system they operate?
The answer to this question may change depending on whether it is agreed that the feedback obtained from a 360° process should be used for appraisal as well as development. If the view is that it should be purely for development then giving the ownership of the report to the organisation, or giving access to HR/ management may risk feedback being incorporated into performance appraisal feedback. As well as the risk of data being used for purposes other than those initially stated, there is also a risk that managers will misinterpret results, or focus on the negatives.
A way to overcome these potential issues is to provide managers with the development plan, average category scores and group norms resulting from the 360 process rather than an individual’s full report. This will then be sufficient for them to support development of the individual. Furthermore, if it is made clear that the process will be used for development an individual may feel more comfortable to share more with managers in attempt to improve performance. A further benefit of managers being allowed access to individual reports is that it leads to increased accountability, which has been shown to be a key factor leading to behaviour change post 360° feedback.
The general consensus is that the individual should own the report and have the choice to share it with those they select. This will inevitably include the feedback coach but dissemination further than that should be the choice of the focus and should be clarified up front. Having this clarity is particularly important as knowing who will see the report from the onset may not only influence the rating mind set of both the participant and other raters, but will also help ensure employees trust the process.
At Talent Innovations we believe that when used for development purposes, the focus should own the report as well as the responsibility for using the information within it to focus on self-development. When being used for performance management however the organisation should „own‟ the information as it has direct implications on HR decisions.
Part 9: Should feedback only be delivered to the individual by those trained in feedback techniques such as a trained coach?
For the full paper, download it for free here.
Now What? May 20, 2011
Posted by talentinnovations in 360 degree feedback, 360 feedback, Career planning, Coaching, Development, HR, Performance Management.Tags: 360 degree feedback, benchmark, coaching, Development, SMART, strengths, training
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A key question on our clients’ lips is, now what? I have a 360° process that works; it shows me the behaviours within my organisation both on a holistic and individual level. I can see where the strengths, weaknesses, and gaps are but how do I move forward and use this information to facilitate transformation?
If this is a question you have, here are a few points to consider:
1. Be clear where you are and where you want to be. For example there may be clear areas that are not as strong as others but are they required for success in your organisation/ in your career? A way to gain a greater understanding of this may be to benchmark yourself against other similar organisations/ individuals – what are their strengths, do you need them to be your own? From an organisational level this may also involve conversations with the board – where do they see the gaps that will impact future success?
2. Create a plan and set SMART milestones for achievement of the ‘to be’ state. E.g. Sales capability is low across the organisation, your 6 month goal is to have a ‘sheep dip’ approach and get basic skills up to date through online training for 75% of the organisation. Your 24 month plan may be to identify a core sales team who’s role is at least 50% sales focused, that will receive more focused training from and external sales consultant and on-going mentoring and coaching from internal regional sales leads.
3. Get clear on the training, mentoring, coaching and other personal development facilities and individuals available to you. Do you have the resources to fill the identified gaps? If not start to investigate what external resource you may need.
4. Up-skill line management to coach and mentor their staff and have open, ‘safe’ development conversations.
5. Ensure employees take responsibility for their own personal development and understand their contribution to achieving overall corporate goals and development needs.
6. Ensure senior management walk the talk and are visibly taking personal development seriously. This may involve up-skilling them to do this.
7. Make the process ‘easy’ and transparent, with clarity of expectations at all levels.
8. Keep the momentum going, lots of promises and then no action will have a detrimental effect.
9. Ensure individuals see the way forward and know that their dedication to personal development will be recognised and rewarded.
10. Make it self-driven, you cannot force an individual to develop and change at a rate that does not suit them.
Suraiya Rasheed
Starting 360 at the top sounds like a good idea – but how do you make sure your CEO gets the feedback they need? July 28, 2010
Posted by isabellecg in Uncategorized.Tags: 360, career, CEO, coaching, Development, feedback, inspiring, succession planning
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Starting 360 at the top sounds like a good idea – but how do you make sure your CEO gets the feedback they need?
Yesterday I had the privilege to give feedback to the CEO of a client organisation. He is no ordinary CEO – he is world famous – in the press and internationally known and highly regarded. His 360 data was extraordinary too – as you might imagine – ratings were very high on many competencies. It clearly showed up the weaker areas but the open text feedback was the most stunning part – the answers to “What do you like about…?” reports/peers/external parties had written specifically lengthy points of praise and acknowledgement. I have read hundreds (over a 1000?) reports and I have never been moved to tears of awe by this section before.
I was nervous – unusual for me – but everyone around him was clearly worried for me and it was catching! “Let me know how it goes” they said – with concern?! He is known for his critical tongue as well as him international expertise! He sat down and said “so, how can I help?” – that threw me for a moment but I soon recovered and said that I normally start with looking at where you are going in the job and your career. It felt a little cheeky but he just started talking – he’s been a Director for 37 years and has already over-achieved on his 10 year plan for the organisation but has more to deliver before he leaves, and some significant challenges facing him.
He has a clear and inspiring vision. We discerned the challenges he’s facing and I asked what of the 360 data was relevant to these challenges. He was reflective and open to my input. He had absorbed nearly all the data with accuracy so I focused on ensuring he had understood the 3 key points I judged to be important:
- Respect and awe for him was significant, but there was a downside to this re accessibility/visibility – he was not always seen to value others
- His personal weaker areas (management and planning) are mirrored through the whole organisation – again with an impact on others
- People were requesting a tougher stand re conflict and under-performance
In addition I raised a question of succession planning Re next CEO – to be sure he knew most people were wondering and unclear about this.
He was open to seeing all these points and exploring these perceptions further. I asked him which 2 areas would make the most difference to him and after minutes of silent reflection, he said:
- Delegation
- Communication/visibility
On being asked how the process went for him he said it was extremely useful and that, now he has seen how useful the open text comments were, he wanted to encourage people to write more. He left clear that he wanted to have a conversation with the others doing 360 to ensure he could contribute as much as possible. Awesome!
Elva Ainsworth
Taking Aim – the transforming effect of having a career goal June 7, 2010
Posted by talentinnovations in Career planning.Tags: 360 feedback, career, career goals, coaching, HR, psychometrics
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I’ve been thinking recently about how important it is to have a career goal.
That might sound a bit obvious, but you would be surprised how many of us don’t. You will know by now of my abiding enthusiasm for 360 appraisal – for its various abilities to give a wealth of critical perspectives, to shine a light on our blinds spots and even to reassure us where we are doing just fine – but it struck me that all of that useful feedback still can leave us with the ‘so what?’ question. Who cares, unless we have something to aim at. A career goal.
We have been doing some work with Oracle – working with some very senior managers and high fliers. They got the works – 360 evaluations, psychometric tests, the lot. When we contacted them a year later to find out what had made the most difference, overwhelmingly, the response was that it was the time spent discovering, focussing on clear personal career goals for each person. I’ve recently been doing lots of 360 appraisals and I found that the most satisfying part was the time I spent – 20 minutes or so with each person – getting them to think about what their career goals were.
The fact is that having a career goal changes everything. I know that sounds a bit of a sweeping statement but think about this : when you are at work, and performing a task, even something as mundane as sending an e-mail, answering the phone, attending a meeting, you are performing that task in a certain context – fulfilling your contract, trying to please your boss. But then stop and consider – focus on – what your own, personal, long term career goal is. And then think about why you are performing the task. Consider whether it matters in terms of your long term goal. You see? The context has changed. And that can have life changing effects.
When I was in my 20s I was in HR. At 29 I was more or less an HR Director without actually having the title HR Director. I was way too young and, if I am honest, not that great! A vacancy arose for an HR Director’s job and I applied. I wasn’t really thrilled about the job, but I felt it was the thing to do. In the interview I was asked one question that I know now was a turning point in my life. I was asked “what is your career goal?”. I was pretty sure I should say “to be HR Director” but in the moment, I said “to be MD”. And in that moment I was different. I began to explore my career goal of becoming MD of my own company. And, motivated by my goal I worked. Last year I was MD of a business with a turnover of hundreds of thousands of pounds. But then I realised that, hard as I was working – and I was working hard – I wasn’t as motivated as I had been. And I asked myself why. And I realised that I had ticked off my career goal and I had become directionless. I needed a new career goal. And, after some coaching and thinking I realised that I didn’t want to be an MD and run a company. What I really wanted to do was create and own inspiring companies that do amazing things. And now, driven, motivated by this career goal, I am two businesses into my career path and continuingly driven and happy.
Now a career goal has to satisfy two conditions:
- It has to inspire the individual, you have to want it. When you think about it people should see a glint of excitement in your eye, a lift of your head and a set of your shoulders. The thought of it is going to take you through some tough times!
- It has to be grounded – it has to be more than something that is going to happen anyway and a little short of fantasy. It has to be achievable.
But the most important thing of all about a career goal is that it has to be there. Take some time to think about it. Could be the most rewarding time you spend this week!
Elva Ainsworth
Do qualitative comments relate to improved performance? (Part 4 of 10) June 17, 2011
Posted by talentinnovations in 360 degree feedback, Performance Management.Tags: 360 degree feedback, coaching, Development, qualitative comments
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4. Do qualitative comments relate to improved performance?
Best practice advises that qualitative comments are provided by raters to expand on their numerical rating scores but how accurate and beneficial are they, do they relate to greater improvements in performance?
Qualitative comments fill in the gaps left by numerical ratings alone and can be particularly beneficial when creating a development plan. They can provide specific examples of where an individual‟s current behaviour has worked well, as well as showing the consequences of when it has not.
“The real colour of a 360, the brilliant insights, are obtained from the qualitative comments.”
The ability of qualitative comments to provide these benefits will of course depend upon their quality; and it could be argued that really helpful qualitative feedback is hard to come by. There may be many reasons for this, such as inadequate guidance or lack of time but organisational culture may also be a key factor. If an individual is supported in, and rewarded for providing in depth feedback they are more likely to take the time to do so. “High quality and constructive feedback takes significant time and effort from the individual providing it – including moral courage and resilience. In today’s KPI driven and short term numbers focused environments, little time, support and recognition is given to those who make the effort to give vital feedback. There seems to be greater emphasis in reducing cost than there is on focusing on staff, and many business leaders find it difficult to relate time/effort spent on people development (especially performance management) to the ‘bottom line’ or indeed other more pressing financial targets.”
Even if constructive, specific comments are made the focus may reject them if they feel they are inaccurate or from a source they do not trust. In addition to rejection of feedback, there are alternative negative reactions that could follow from qualitative comments. An individual may become pre-occupied with identifying who the comments came from by analysing perceived „give aways‟ of a raters identity such as typical wording or spelling errors. An individual may also become pre-occupied by negative feedback. Each of these negative reactions will cause a hindrance in moving the individual through to acceptance. The negative impact of these reactions could be reduced by a number of measures discussed in this report, such as use of a professional coach, removal of qualitative comments for particular groups e.g. when showing the report to managers, provision of the feedback report prior to coaching session, or checking for overly personal or inappropriate comments prior to release of the report.
The consensus view seems to state that qualitative comments are beneficial as long as they are of a high quality and are constructive. Our view on qualitative comments at Talent Innovations is that more is better. They provide the context and the real learning points that help an individual understand their perceived behaviour. However we do feel it is important for an independent party to review comments prior to the feedback report being released. This both ensures that comments are constructive but also allows time to plan for particularly difficult feedback sessions – which in our experience are few and far between.
Regardless of the feedback method chosen by our client we offer the support of a trained career coach when needed and this offer is typically accepted for the most difficult of cases. Remember it is essential that all those who take part in a 360 benefit from the experience and follow through into acceptance of the data. Although infinitely valuable when approached correctly, if a 360 is not managed well the negative impact can be detrimental and long lasting.
Part 5 discusses whether a 360 feedback should provide surprises….
For the full paper, download it for free here.
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