Triple the Benefits of Your 360
Three hundred and sixty degree surveys are gaining popularity as a tool for assessing leadership effectiveness. The standard 360 allows you to see the impact you have on others and what you do to create that impact.
The standard 360 process includes:
- Selection or development of the survey tool
- Administration
- Feedback
Most 360 processes stop there, just scratching the surface.
We supplement the standard 360 process with the Triple Feedback Loop to provide you with deeper and richer understanding of who you are as a leader, why people respond to you in certain ways, and what you need to do to be more effective. The Triple Feedback Loop allows you to be and to be seen as a better leader during the assessment itself. Additional benefits of Triple Feedback Loop include:
- More direct and open feedback in the future
- Faster problem identification and resolution
- Increased trust
- Greater emotional engagement
The following process illustrates how the Triple Feedback Loop enhances the standard process and gives you better and more immediate results.
Phase 1 - Find the Right 360
The leader and his/her sponsor clarify why they are seeking feedback and in what areas. This can be general, “feedback regarding effectiveness” or specific, “The company is embarking on a major change effort. Does the leader have the level of trust and confidence needed to lead the charge?” If choosing from the available standardized 360s, they should addresses success factors particular to the company’s industry and culture. Some companies develop customized 360s specific to their needs and business environment.
To achieve greater trust and openness we solicit the views of a subset of people who work with and for the leader to help determine the focal areas for the 360. These same people can also identify potential participants in the 360 survey. This will increase emotional engagement with the leader’s vision and goals and increased empowerment within the organization.
Phase 2 - Administer the Survey
Phase 3 - Feedback Loop 1: The Data
Results are compiled by and reviewed with a coach. Leader and coach develop greater understanding of the leader’s impact and the reasons for it. They also identify areas for more in-depth understanding. These are explored in Phase 4.
Phase 4 - Conduct In-depth Interviews
Interviews provide context, deeper insights, and a sense of the leader’s emotional impact on others. The interview data is “anonymous but not confidential” meaning the information and direct quotes can be used but the interviewee is not identified. Interviewees are encouraged to give general feedback and to illustrate with situations that impacted them. The coach who conducts the interviews must win the trust of interviewees and skilled at the art of exploratory conversation.
Phase 5 - Feedback Loop 2, Insights, Emotion, and Context
The coach organizes the interview responses into themes using related quotes and stories. As the leader and coach discuss the findings, the leader is encouraged to empathize with the interviewee’s perspective and to resist the natural urge to defend him/herself. During this discussion the leader engages in self-reflection and gains insight.
Phase 6 - Interactive Feedback Loop 3, Increasing Trust, Open Communication and Emotional Engagement
This phase often requires coaching the leader on how to remain open, to inquire, explore, and listen empathically without being defensive. Working with the coach to establish and maintain this stance is critical. The leader prepares a summary of the themes from the surveys and interviews. He/she reviews these with interviewees seeking a deeper understanding of self and others. The leader asks the interviewee for stories and examples from his/her personal experience. These meetings can be done individually or in small groups if there is a well-developed team with a history of openness and trust.
Why stories? Stories reveal what is personally important and emotionally significant. Stories reveal how the story teller makes sense of his/her world. They are key to helping the leader understand why he/she impacts certain people in certain ways. When impact is positive, the story reveals how and why this is so. This enables the leader to repeat the underlying dynamics in a variety of future situations. When the leader is empathic, the listener feels truly heard and understood. If slights or unintended consequences are revealed, the leader offers genuine apology and repair.
During or after these interviews the leader declares his/her plans for improvement and seeks help and feedback from others as required.
Phase 7 - Following up
Within 6 months the leader follows up with these same participants, asking for feedback about progress.
Research indicates that leaders who follow up at regular intervals make significant gains in feedback ratings compared to those who pursue little or no follow up. In addition, it may be helpful to conduct a second administration of those survey questions that address areas the leader has been actively working to improve.
Results from The Triple Feedback Loop
Case 1
In a situation where business performance was suffering due to lack of emotional engagement with his team, one leader received the following feedback at his 3 month follow up (Phase 7). In addition, within one year his team exceeded all sales goals. Two years later, they did so again.
“For the first time I felt he really listened to me. Now I want to come to work and support him instead of putting in the least effort to say I got the job done.”
“Our relationship has grown more in the past 6 months than it had in the previous 2 years.”
“He is paying attention and giving me the time I need to talk about what’s important to my business, so I go to him more for advice and counsel. This is making a big difference. He knows what’s going on in my business now, so we identify and solve problems faster.”
“I feel like he values me more, so I’m doing more.”
Case 2
The new leader of a non-profit encountered significant resistance to transforming the organization to serve a community whose demographic profile was changing rapidly. Using a customized 360 process the entire leadership team identified and agreed to how they, as leaders, needed to change. They redesigned their leadership team meetings and identified the work to be done. They declared the need for more innovative thinking and identified key staff so inclined to lead these efforts. Two key team members spoke openly about their lack of commitment to the transformation, identified themselves as obstacles to progress and decided to leave. They did so in a planned way with all relationships in-tact.
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