More and more organisations are implementing a 360 Degree Feedback Review.  This assessment is a multi-source feedback, designed to give you a panoramic view of your leadership capabilities. It is a process in which a person is self-evaluated on a set of criteria, as well as being rated by their manager or supervisor, peers, direct reports, and even family members.

Even though the popularity of the use of 360 Degree Assessments has increased over the years, only 34% of the participants claim, when asked 6 months later, that they have made significant changes since receiving their feedback.  That’s a poor investment, and one that is repeated time and time again when organisations purchase 360 feedback software tools and simply provide participants with their 360 reports. However, when paired with coaching and goal setting, 94% report meaningful change. That’s why it’s critical to provide some form of coaching when conducting a 360 degree feedback survey.

Why Coaching?

360 degree feedback is often an emotional process. After all, it’s about change. Usually participants go through  Shock, Anger, Resistance, and Acceptance. Coaching Sessions help the individual interpret the feedback, manage these emotions, and use the feedback as a catalyst for change and development.

The process

We recommend two 360 feedback coaching sessions in order to support 360 feedback participants to get the most from the process.

360 feedback coaching – Session 1

This session introduces the 360 feedback report and sets the context for the discussion. Helping the participant to clarify what they want to achieve creates motivation and shapes the meeting. We help the client to explore the report, make sense of the data and start to find patterns. Throughout the meeting, we’re there to support, make links and facilitate thinking and reflection.

Participants report that this meeting –which lasts about 1.5 hours- to be powerful, thought-provoking and engaging.

360 feedback coaching – Session 2

The danger of having just one session is that the participant can be overwhelmed by the volume of feedback and in need of time to process it. Of course, back in the frenetic day to day activities, even with the best of intentions, the move to action never quite makes it to the top of the To-Do list.

Session 2 deals with this.  The purpose is to enable the participant to reflect on their insights and learning from the 360 feedback report. Then, crucially, it’s about building a plan of action, what support is needed and what the priorities are. Finally, next steps are agreed.

This second session, so often overlooked in organisations in the interests of time, can make all the difference to embedding real change as a result of the 360 feedback process.