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360 Degree Assessment Article Online Review and Appraisal To Evaluate Performance

360“Mirror, mirror on the wall. Who is the fairest of them all?” Are you curious how others perceive your performance? Do you wonder how effective you are at what you do? Unfortunately, most people cannot accurately evaluate their performance. The truth is when it comes to performance, PERCEPTION is reality.

The 360 Degree assessment is gaining popularity as a tool to accurately measure leadership performance. In this downsized economy executives are concerned how individual performance affects organizational performance, productivity and the bottom line.

The annual performance review and other formal performance feedback methods are unreliable. As individuals, we receive feedback from two groups. On one extreme we hear from people who like us, then on the other extreme we hear from those who dislike us. Neither group is entirely accurate in their appraisal. As long as we surround ourselves with “yes” people, we will never know where we need to improve. The silent majority, the group in the middle, has the most valuable and valid feedback.

Most people compare the traditional performance appraisal process to standing on a broken bathroom scale that provides everyone the exact same weight. The annual, one-on-one performance appraisal provides biased and limited feedback. Personal chemistry plays a large part in evaluations. Studies show individuals who look like, act like, and think like the boss will usually receive a better evaluation than individuals who are different. In more cases, supervisors avoid saying anything negative, will not address shortcomings and lump everyone in the same middle-of-the-road box.

When conducted properly, the 360 degree assessment are powerful tools for helping individuals improve, grow and develop their interpersonal skills. I worked with one individual who received excellent scores from her supervisor and board members. She “walked on water.” However, when I completed a 360 degree assessment, four out of her five direct reports identified major shortcomings. She tended to micromanage, over-controlled and intimidated those who worked for her. The end result was a group of people afraid to take initiative and limited by her controlling management style. When she saw the report, she was willing to change her behavior and resolve the issues. If she had only depended on the feedback from her supervisor, she would have been oblivious to the problem.

The supervisor is only ONE person out of many possessing valuable input to the leadership performance of the rated individual. Getting accurate feedback from all the groups of people we work with is much more valuable. This 360 degree assessment gathers information about an individual’s performance as viewed by the standards and expectations of their boss, self, peers and direct reports.

The development of effective skills begins with the awareness of ineffective behavior. A 360 Degree Performance Evaluation shows an individual what others think their performance is versus what it should be. By understanding the perception of others, people can improve.

How the Process Works

These 360 degree assessment must be used with foresight and forethought. As a management consultant, I have conducted dozens of multi-rater assessments and found the input is much more helpful and objective than the standard annual performance appraisal process.

The individual that is going to be evaluated (subject) and his/her boss pick between 8-15 raters to provide input to the evaluation. These raters should have worked with the subject for a minimum of 90 days. They can be customers, direct reports, peers and the individual’s direct supervisor.

Most 360 degree assessments are completed using a secure webpage. The identity, scores and comments by the raters are protected. Once the assessment is completed, the subject receives a report that includes the aggregate scores broken down by groups. (Supervisor, self, peers, direct reports etc.)

The 360 degree feedback assessment points out blind spots individuals, team members and managers have difficulty seeing about themselves. The written comments provided by the raters can be the most helpful part of the report. The completed report should be facilitated in a way that leads to a complete process of improvement including an action plan. Providing a debriefing by a trained facilitator or coach is an important step of the process.

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360 FAQs

What is 360 degree feedback?

In short, the participant is surrounded by feedback. 360 degree feedback allows the participant to receive feedback from people above, below, and at the same functional or hierarchical level. Participants assess themselves as well.

What are some effective ways to introduce 360 feedback system?

Depending on your organization's experience with something new, it makes sense to evaluate 360 degree feedback with several people first. You may first want to evaluate 360 degree feedback with a receptive group of 10-50 people.

What are some ineffective ways to introduce 360 degree performance evaluation?

One of the most ineffective ways people introduce a 360 degree feedback process is to select a single person to evaluate it (versus say a group of 10 to 50 participants). A second ineffective method is to select people who are on disciplinary action, are about to be fired, or are among the least productive performers in the organization.

Who provides the feedback?

Select people (raters) who know the participant well. Raters should be people who interact with the participant on a frequent basis and whose feedback is wanted and valued by the participant.

Can the data predict anything?

While we prefer not to get involved in the prediction business, the short answer is Yes. However, many participants feel that their feedback is a reflection not of their behavior, but of those with whom they have to report to or work with. Possibly. Our research suggests that when the survey is written in observable, behavioral language the feedback clearly reflects the behaviors of that participant. Further, when a participant moves to another location or inherits an entirely new boss, staff, and/or peer group and chooses not to modify his or her behavior based on the feedback results, then there is a high probability that those same areas that were previously seen as developmental needs will continue to be seen as weaknesses by this new population.

What are some major concerns about using 360 assessment?

One of the concerns is the same as with any assessment or performance evaluation system. There are people who do not want to evaluate others, nor be evaluated. There are people who really prefer their own interpretation of their own effectiveness. There is a certain personal comfort with not knowing (or caring) what one's personal weaknesses are.

Been there, done that is cited as another concern. Part of the problem stems from the fact that those responsible for implementation want to get it over with quickly and assess the entire population at one time. Rather than see the process as ongoing, it is positioned as basically a one-time event that everyone will participate in, kicking and screaming or not. Then there is utter surprise and dismay when the rate of return is not as high as it could be, that the data are not as revealing as it could have been, that people are criticizing the instrument, the process, the lack of time to respond, the lack of positioning, and on and on.

A third concern is that participants are not always told, upfront, what the feedback will be used for and who else will see their data, when. This can cause mistrust in the process.

Olympic Scoring -- Why?

This concept eliminates the highest and lowest scores for each item on the survey. As a result, Olympic scoring provides a "better score" for the participant when these high-low scores are dropped. Is this your goal?

Like its Olympic judging namesake, proponents of this type of scoring often assume that people will provide high scores to those they like, low scores to those they don't. When applied to 360 degree feedback, it denies people from seeing all of the responses.

We prefer to treat the participant as an adult. We show all the data. We also display the response distributions for each item and let the participant understand that not everyone thinks the same. Not everyone has the same expectations of everyone else in that group. We focus on descriptive behavior, not scores.

Rather than focus on a score, focus on what behaviors are in need of improvement, according to the majority of the respondents, or according to a particular rater group. When you focus on the score, there is a tendency to lose sight of what issues need to be built upon, which to change and improve upon.

Why so some people resist changing when they receive their 360 feedback?

There are a lot of different reasons. For some people, if they learn that something has to change about how they do things, they tend to see such change as a criticism of what they have been doing all these years. They become defensive and protective of their past and existing behavior and processes. As a result, change is seen as not needed. Things continue as before.

How long should a survey be?

Contrary to popular belief, there is no magical length for a feedback survey. Yes, the shorter the better, especially if people are in a hurry or do not want to be bothered by an overly long set of questions.

A more professional approach is to first identify the themes or competencies you want to measure. Next, we suggest you include at least five questions (behaviors and practices) for each theme or skill competency you want to measure. So, for example, if one of your skill competencies is Delegation, we recommend at least five items for measuring it, and so on for the other competencies in your survey. If you use this as a guideline, then you can easily dictate the length of the survey that is right for your target population.

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