What are some of the best practices when conducting a 360-degree assessment?
1. What are some of the best
practices when conducting
a 360-degree assessment?
ANSWERS FROM YOUR LINKEDIN GROUP THE EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE CONNECTION
2. Pick good raters
“Ensure the quality of the rater group for trust
and a clear, meaningful relationship”
Ed Hennessy
Certified Emotional Intelligence Consultant, Trainer, & Executive Recruiter
3. Have the right champion
“Who champions the process is important. It
needs to be championed from the top-from
business or line leaders as well as by HR. It's a
cumbersome process so it needs to be
deployed at a speed that can be absorbed by
the organization and with the sponsorship of
the Executive Team.”
Anna Shilton
Executive Coaching and Organizational Consulting
4. Ask questions
“What is the purpose? What value will the 360
provide? How will the information generated
be used? Is the 360 being used for individual
and team development? Using a 360 without
first answering these key questions may not
only not provide value, the 360 can actually
become a vehicle that causes disruption.”
Virg Setzer
Executive Coach, Social & Emotional Intelligence Coach, OD & Change Coach, Management Instructor
5. Remember these 3 things
“1) Anonymity for the raters for ratings and
comments
2) Confidentiality of the results
3) The results are owned and controlled by the
person being rated
i.e., that the information not be used for performance evaluation, only development. Research shows that in the absence of these things, people will
not give honest ratings - they will be inflated. (Source: The Handbook of Leadership Development, Center for Creative Leadership, and The Leadership
Machine, Lominger. Both books have chapters on 360's with research-based information.)”
Chuck Pratt
Owner and President at Charles Pratt Consulting, Inc.
6. Interview
“I do interviews first to gather data about the
place before detailing the assessment so the
questions, though reflecting universal values
(listening, respect, and so forth) have enough
specificity to attach and bring focus.”
- Mac Bogert
7. Do not tie to performance reviews
“I saw this done where the 360 was used as
part of annual performance reviews, and
people were paranoid about who was "rating
them" since this affected raises and bonuses. (I
also saw the confidentiality of the raters
compromised by one manager).
- Jeff Furman
PMP Instructor, Book Author, Presentation Skills Certification Trainer
8. Be wary of “piling on”
“Be wary of the potential for a "piling on" opportunity
wherein a team or group who are disgruntled with the
360 candidate really let that person have it and
exaggerate the negative. It becomes fuel for
discussion/exploration and hopefully, remediation of
the interpersonal dynamics between the candidate and
group, but can be damaging if considered in the wrong
light or by the wrong people (e.g. performance review
fodder).”
- Kevan Schlamowitz, Ph.D.
Owner at Schlamowitz Consulting
9. Discuss key themes
“I always recommend that candidates share the 'key
themes' (not necessarily the whole report) from their
feedback with their raters and ask for support and ongoing
feedback. If, for example, there is a them about the
candidate not delegating enough I would recommend that
the candidate says something like 'one of the themes that
emerged is that I don't delegate enough so I will be sitting
down with each of you to establish how I might do that
more effectively'…
I often find the verbatim comments to be more insightful
than the graphical data.”
- Lynn Scott
Board Director at UK ICF
10. Understand the ‘ideal’ profile
“When working with a 360 tool, I think it is
vital to be clear what an 'ideal' profile looks
like, from the perspective of the client - ratee
agreement, situational differences between
ratees which can be understood or consistency
across rater groups.”
- Geetu Bharwarney
Expert Emotional Intelligence Top Team Coach, Researcher, Program Designer. Working with high
knowledge organisations.