In my last blog I discussed how to use executive coaching for the greatest impact. In that post I touched on how professionally delivered 360-degree feedback can bring assessment data to life for executives and transform it into an actionable, meaningful tool for growth and change. Next, I´d like to offer to you, as HR professionals, four steps for delivering feedback that can align you directly with your executive and the business results the executive produces.
It's common for executives to feel confused by their 360-degree feedback, focusing on the negative, dismissing the positive and remaining unclear about what action to take. Coaches and HR professionals who specialize in making feedback actionable can ensure that your organization´s investment in assessments is leveraged to improve individual performance, and therefore business results.
This blog and the next three will review 4 steps to using assessments to deliver business results:
Step One: Information
Step Two: Insight
Step Three: Innovation
Step Four: Impact
This approach will align you - the HR professional - to your executive and the business results they produce.
STEP ONE: We start with INFORMATION...the assessment data itself....
As HR professionals how do you feel when you are about to go into a meeting with an executive to review their assessment? Stressed out? On the spot? Uncomfortable with the politically charged nature of the meeting? If you are like many HR professionals I have worked with the answer is: "YES!"
Paradigm Shift: Do not deliver the feedback.
Have the executive deliver the feedback to you. You are no longer "on the spot" to give them the feedback. Request in advance that they be prepared to walk you through their understanding of the feedback. Then, ask questions to facilitate a discussion of what they learned from the data. Questions like:
1. "Would you be willing to summarize the feedback for me in your own words?"
2. "What, if anything, do you want to throw out as inaccurate or untrue?"
3. "What rings true in this document for you?"
4. "What are you most passionate about working on?"
In this way, they own their feedback.
Yes, I know these assessments can be complex and the executive has not been trained in the tool. However, see what you can learn and observe about the executive by letting them walk you through the feedback. What is important to them? What are they excited about working on? Then, ask them if they have questions that you can answer.
If together you can identify 1-3 things the executive is excited about working on, that is enough. The initial meeting with them is not the time to push them to own behaviors they are not ready to see. Focus on what they are passionate about taking on. At a later date - after they have some success and you have built the trust in your relationship - you can always go back to the data and ask what else the assessment is pointing to (getting into the stickier points).
Using this approach your executive owns the feedback and you are not "pushing" the information at them. This takes HR off of the "hot seat" for delivering the feedback and places the responsibility where it belongs- with the executive!
Check back in 2 weeks for Step Two: Impact.
In the mean time, I´d love to hear your thoughts on this approach.
Merry Marcus
www.break-throughconsulting.com <http://www.break-throughconsulting.com>
