You may have taken part in a 360º review process at some point in your career but the odds are that you have not - either way I am sure you are familiar with the process. Unfortunately, when someone is made aware that they are going to participate in the 360º process, more often than not they are filled with a sense of dread – and that’s the case whether they are the subject of the 360º or a rater for a co-worker’s 360º. 

But what I try to impress upon my clients is that the 360º is one of the greatest gifts their employer could ever give them. It may be the one time in their professional life that they get a true snapshot (assuming of course that the 360º is administered correctly) of how they are being perceived by their boss, their peers and their co-workers. It may be the one time that they learn, in a candid but safe format, what they are doing well and what they are doing (or not doing) that is getting in the way of them being as effective as they would like to be, or as effective as they think they are.

It’s Not About What You Do…

The 360º is not about what you do or what you accomplish; there are performance evaluation processes in place to gauge those aspect of your work. The 360º is really about how you are going about the accomplishing and achieving. I believe that the 360º is not:

• A performance evaluation tool
• A tool used for the recruiting and selection process, or the termination process
• A vehicle for providing long-overdue feedback to an employee because the employee’s manager has abdicated his/her responsibility to do so – i.e. they are too scared, uncomfortable or unqualified to do so
• A process by which to make compensation decisions

I believe that the 360º is:

• A marvelous tool for increasing one’s self-awareness (it is impossible to get better if we don’t know where we currently stand)
• A means for determining how we are perceived by our co-workers and the impact (positive and negative) our behavior has upon them
• A clear snapshot of our strengths and developmental needs
• A tool that can be the foundation for a self-directed or company-directed developmental plan
• A ‘future roadmap’ illustrating where we may lose our way (career-wise) if certain behavioral changes don’t take place

Consider These Sample Statements

If, for example, you were to consider the 360º process for your management team, how would they (and you) fare on statements such as these (i.e. would the raters agree or disagree that the statement accurately reflects the person being rated?):

• Views and accepts change as positive
• Rewards hard work and excellence
• Develops others by providing challenging opportunities
• Does not seem to learn from his/her mistakes
• Coaches his/her employees on how to best meet the expectations of the organization
• Does not hesitate in dealing with problem employees
• Retains his/her poise when crises occur