Preparation for 360-degree Feedback in Leadership Development Programs and Executive Coaching

This technical note was written by Prof. Konstantin Korotov of the European School of Management and Technology as a basis for class discussion and individual preparation of participants for in-class exercises. It may be also used by executive coaches using 360-degree assessments and executives using coaching services. 2005 esmt European School of Management and Technology, 2006

I. Introduction Leadership and management development programs at the worlds leading business schools and consulting organizations are increasingly using multi-rater (multi-source, 360-degree) feedback as an instrument for their participants learning. Executive coaches are also keen on using the method in their interventions. Although some executives have experienced working with such instruments at their workplace or in other educational settings, many participants see such an exercise as a completely new experience. Even for those who have gone through upward or lateral feedback or 360-degreee assessment exercises at work, it is sometimes not totally clear how to best benefit from an opportunity to participate in a multi-rater feedback activities offered by business schools and other providers of executive education and leadership development. Despite a plethora of publications about 360-degree instruments and several solid analyses of the method for HR practitioners and consultants, there is not much information that explains the process to the ultimate recipients of the information gathered through feedback, i.e. executives. The purpose of this technical note is to explain to participants of executive education programs who are going through the process of 360-degree assessment the rationale behind using multi-rater feedback instruments, explain the main principles and the process of going through the exercise, provide guidance on preparation for assessment and selection of respondents, make suggestions on ways to solicit input from the respondents, and briefly outline possible methods of using the feedback results in the context of a leadership development program. Although we cant possibly cover all possible types of multi-rater feedback instruments and their use, this note is generic enough to be applied to most situations when input is solicited from multiple respondents with the objective to help those who are assessed in their professional and personal growth and development. Examples of such situations may be training seminars, executive courses, MBA or other professional educational programs, and individual and/or small group coaching. This note is not applicable to situations when 360-degree, upward, or lateral (peer) feedback or other types of multi-rater assessments are used for the purposes of decision-making with regard to selection, promotion, reward, etc. In general, caution should be exercised when multi-rater feedback instruments are linked to a performance management systems or processes in organizations. As findings about effectiveness of use of 360degree assessments for performance appraisal purposes are still mixed, this note only endorses using such instruments for purely developmental purposes. II.Rationale behind Using 360-Degree Feedback In Executive Education Programs 360-Degree Feedback in a Nutshell This is a process in which an executive evaluates her- or himself on a set of criteria using a questionnaire administered on-line or (now rarely) in an e-mail or paper-and-pencil version. Questionnaires with questions based on the same criteria are also used by other respondents involved in the assessment, for example, the executives boss or several bosses, peers, and direct reports. Sometimes clients or suppliers, as well as former colleagues, friends or family members may participate in the exercise as respondents. Respondents are also given an opportunity to provide descriptive qualitative comments in addition to their quantitative assessments. Executives receive an individual report allowing them to conduct a gap analysis detailing how they perceive themselves versus how others perceive them. The findings from the report are used for self-analysis and subsequent discussions with a facilitator, instructor, executive coach, and, in some cases, peer coaches, such as other participants in the executive program. Based on the findings, executive engage in further clarification of the data and/or design an action plan that takes into account feedback results. What is assessed by a 360-degree feedback?

2006 esmt

Originally, multi-rater feedback instruments were used solely in the context of assessing behaviors or competencies directly related to the executives job performance. The instruments used for feedback may be designed specifically to reflect the competencies and/or behaviors that a specific organizations wants to develop in its executives. In this case, you will be advised that this is a company-specific tool reflecting the organizations leadership or competence model. If there are norms for comparison with other instrument-takers, they are based on results of other people from the same company. In the context of leadership development programs or coaching interventions, particularly those delivered by independent education providers (e.g., business schools) and/or external coaches, well-established independent feedback instruments that are not tied to one specific organization are often used. In this case, the focus of the instrument is usually on generally accepted competencies, behaviors, or traits found in successful executives through thorough research. If comparison norms are used in this case, they are based on the results of instrument-takers from different organizations in various parts of the world. Examples of such instruments are Manfred Kets de Vriess Global Executive Leadership Inventory (GELI)1 or James Kouzes and Barry Posners Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI)2. Recent developments in the field of executive development and leadership clearly indicate that multi-rater feedback methods can be used for providing executives with insight on their overall functioning as individuals. In particular, Manfred Kets de Vriess Personality Audit based on multi-source feedback methodology has been successfully used for developmental purposes in leadership development programs offered by leading business schools.3 Why Use 360-degree Feedback in Executive Education Programs? Quality executive education programs have been shown to serve as identity laboratories for executives in which they can experiment with new ideas, mental images of themselves, and even new behaviors.4 One of the features of such identity laboratories is psychological safety that allows participants to explore their strong and not-so-strong areas and to experiment with new behaviors and identities without any kind of possible repercussions from the organization. An executive program or a coaching session gives them an opportunity to run an experiment before having to commit to a new behavior or course of action. Feedback is a snapshot of reality that leads to awareness based on which choices can be made. Unfortunately, getting useful feedback in organizations is becoming more and more difficult. Manfred Kets de Vries, a worldrenowned leadership guru, writes: All leaders need feedback to do their best work and continue their development. Unfortunately, the higher you are in an organization, the less likely it is you will receive frank, constructive feedback. It has been estimated that only 10 percent of executives accurately assess themselves. In fact, surveys show that approximately 70 percent of executives think they are in the top 25 percent of the people in their profession, and many are honestly unaware of behavior that impedes effective organizational functioning. We tend to accept feedback that is consistent with the way we see ourselves, and reject feedback that is inconsistent with our self-perceptions. Thats why you need 360-degree feedback systems and assessment tools which allow you to compare your perceptions of your leadership behaviors with those of others who are familiar with your leadership styles.5 In order for an executive education program, especially a leadership one, to have a lasting positive impact on your success as an executive, it has to have a link with your day-to-day working reality (todays concerns) and the future challenges (tomorrows opportunities). The challenge of leadership development is that leaders have to prepare for tomorrow while continuing to exercise their functions today.6 Results of a 360-degree feedback serve as both the necessary grounding in todays tasks and activities and a starting point for a discussion of how to achieve your future goals and ideas, thus allowing executives to improve their current functioning and prepare to move forward. As premier providers of executive education and the worlds best consultants are increasingly adding elements of executive coaching into participants experience7 8, and as executive coaching becomes more accepted as an

2006 esmt

effective tool for leadership development, 360-degree assessments serve as a foundation for a productive and meaningful discussions between participants and faculty members and facilitators or coaches. The concept of the Johari window9 illustrates the value of participating in 360-degree feedback. Johari window is a two-by-two matrix that describes how we perceive ourselves and how the world around us perceives us. Known to Self Known to Others Unknown to Self Known to Others Known to Self Unknown to Others Unknown to Self Unknown to Others

With the help of the 360-degree feedback executives can narrow the Unknown to self/Known to Others area and, if necessary, choose to undertake action. They can also use the feedback as a starting point of expanding the Known to Self/Known to Others area in the direction of what was previously unproductively hidden from the outside world. III. Main Guiding Principles of Using 360-Degree Feedback in Leadership Development Programs and Executive Coaching The Confidentiality Principle The above-mentioned difficulties with receiving frank and constructive feedback may have several roots. Some challenges may be associated with organizational culture and climate; others may have more to do with the national culture of the executive and her or his bosses, colleagues, and subordinates. Sometimes open feedback is impossible because of the fear that respondents might have. In other words, the challenges may be associated with the organization, the executive, and his or her bosses, peers, and subordinates. To mitigate those sometimes legitimate fears and a natural anxiety associated with giving and receiving feedback, multi-rater instruments are usually based on the principle of confidentiality. The principle of confidentiality means that the executive should not know who of his designated respondents gave him a specific rating or provided a particular comment. Quality feedback instruments are designed in such a way as to protect the anonymity of the ratings and comments. Usually the logical exception from this principle is the boss of the executive, as it is assumed that she or he should be in a position where protection of confidentiality is not necessary. Although the identity of the specific person behind a comment or rating is usually protected, the choice of respondents is still in the hands of the executive. Therefore, you always know whom you have at least asked for feedback. You will, in most cases, not know who has responded to your request, and who hasnt. If there is only one (sometimes two) respondents in a particular category (e.g., subordinate), their responses may be lumped together with other categories of survey participants. Although after getting your results there may be a natural tendency to try to figure out who of your respondents exactly gave what kind of rating or provided a specific comment, doing so is not productive. If the 360-degree instrument is used in your educational program, you may want to clarify the confidentiality principle with regard to your personal results. Although most of the external providers usually keep your report confidential and do not disclose it to your organization, your faculty or program coordinators will provide you with the exact information with regard to who has access to your data. In most cases, the external provider will print out your individual report

2006 esmt

and will make a copy for a faculty member/facilitator who will debrief your report with you in a large group, small group, or individual setting. It is customary for the faculty member or coach to return her or his copy of your individual report back to you at the end of the debriefing session. In case survey data is kept for scientific research, it is normally stripped off any kind of identifying information, except gender, nationality, level of responsibility and, sometimes, type of industry. If you are concerned about confidentiality of your results, raise this issue with the faculty or facilitators involved in your program. If an in-house or company-specific instrument is used for your 360-degree assessment, your instructors and/or facilitators should provide you with the exact confidentiality status of your results. Very often in-house or companyspecific instruments are administered externally but not necessarily by the provider of your executive development program, although there may be exceptions. Again, if you are concerned about the confidentiality of the results you are going to get, do not hesitate to ask your instructor or facilitator and/or your learning and development representative. Please note that you need to reassure your potential respondents about the confidentiality principle. Only if your respondents feel psychologically safe they can give you the information that can help you become more successful. This refers both to positive and negative feedback. The Exploration Principle The data that your will eventually receive in your 360-degree feedback is not an award, a diagnosis or a label of any kind. It is input for self-exploration and experimentation. As the answers of your respondents may be influenced by a myriad of factors, they may not necessarily be the ultimate truth. Therefore, the data per se will not be sufficient for you to come to any specific conclusions. The critical input comes from interpreting your data with a faculty member, coach, facilitator, peer, etc. In order to get the highest quality input, however, it may be advisable to seek feedback from relatively many people who may know you from a variety of perspectives. You shouldnt be concentrating on getting feedback only from people with whom you have a particular pattern of relationships (e.g., good or bad). Your faculty or facilitator should advise you what kind of work is going to be done with the results of your 360-degree feedback. Normally, your 360-degree report will be debriefed with the help of faculty members and/or facilitators or coaches. In rare cases when this is not the case, you should be provided with a guidebook or a self-administered tool to help you make sense of your data. In some cases you may be given an opportunity to discuss your data with a fellow-participant. The Gratitude Principle You have to be grateful to the people who help you become more successful. Providing feedback to you, if taken seriously, takes time and sometimes has an emotional toll on the respondents. Remember that at the end of the day these data can be used by you for your own growth. Therefore, do not forget to thank them for their willingness to help you in your leadership journey. IV. The Process of Getting Your 360-Degree Data Overview of the Process of Getting Your 360-Degree Feedback Data The process consists of the following steps:
5

Getting information about the 360-degree feedback (from a faculty member, program coordinator, or coach)
2005 esmt

Getting access to the instrument (usually via a web-based platform) Completing your personal self-assessment Selecting your observers and notifying them Getting confirmation from the program coordinator or coach about the status of your assessment Receiving your individual report and instructions on preparation for debriefing Going through a debriefing procedure/action planning Following up with your respondents (as a minimum, thanking them for their effort).

Technical Details: Self In the context of a leadership program or a coaching situation, your program coordinator or coach will provide you with the instructions of how to start the process. Typically, you would get an e-mail link to a web-based survey platform and a password. You will then set up your profile in the system and assign observers or respondents and you will have access to your own self-assessment. Complete your self-assessment within the time frame allocated for the exercise and communicated to you by program coordinator or coach or through the instructions received from the platform of the survey. Technical Details: Selecting and Notifying Respondents Select a manageable but wide enough group of respondents. It is suggested to ask your boss (or two and even more of them in case of a matrix or project-based organization), at least 3 or 4 peers, and 5 or 6 subordinates. You may want to choose other types of respondents, if you think they can provide useful inputs for your exploratory exercise. These can be clients, suppliers, former colleagues, classmates, family or friends. Please take into account the language of the instrument used. Usually respondents struggling with the language refrain from providing qualitative comments which may be of particular use to the executive. In some cases assigning observers requires manually putting their names and e-mail addresses into the template provided by the web-platform. The system will then automatically notify them about having been asked to act as an observer for you, and will provide them with a link and/or a password for filling in the survey. As sometimes people or organizationally-managed postal systems dismiss automatically generated messages, it makes sense to double-check if your respondents have received instructions on providing you with feedback. It is highly advisable to warn people in advance about your request for their feedback in person, by phone, or by a personal e-mail message. When asking for feedback, you may want to indicate that you are doing this exercise as part of your course requirements or as part of your work with an executive coach. It is advisable to let people know about the type of the course you are taking or the nature of your coaching work (e.g., increasing your effectiveness in working with others, preparation for a leadership transition, learning how to mobilize people and teams, etc.). Reiterate several times the confidential nature of the feedback process and any possible limits of the confidentiality principle. For example, your boss should know that her or his answers in most cases will not be confidential. Depending on the type of the instrument used, your respondents may be periodically reminded about the status (incomplete) of their survey. This is usually managed automatically by the instrument web-platform or by the coach or program coordinator. You will not, however, be notified which of your observers has or has not completed the survey in order to protect respondents anonymity. V. Special Circumstances

2005 esmt

Going through a developmental 360-degree appraisal with the use of respondents from your current organization may not always be feasible. For example, getting valuable developmental data may be difficult when: The executive receiving feedback has only a short experience with the organization or his or her current team; With the 360-degree circle of the executive there are not enough potential respondents who truly understand the content of the persons job, his or her scope of responsibilities or leadership challenges; The organization is going through a major change effort or a period of great uncertainty, such as a merger or acquisition; The organizational environment is characterized by a high degree of mistrust; The organization has just run an internal 360-degree feedback process thus exhausting a list of potential respondents for the executive.

If yours is one of the cases mentioned above, possible courses of action can be: Asking for feedback from the people who have known you for a longer period of time, such as former boss, colleagues, and subordinates; Involving people who may be familiar with a particular side of your job and acknowledging that they should not rate you on the aspects unfamiliar to them; Asking your clients and other business counterparts to serve as respondents on aspects familiar to them; Carefully explaining to the respondents the developmental nature of this particular instrument and its use in a specific leadership development program, regardless of the internal surveys that they may have already participated in.

Discussing your special circumstances as much in advance as possible with your faculty team or coach is necessary in order to ensure a productive session based on 360-degree feedback. In certain circumstances, your in-company 360-degree feedback instruments may be used for the particular training or development program or a coaching session you are involved in. If you are participating in an open-enrolment executive education program, and you have recently (in the past three months) gone through a similar assessment in your organization, you should check with your course provider whether you can use your in-house instrument and its results for the purposes of the leadership development program you are involved in. In such cases, your course provider may ask to send in your results in advance in order to plan accordingly.

VI. Using the Data The next logical step after getting your report is to debrief your results. In your program or coaching intervention this can be done in the format of a plenary setting, in small groups, with another participant (peer coach), or in individual coaching sessions. Leaving participants of executive development programs or coaching interventions on their own with their reports is not a common practice. If this happens, however, you should be provided with a guidebook, a participant manual, or other tools that you need for making sense of your data yourself. Your faculty member or facilitator/coach will provide you with specific details on the process of debriefing your results. The quality of the data received coupled with your readiness for exploration of your leadership qualities and competencies is the foundation of productive discussions and successful leadership identity experiments.

2005 esmt

Endnotes Kets de Vries, M., Vrignaud, P., and Florent-Treacy, E. (2004). The Global Leadership Life Inventory: Development and Psychometric Properties of a 360-degree Feedback Instrument. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 15(3): 475-492. 2 Kouzes, J., and Posner, B. (2001). Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI). Participants Workbook. Second Edition. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 3 Kets de Vries, M., Vrignaud, P., Korotov, K., Engellau, E., and Florent-Treacy, E. (forthcoming). The Development of the Personality Audit: A Psychodynamic Multiple Feedback Instrument. International Journal of Human Resource Management. 4 Korotov, K. (2005). Identity Laboratories. INSEAD Doctoral Dissertation. 5 Kets de Vries, M. (2005). Global Executive Leadership Inventory: Participant Workbook. San-Francisco: JosseyBass: 5. 6 Abell, D. (2005). Leadership Education as a Moving Target. International Journal of Leadership Education, 1 (1): 922. 7 Korotov, K. (2005). Op. cit. 8 Kets de Vries, M. (2005). Leadership Group Coaching in Action: The Zen of Creating High Performance Teams. Academy of Management Executive, 19:1: 61-76 9 Luft, J. (1961) The Johari Window, Human Relations and Training News, January: 67.
1

2005 esmt