Save The 360 - How Human Resources Uses & Abuses The Process

For years, 360 feedback tools have been seen as one of the pillars of performance management because they provide professionals with valuable feedback on their performance, behavior, personality, and leadership style.  360 feedback as a tool has proven that it can be quite impactful but only if used properly.  Keywords here: if used properly.  As a Human Resources professional, it pains me to see a potential developmental tool used and often abused through poor execution.

I remember fondly the first time I received 360 feedback – I was excited to say the least.  A few hours before my 360-feedback meeting, I received an email from my manager with my report and a request to come prepared to share my thoughts.  Reading through the 15+ page report full of bar graphs and sections of commentary from my management, my peers, and my direct reports was not easy. Initially some of the comments felt harsh but in the end, I found most of it was extremely accurate.  The challenge was after reading my 360 and having an hour discussion, my report got filed away in a cabinet.  It wasn’t until I took a new job and was packing up my desk that I revisited my feedback.  I realized then, that I had missed a developmental opportunity but in the end, I did take away my first valuable lesson regarding 360s.

Lesson 1: Even just reading the report can be impactful

360s have an amazing ability to help an individual develop self-awareness.  After re-reading my report during my packing session (originally reading it again was an excuse to take a break from the monotony of packing) I focused on the commentary section – the part I considered most meaty.  I realized that although I had not really worked specifically on any one developmental area, I had become more self-aware just by reading the report months before.  I learned that often I was too timid with C suite staff, that I could come off as a “know it all” to my peers, and that sometimes I am too optimistic with my direct reports.  Looking back, I realized that I did not change my behaviors but I did often call them out when they were occurring. For example, I remember stopping myself during one conversation with my direct report and said, “I know you want me to let you just complain about X, but you know me, I am the eternal optimist and am going to put the silver lining on this for you”.  Over time I think people appreciated that I was aware of shortcomings during these call outs.

The rest of these lessons below, I have learned in my years of experience rolling out 360s tools and processes to Human Resource departments across industries. 

Lesson 2: 360 feedback really needs to be wanted

Too often, Human Resources uses 360 feedback improperly.  360s are not for reinforcing that there is a performance issue or employee relation issue.  They should only be used for developmental purposes.  I have seen it, time and time again; a manager approaches HR with what I call a “cultural vampire” in need of a 360.  A “cultural vampire” is someone who is a huge contributor in the company but their methods of achieving their results are just wrong.  They yell at their teams, they don’t share with cross-functional partners, they are passive aggressive, etc.  Often HR willingly gives 360s to these “vampires” and in the end they don’t listen to the feedback and do not want to change.  More could have been achieved by having a crucial conversation with them and investing the dollars spent on the 360 towards a rising star who really wants to improve and grow. 

Lesson 3: Rater selection is crucial

If you do not have a process in place for reviewing the raters that the recipient has selected, you may end up with a skewed viewpoint on performance and behavior.  Human nature, when it comes to 360s, is to try to select people who will provide you with the feedback you want to hear (good and bad).  On top of this, most raters selected to provide feedback in the 360s distrust the confidentiality of them.  They often try to soften their feedback due to distrust – killing the ability to gain true developmental insight. 

When working in book publishing, I had an external consultant give a C-suite executive a report that was conducted on one of their direct reports (to my dismay… see lesson 6 for why this bothered me).  Their response was “we publish a lot of fiction here, but this is by far the best piece of fiction I have read in a while”.  After their comment, I thought about where our consultants had gone wrong – and it dawned on me that this recipient’s rater list was not vetted by anyone outside of the consultants.  Needless to say, they did not have the capability to know whom would be good to speak with.  

One tip I often give HR departments is to ensure they do some upfront investment and discussion with the recipient about how to pick their raters.  Ask them pointed questions like, who was the last person to give you true feedback on your behavior?  Who do you think in this company is brave enough to actually tell you how it is?  Simple questions like this will make a recipient think twice before selecting their raters.

Lesson 4:  Beware of rater fatigue

Too many companies try to roll out 360s as part of a larger leadership initiative.  They start by tapping their top 15 or so rising stars and provide them with 360s, leadership training, and coaching.  While this approach is flashy and often makes Human Resources look good, it ends up hurting the quality of the 360s provided.  When you provide feedback to a large number of recipients you often end up having overlap in your raters, especially in smaller companies.  This overlap causes rater fatigue.  Some raters may have to provide feedback to 2-5+ people, which can be daunting if each survey takes 15+ minutes.  These raters often will complete all the surveys but in the end they do not spend the time where it counts – in the open-ended commentary sections. 

What is worse is that inevitably the C-suite raters are hit hardest and often have to give feedback to multiple recipients at once.  This ends up frustrating your C-suite staff and devalues the overall process. 

My suggestion would to be to think carefully before rolling out a large initiative.  Instead think about phasing the 360s throughout the year for your rising stars.  Their feedback will be more impactful and you may just be able to get them ready for their next job, that much sooner with richer development feedback.

Lesson 5:  Executive Coaches don’t necessarily do it better

Most executive coaches start their engagements with a 360, which is personalized – meaning they do rater interviews in person or via phone.  These coaches are able to get more authentic answers as they know how to “dig” in, which online 360 tools can not do. While this is valuable, it does not change the fact that this still may not be the best approach because it may contribute to devaluation of 360s.

Executive coaches use the 360 as a way to gather data for a roadmap and coaching action plan. They believe that if they have a plan with goals early on, they will be able to make greater progress.  Of course, what this strategy doesn’t factor in, is the natural defensiveness of the recipient.  Great coaching is about helping build self-awareness and the acceptance of impact. Many coaching recipients don’t trust their coaches early on so giving a 360 then is like using a drill hammer to begin and then saying…oh, I guess we should have started with a toothpick.

Great executive coaches know that introducing a 360 too early in the engagement can erode trust.  Nancy Halpern, of KNH Associates, has been doing it right for over 15 years.  She uses the methodology of introducing a 360 only after 3 months.  During her 360s she has a chance to ask raters, have you noticed any behavior or leadership changes in this executive in the last three months?  This way she can measure if the recipient (they are more important) has made any progress to date and also has an agenda on how to refocus the last 3 months of the engagement.  She can also double down on areas that continue to cause trouble.  Lastly, this helps her avoid having the recipient project their rejection of the feedback on her; the bearer of bad news.  Since Nancy has had an opportunity to truly build a rapport over the 3 months, she is often able to gain trust and help the feedback get “heard”. 

Lesson 6: 360 reports should be shared  

A successful 360 occurs when a recipient wants other colleagues to know what they learned from their report.  These recipients’ want accountability partners – they want people who can help them call out their bad behaviors, leadership issues, etc.  They also want someone to call them out when they display the behaviors they are focusing on altering. 

When I have conducted 360s, I ensure the actual reports are confidential.  They are only meant for the recipient.  However, I have always made it the recipient’s responsibility to draft an executive summary of the findings that they are prepared to share with their manager and 2-3 other colleagues at various levels.  This act of creating your own executive summary I have found has helped executives process the content of the report better and has set them on a path of taking ownership over their action items and development plans.

Lesson 7: 360s never fail

Even when a 360 fails to elicit behavior change in a recipient, it still succeeds.  Good online 360 tools typically utilize the company competencies, virtues, etc.  Many of these company “values” are only discussed during orientation and are often forgotten until performance reviews. 

An ad hoc 360 reminds the raters and the recipients that we have these company competencies, which our performance is measured against. Typically, each 360 will request feedback from at least 9 other people in the company.  That means that 9 people are gaining exposure again to your company competencies, values, etc.  It makes them think about their own performance and how they themselves would be rated against the same competencies.  Ultimately it helps drive better performance of your raters and thus never fails.

Lesson 8 – follow Lesson 6 and SHARE this article. 

Ok – this really isn’t a lesson but I hope you will help me share these lessons with your Human Resource teams and your friends.   I look forward to hearing your thoughts and feedback.  

adam goldberg