The 360 assessment results provide participants with helpful information they can use to grow as a leader. It’s important to debrief the results with participants so they can identify their leadership growth strategy.
Note: This article is for the Standalone 360 Assessment, which is used by individuals who are not participating in a Torch coaching program.
How will I know a participant’s 360 assessment is ready to be reviewed and released?
You’ll be notified by email when a participant’s 360 assessment is eligible for release. A 360 assessment is eligible for release once one of the following criteria has been met:
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The participant has completed their self-assessment AND all the colleagues they invited to provide feedback have done so.
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At least five of the colleagues the participant invited to provide feedback have done so.
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21 days have passed since the participant invited the first colleague to provide feedback.
Before you release the results, you must confirm that the participant has received feedback from the expected colleagues, and review the results and written feedback to ensure they are ready for release.
What do the 360 results mean?
Learn more about interpreting 360 assessment results.
What should I review with the participant?
We recommend reviewing the 360 results in increments, beginning with strengths to set the foundation for the more difficult constructive feedback. Ask the participant questions such as:
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What stands out to you about this feedback?
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What do you notice?
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What feels most true?
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What is surprising?
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What is hard to hear?
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What are you curious about?
What if some of the feedback is upsetting to the participant, or they don’t agree with it?
Remind them that these are simply a set of perspectives—not an absolute “truth”. Encourage them to hold and explore the feedback with curiosity. You might ask:
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What could you learn from this?
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Is there any part of it that feels true?
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Why do you think someone might have this perspective?
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Who could you ask for more information or clarity on this?
Also acknowledge that seeking and hearing feedback is courageous, uncomfortable, and can feel vulnerable; however, it’s the best and fastest way to grow. Give empathy and kudos to the participant for doing the hard work to grow as a leader. You can also share your experience or feelings about receiving feedback in the past to help normalize it for them.
What do I do after debriefing the 360 results?
Once you and the participant have thoroughly reviewed their 360 results, you can guide them to identify one to three main areas for development, or goals. The goals may be identified by the 360 (for example, related to the areas with the lowest scores) or based on a combination of feedback and objectives.
How should I help the participant identify goals?
Insight from the 360 assessment results helps participants establish a leadership development plan with specific goals. Specifically, the hidden opportunities may be a great initial starting point to help bring awareness to areas to focus on.
Why should I set goals as part of the 360 debrief?
Becoming a better leader is hard and takes work; establishing goals can help you set a path to success for the participant.
There’s a good analogy with personal training for professional athletes here: the more the participant wishes to excel, the more structure and hard work is required. The effort is worth it in terms of the quality of outcome.
It would be hubris for a professional athlete to think they could reach their full potential without a structured plan and exceptional effort. Is becoming an excellent professional leader any less challenging or complex? We say no.
What tips can I share with the participant about goal setting?
Most development goals are complex and challenging. As such, each goal deserves its own approach that is heavily guided and supported by an expert.
Set SMART goals and actions.
Encourage the participant to set goals that are just outside their comfort zone. As they progress, what is new and strange and uncomfortable will become routine. This new normal then becomes a jumping off point for practicing new skills and behaviors that take them farther. The participant should set actions that will help them improve, or at least experiment, and then practice those new actions.
To be effective, an action should be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and ideally time-bound).
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Generally, we believe that leadership is best developed by setting goals that are as specific as possible. The concept of leadership is broad and often used as a buzzword. Specificity ensures the participant stays on target. Specific goals are small, manageable, and incremental steps in a positive direction. Specific goals are also more apt to be measurable; this is an essential part of the process because it helps them see whether the progress they make resonates with their team.
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Goals should also be personal and relevant to the individual. All leaders don’t pursue the same path—they’re not even reaching for the same peak. The more personally resonant a goal is, the more likely the participant is to achieve it.
Encourage the participant to pursue growth in an iterative fashion. Seek many small steps versus one giant leap. Smaller steps are easier and build upon each other. In addition, each step offers the possibility of feedback which allows the participant to adjust course. Even if they are capable of transformational leaps, they want to land on solid ground.
Ask for feedback.
Leadership by its essence involves deep and impactful relationships with others. To become a better leader, the participant should ask for feedback to ensure they have clear guidance on what’s working and where they should focus next.
Encourage the participant to choose a set of colleagues and ask them to share their thoughts on the participant’s progress. For instance:
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What behaviors are effective for my short and long term goals?
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How is my behavior perceived by others?
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How can I develop better relationships, taking into account various roles and communication styles?
Process feedback.
Of course, reading feedback is the easy part. Correctly interpreting and applying it is the real challenge and is difficult for even the most experienced leader. There are a host of hurdles to overcome, including, but not limited to:
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Our innate resistance to criticism or new perspectives
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Vague or bland feedback, perhaps due to the desire to be sensitive
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Broad or overly-general feedback that can’t be acted on
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Ad-hominem critiques or other emotionally non-constructive feedback
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Perspectives and experiences that vary so greatly from our own that they are hard to appreciate
These challenges can be overcome by the participant developing their skills in reviewing and adapting to feedback. This can be accomplished by them leveraging the Torch platform, your guidance as the expert, and putting in the effort. And the effort is worth it: the ability to perceive gaps with appropriate perspective and then address them is the core element supporting leadership growth.
At its best, strong constructive feedback can be the driving force behind growth, and a competitive advantage. At its worst, even poor-quality feedback from those who don’t have our best interests at heart is very valuable information.
As the participant receives and processes feedback, they can set new actions based on what they’ve learned. Generally, the participant shouldn’t try to attain the whole goal in each action, but simply to make progress, which feedback providers can detect.
Plan new goals.
When the participant has reached their goal, or feels like a new one has a better ROI (perhaps something they’ve learned from feedback), it’s time to set a new one.
The participant can set and pursue several goals at once, but it’s a good idea for them to work with you to see how many they should meaningfully work toward at once. Generally one to three is a common range. Even one goal, pursued with effort and intention, is an ambitious undertaking.