Customize the 360 Leadership Assessment for Your Organization

If you're customizing the 360 Leadership Assessment for your organization, this article will provide guidance on the settings you'll need to select and review on the Custom 360 Project Plan template provided by Torch. From there, the Torch Behavioral Science team will help you identify the right 360 statements to ensure the assessment aligns with the skills and behaviors your organization thinks are important.

Select Your Settings

In the Custom 360 Project Plan template provided by Torch, fill out each of these fields on the Settings tab.

1. Assessment Name

The name of your 360 assessment that will display to participants. Need some inspiration? Examples include: "Torch Leadership Assessment", "[Your Organization Name] Leadership 360", and "[Your Organization Name] Feedback Survey".

2. Total Items

The total number of questions included in the 360 assessment.

3. Approximate Minutes

The number of minutes you anticipate participants will need to complete the 360 assessment. We estimate roughly 10 minutes for the Torch 360, which is 42 questions. To help you estimate how long your 360 might take, assume that it takes participants about 20 seconds to answer one question. 

4. Self Assessment Text

The Intro Text is the message participants see when they first begin the assessment, and the Outro Text is the message that participants see upon completing the assessment. For both messages, you can either use the Torch standard text, or provide a custom message.

• Intro Text - Default Header: Let's take a look at your leadership.
• Intro Text - Default Body Text: The following statements describe different approaches to leadership. Using the scale accompanying each statement, indicate the extent to which each statement accurately describes you as you are most of the time, not as you would like to be. 

• Outro Text - Default Header: Thank you!
• Outro Text - Default Body Text: Your responses are safely submitted, and your thoughtfulness is appreciated.

5. Feedback Provider Text

The Intro Text is the message feedback providers will see when they first begin the assessment on behalf of the individual who invited them, and the Outro Text is the message that feedback providers will see upon completing the assessment. For both messages, you can either use the Torch standard text, or provide a custom message.

• Intro Text - Default Header: Help [Participant First Name] grow with your feedback
• Intro Text - Default Body Text: [Participant First Name] is working on their professional development. In this assessment, help [Participant First Name] benchmark their current leadership behavior and the impact it has at work. Your feedback will accelerate [Participant First Name]'s success.

• Outro Text - Default Header: Nice work!
• Outro Text - Default Body Text: Your feedback has been submitted, and we appreciate your time.

6. Text to Skip a Question

The text that will appear on the button that allows users to skip questions. "Skip" is the Torch standard text. Your options include:

• Skip
• Don't Know
• N/A
• Not Applicable

7. Free Text Questions

Three qualitative free text questions are included at the end of the 360. You can choose to have no free text questions, use the Torch standard questions, or provide up to three custom questions instead. The Torch standard questions are:

• What are your strengths as a leader?
• What leadership challenges, problems, or issues do you see in your organization? These issues may or may not be related to you, but may provide helpful context.
• What is the most important challenge that you need to address to grow as a leader?

8. Follow-Up Free Text

All questions can include the option for participants to provide written feedback explaining the rating they've selected. If you want to include this follow-up free text opportunity with your assessment questions, specify when based on these options:

• Always show the follow-up textbox
• Only show the follow-up textbox if the participant answers a "1" or "5"
• Only show the follow-up textbox if the participant answers a "1", "2", or "3"

9. Scale Labels

The standard Torch 360 operates on a 1-5 "compared-to-others" scale, with the following answer choices available for each question: Much less than others, Less than others, Same as others, More than others, and Much more than others. You can choose these standard scale labels (recommended), or a custom scale, such as Strongly disagree, Disagree, Neutral, Agree, and Strongly agree.

10. Categorized Feedback

Determines if the results from feedback providers are displayed according to their relationship with the feedback recipient, such as Manager, Peer, or Direct report. The Torch standard value is "True", which means that categorized feedback is enabled.

Review the Advanced Settings

In the Custom 360 Project Plan template provided by Torch, review each of these fields on the Advanced Settings tab to familiarize yourself with the default values. While we do not recommend adjusting the default values for these settings, you can discuss any desired changes with your Torch Solutions Engineer contact.

1. Randomize

The order in which the assessment statements are presented to participants and feedback providers. "True" is the Torch standard value, meaning that the assessment statements will appear in random order.

2. Minimum Feedback Requests

The minimum number of feedback requests a participant can send. 5 requests is the Torch standard value.

3. Maximum Feedback Requests

The maximum number of feedback requests a participant can send. "None" is the Torch standard value, meaning that participants can send an unlimited number of feedback requests.

4. Minimum Release Timeline

The minimum number of days that must be pass before a 360 assessment can be released, if the participant does not meet the minimum feedback request threshold. 21 days is the Torch standard value.

Identify Your 360 Statements

To help support you in identifying your 360 statements, you'll attend a workshop with a Torch Behavioral Scientist who will walk you through best practices for writing assessment statements. From here, add your organizing principles and accompanying statements in the 360 Statements tab of the Custom 360 Project Plan template provided by Torch. 

Once you've drafted out your statements, you'll have a follow up meeting with your Torch Behavioral Scientist, during which you'll work together to edit the statements and ensure they align with the skills and behaviors your organization thinks are important.

Organizing Principles

The 360 consists of statements grouped into Organizing Principles (for example, Authenticity, Reliability, Presence, and Perceptiveness). There should be 3-5 statements for each organizing principle. For each statement, you'll provide both the Self text version (how the statement will show up to the participant) as well as the Other text version (how the statement will show up to people who have been invited to provide feedback about the participant).

Your 360 statements will be used to populate the Learning Goal options within your program. Learning Goals are a powerful way to see what your participants are interested in learning and measure the progress they are making toward their set goals.