360 Degree Feedback: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly What is 360 Degree Feedback?

By Susan M. Heathfield, About.com

http://humanresources.about.com/od/360feedback/a/360feedback_2.htm

Want to make people happy? Make people sad? Care to create an uproar in your organization that rivals in ferocity any change you’ve ever introduced in your history? Want to stir up all of the dormant fearballs hidden just below the surface in your organization? I know; you think I’m talking about laying off half your staff. Right? Wrong. I am talking about organizations that do a poor job of introducing and implementing 360 degree, or multirater, feedback. Indeed, I’m also talking about organizations that do a good job of introducing 360 degree feedback. Nothing raises hackles as fiercely as a change in performance feedback methods, especially when they affect compensation decisions.

Implemented with care and training to enable people to better serve customers and develop their own careers, 360 degree feedback is a positive addition to your performance management system. Started haphazardly, because it’s the current flavor in organizations, or because "everyone" else is doing it, 360 feedback will create a disaster from which you will require months and possibly years, to recover. 360 degree feedback is a method and a tool that provides each employee the opportunity to receive performance feedback from his or her supervisor and four to eight peers, reporting staff members, coworkers and customers. Most 360 degree feedback tools are also responded to by each individual in a self assessment.

360 degree feedback allows each individual to understand how his effectiveness as an employee, coworker, or staff member is viewed by others. The most effective 360 degree feedback processes provide feedback that is based on behaviors that other employees can see. The feedback provides insight about the skills and behaviors desired in the organization to accomplish the mission, vision, and goals and live the values. The feedback is firmly planted in behaviors needed to exceed customer expectations.

People who are chosen as raters, usually choices shared by the organization and employee, generally interact routinely with the person receiving feedback.

The purpose of the 360 degree feedback is to assist each individual to understand his or her strengths and weaknesses, and to contribute insights into aspects of his or her work needing professional development. Debates of all kinds are raging in the world of

* select the feedback tool and process,

* select the raters,

* use the feedback,

* review the feedback, and

* manage and integrate the process into a larger performance management system.

360 degree feedback has many positive aspects and many proponents. The 1999 State of the Industry Report, from the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), reviewed the training practices of more than 750 firms. Fifty-five firms, described by ASTD as leading edge in their training approaches, rely heavily on employee feedback, including 360 degree feedback and peer review, for individual development plans and annual performance reviews.

Seventy-five percent of these companies provided individual development plans, and 33 percent provided 360 degree feedback for most of their employees in 1998, compared to 50 percent and 10 percent in 1997, according to ASTD.

Organizations that are happy with the 360 degree component of their performance management systems identify these positive features of the process. These features will manifest themselves in well-managed, well-integrated 360 degree feedback processes.

* Improved Feedback From More Sources: Provides well-rounded feedback from peers, reporting staff, coworkers, and supervisors. This can be a definite improvement over feedback from a single individual. 360 feedback can also save managers’ time in that they can spend less energy providing feedback as more people participate in the process. Coworker perception is important and the process helps people understand how other employees view their work.

* Team Development: Helps team members learn to work more effectively together. (Teams know more about how team members are performing than their supervisor.) Multirater feedback makes team members more accountable to each other as they share the knowledge that they will provide input on each members’ performance. A well-planned process can improve communication and team development.

* Personal and Organizational Performance Development: 360 degree feedback is one of the best methods for understanding personal and organizational developmental needs.

* Responsibility for Career Development: For many reasons, organizations are no longer responsible for developing the careers of their employees, if they ever were. Multirater feedback can provide excellent information to an individual about what she needs to do to enhance her career. Additionally, many employees feel 360 degree feedback is more accurate, more reflective of their performance, and more validating than prior feedback from the supervisor alone. This makes the information more useful for both career and personal development.

* Reduced Discrimination Risk: When feedback comes from a number of individuals in various job functions, discrimination because of race, age, gender, and so on, is reduced. The "horns and halo" effect, in which a supervisor rates performance based on her most recent interactions with the employee, is also minimized.

* Improved Customer Service: Especially in feedback processes that involve the internal or external customer, each person receives valuable feedback about the quality of his product or services. This feedback should enable the individual to improve the quality, reliability, promptness, and comprehensiveness of these products and services.

* Training Needs Assessment: 360 degree feedback provides comprehensive information about organization training needs and thus allows planning for classes, cross-functional responsibilities, and cross-training. 360 degree feedback has many positive aspects and many proponents. The 1999 State of the Industry Report, from the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), reviewed the training practices of more than 750 firms. Fifty-five firms, described by ASTD as leading edge in their training approaches, rely heavily on employee feedback, including 360 degree feedback and peer review, for individual development plans and annual performance reviews.

Seventy-five percent of these companies provided individual development plans, and 33 percent provided 360 degree feedback for most of their employees in 1998, compared to 50 percent and 10 percent in 1997, according to ASTD.

Organizations that are happy with the 360 degree component of their performance management systems identify these positive features of the process. These features will manifest themselves in well-managed, well-integrated 360 degree feedback processes.

•Improved Feedback From More Sources: Provides well-rounded feedback from peers, reporting staff, coworkers, and supervisors. This can be a definite improvement over feedback from a single individual. 360 feedback can also save managers’ time in that they can spend less energy providing feedback as more people participate in the process. Coworker perception is important and the process helps people understand how other employees view their work.

•Team Development: Helps team members learn to work more effectively together. (Teams know more about how team members are performing than their supervisor.) Multirater feedback makes team members more accountable to each other as they share the knowledge that they will provide input on each members’ performance. A well-planned process can improve communication and team development.

•Personal and Organizational Performance Development: 360 degree feedback is one of the best methods for understanding personal and organizational developmental needs.

•Responsibility for Career Development: For many reasons, organizations are no longer responsible for developing the careers of their employees, if they ever were. Multirater feedback can provide excellent information to an individual about what she needs to do to enhance her career.

Additionally, many employees feel 360 degree feedback is more accurate, more reflective of their performance, and more validating than prior feedback from the supervisor alone. This makes the information more useful for both career and personal development.

•Reduced Discrimination Risk: When feedback comes from a number of individuals in various job functions, discrimination because of race, age, gender, and so on, is reduced. The "horns and halo" effect, in which a supervisor rates performance based on her most recent interactions with the employee, is also minimized.

•Improved Customer Service: Especially in feedback processes that involve the internal or external customer, each person receives valuable feedback about the quality of his product or services. This feedback should enable the individual to improve the quality, reliability, promptness, and comprehensiveness of these products and services.

•Training Needs Assessment: 360 degree feedback provides comprehensive information about organization training needs and thus allows planning for classes, cross-functional responsibilities, and cross-training.

A 360 degree feedback system does have a good side. However, 360 degree feedback also has a bad side and even, an ugly side. For every good point I just made about 360 degree feedback systems, detractors and people who have had bad experiences with such systems, can offer the down side. The down side is important because it gives you a roadmap of the things to avoid when you implement a 360 degree feedback process. Following are potential problems with 360 degree feedback processes and a recommended solution for each.

•Exceptional Expectations for the Process: 360 degree feedback is not the same as a performance management system. It is merely a part of the feedback and development that a performance management system offers within an organization.

Additionally, proponents may lead participants to expect too much from this feedback system in their efforts to obtain organizational support for implementation. Make sure the 360 feedback is integrated into a complete performance management system.

•Design Process Downfalls: Often, a 360 degree feedback process arrives as a recommendation from the HR department or is shepherded in by an executive who learned about the process at a seminar or in a book. Just as an organization implements any planned change, the implementation of 360 degree feedback should follow effective change management guidelines. A cross-section of the people who will have to live with and utilize the process should explore and develop the process for your organization.

•Failure to Connect the Process: For a 360 feedback process to work, it must be connected with the overall strategic aims of your organization. If you have identified competencies or have comprehensive job descriptions, give people feedback on their performance of the expected competencies and job duties.

The system will fail if it is an add-on rather than a supporter of your organization’s fundamental direction and requirements. It must function as a measure of your accomplishment of your organization’s big and long term picture.

•Insufficient Information: Since 360 degree feedback processes are currently usually anonymous, people receiving feedback have no recourse if they want to further understand the feedback. They have no one to ask for clarification of unclear comments or more information about particular ratings and their basis.

For this reason and for the points listed in the several bullet points following this one, developing 360 process coaches is important. Supervisors, HR staff people, interested managers and others are taught to assist people to understand their feedback. They are trained to help people develop action plans based upon the feedback.

•Focus on Negatives and Weaknesses: At least one book, First Break All the Rules: What The World's Greatest Managers Do Differently, advises that great managers focus on employee strengths, not weaknesses. The authors said, "People don't change that much. Don't waste time trying to put in what was left out. Try to draw out what was left in. That is hard enough."

•Rater Inexperience and Ineffectiveness: In addition to the insufficient training organizations provide both people receiving feedback and people providing feedback, there are numerous ways raters go wrong. They may inflate ratings to make an employee look good. They may deflate ratings to make an individual look bad. They may informally band together to make the system artificially inflate everyone’s performance. Checks and balances must prevent these pitfalls.

•Paperwork/Computer Data Entry Overload: Need I say much more here? Traditional evaluations required two people and one form. Multirater feedback ups the sheer number of people participating in the process and the consequent organization time invested. There are minuses with the 360 degree feedback processes. As with any performance feedback process, it can provide you with a profoundly supportive, organization-affirming method for promoting employee growth and development. Or, in the worst cases, it saps morale, destroys motivation, enables disenfranchised employees to go for the jugular or plot and scheme revenge scenarios.

360 degree feedback can increase positive, powerful problem solving for customers or set people off on journeys to identify the guilty - the feedback provider who rated their performance less than perfect. Which scenario will your organization choose? It’s all in the details. Think profoundly before you move forward; learn from the mistakes of others; assess your organization’s readiness. Apply effective change management strategies to planning and implementation. Do the right things right and you will add a powerful tool to your performance management and enhancement toolkit.

Outcomes From Your 360 Degree Feedback Process

The Great Debates About 360 Degree Feedback

By Susan M. Heathfield, About.com

The outcomes you experience from your 360 degree feedback process are dependant on the decisions you make about the goals you want to achieve. The most important outcome of the 360 degree feedback process is personal and career development for the staff person whose skills and performance are rated. And, these decisions have sparked more debate in organizations about 360 degree feedback.

You will experience more success with multirater feedback when the results do not impact the compensation of the person receiving feedback. If you require the feedback to impact the compensation, you set up several possible scenarios.

People may be unwilling to give accurate feedback because they are concerned about the impact the feedback will have on raises. In a negative environment, people might collude to assure the individual receiving feedback is ineligible for a raise. Employees are also always concerned, that on some subliminal level, the feedback will influence the manager's opinion of the employee's performance. Even if the feedback outcomes are not supposed to influence appraisals, raises, and promotions, employees believe that they do. Allow the Employee to Own the 360 Degree Feedback Data To counter these employee concerns, in my work with companies, I have found that people overwhelmingly prefer that the individual owns the data from the 360 degree feedback. In this scenario, the individual shares the information with the supervisor as she chooses. The supervisor and other members of the organization have no access to the data.

When the organization owns the data and the supervisor has access to the information, too often the feedback becomes directly or inadvertently, part of the individual’s appraisal. This negates the developmental goals of the process. Few individuals will openly discuss the aspects of their work needing improvement when they believe the information will become part of an appraisal impacting compensation.

I have been challenged about these outcomes by individuals who ask me why bother with the assessment if the supervisor has no access to the data. My response has generally been that if the supervisor is truly looking out for the development of the employee, the employee will share the data. In a performance management system, the employee uses the feedback to set up a performance developmental plan; thus the supervisor indirectly has access to the information.

In an environment of trust and cooperation, you can establish a norm that the employee shares the data with the supervisor.

Performance Appraisals Don't Work

The Traditional Performance Appraisal Process

By Susan M. Heathfield, About.com

Second only to firing an employee, managers cite performance appraisal as the task they dislike the most. This is understandable given that the process of performance appraisal, as traditionally practiced, is fundamentally flawed. It is incongruent with the values-based, vision-driven, mission-oriented, participative work environments favored by forward thinking organizations today. It smacks of an old fashioned, paternalistic, top down, autocratic mode of management which treats employees as possessions of the company.

The Traditional Performance Appraisal Process

In the conventional performance appraisal or review process, the manager annually writes his opinions of the performance of a reporting staff member on a document supplied by the HR department. In some organizations, the staff member is asked to fill out a self-review to share with the supervisor.

Most of the time, the appraisal reflects what the manager can remember; this is usually the most recent events. Almost always, the appraisal is based on opinions as real performance measurement takes time and follow-up to do well. The documents in use in many organizations also ask the supervisor to make judgments based on concepts and words such as excellent performance (what's that?), exhibits enthusiasm (hmmm, laughs a lot?) and achievement oriented (likes to score?).

Many managers are uncomfortable in the role of judge, so uncomfortable, in fact, that performance appraisals are often months overdue. The HR professional, who manages the appraisal system, finds his most important roles are to develop the form and maintain an employee official file, notify supervisors of due dates, and then nag, nag, nag when the review is long overdue.

Despite the fact that annual raises are often tied to the performance evaluation, managers avoid doing them as long as possible. This results in an unmotivated employee who feels his manager doesn’t care about him enough to facilitate his annual raise.

Employee Performance Appraisal is Painful and It Doesn’t Work Why is this established process so painful for all participants? The manager is uncomfortable in the judgment seat. He knows he may have to justify his opinions with specific examples when the staff member asks. He lacks skill in providing feedback and often provokes a defensive response from the employee, who may justifiably feel he is under attack. Consequently, managers avoid giving honest feedback which defeats the purpose of the performance appraisal.

In turn, the staff member whose performance is under review often becomes defensive. Whenever his performance is rated as less than the best, or less than the level at which he personally perceives his contribution, the manager is viewed as punitive.

Disagreement about contribution and performance ratings can create a conflict ridden situation that festers for months. Most managers avoid conflict that will undermine work place harmony. In today’s team-oriented work environment, it is also difficult to ask people who work as colleagues, and sometimes even friends, to take on the role of judge and defendant.

Further compromising the situation, with salary increases frequently tied to the numerical rating or ranking, the manager knows he is limiting the staff member’s increase if he rates his performance less than “outstanding”. No wonder managers waffle, and in one organization with whom I worked, ninety-six percent of all employees were rated “one".

Am I completely against performance appraisals? Yes, if the approach taken is the traditional one I have described in this article. It is harmful to performance development; damages work place trust, undermines harmony and fails to encourage personal best performance. Furthermore, it underutilizes the talents of HR professionals and managers and forever limits their ability to contribute to true performance improvement within your organization.

A performance management system, which I would propose to replace the old approach, is a completely different discussion. And, I don’t mean renaming performance appraisal as “performance management” because the words are currently in vogue. Performance management starts with how a position is defined and ends when you have determined why an excellent employee left your organization for another opportunity.

Within such a system, feedback to each staff member occurs regularly. Individual performance objectives are measurable and based on prioritized goals that support the accomplishment of the overall goals of the total organization. The vibrancy and performance of your organization is ensured because you focus on developmental plans and opportunities for each staff member.

Performance Feedback

In a performance management system, feedback remains integral to successful practice. The feedback, however, is a discussion. Both the staff person and his manager have an equivalent opportunity to bring information to the dialogue. Feedback is often obtained from peers, direct reporting staff, and customers to enhance mutual understanding of an individual’s contribution and developmental needs. (This is commonly known as 360 degree feedback.) The developmental plan establishes the organization’s commitment to help each person continue to expand his knowledge and skills. This is the foundation upon which a continuously improving organization builds.

The HR Challenge

Leading the adoption and implementation of a performance management system is a wonderful opportunity for the HR professional. It challenges your creativity, improves your ability to influence, allows you to foster real change in your organization, and it sure beats the heck out of “nag, nag, nag".

What Do You Think?

Please let me know what you think. Is your organization ready to toss out the traditional performance appraisal? In future articles, I will discuss the various components of a successful performance management system. In the meantime, I encourage you to think about a change for your own organization and check the following additional resources.

Communicate with your Guide and author.

How To Provide Feedback That Has an Impact

By Susan M. Heathfield, About.com

Make your feedback have the impact it deserves by the manner and approach you use to deliver feedback. Your feedback can make a difference to people if you can avoid a defensive response. Difficulty: Hard Time Required: Depends on the situation.

Here's How:

1.Effective feedback is specific, not general. (Say, "The report you turned in yesterday was well-written, understandable, and made your points about the budget very effectively." Don't say, "good report.")

2.Effective feedback always focuses on a specific behavior, not on a person or their intentions. (When you held competing conversations during the meeting, when Mary had the floor, you distracted the people in attendance.)

3.The best feedback is sincerely and honestly provided to help. Trust me, people will know if they are receiving it for any other reason.

4.Successful feedback describes actions or behavior that the individual can do something about.

5.Whenever possible, feedback that is requested is more powerful. Ask permission to provide feedback. Say, "I'd like to give you some feedback about the presentation, is that okay with you?"

6.Effective feedback involves the sharing of information and observations. It does not include advice unless you have permission or advice was requested.

7.Effective feedback is well timed. Whether the feedback is positive or constructive provide the information as closely tied to the event as possible.

8.Effective feedback involves what or how something was done, not why. Asking why is asking people about their motivation and that provokes defensiveness.

9.Check to make sure the other person understood what you communicated by using a feedback loop, such as asking a question or observing changed behavior.

10.Effective feedback is as consistent as possible. If the actions are great today, they're great tomorrow. If the policy violation merits discipline, it should always merit discipline.

Tips:

1.Feedback is communication to a person or a team of people regarding the effect their behavior is having on another person, the organization, the customer, or the team.

2.Positive feedback involves telling someone about good performance. Make this feedback timely, specific, and frequent.

3.Constructive feedback alerts an individual to an area in which his performance could improve. Constructive feedback is not criticism; it is descriptive and should always be directed to the action, not the person.

4.The main purpose of constructive feedback is to help people understand where they stand in relation to expected and/or productive job behavior.

5.Recognition for effective performance is a powerful motivator. Most people want to obtain more recognition, so recognition fosters more of the appreciated actions.

Fight for What's Right: Ten Tips to Encourage Meaningful Conflict

Four Tips to Encourage Meaningful Work Conflict

By Susan M. Heathfield, About.com

Conflict avoidance is most frequently the topic when conflict in organizations is discussed. Conflict resolution - as quickly as possible - is the second most frequent topic. This is bad news because meaningful work conflict is a cornerstone in healthy, successful organizations. Conflict is necessary for effective problem solving and for effective interpersonal relationships.

These statements may seem unusual to you. If you are like many people, you avoid conflict in your daily work life. You see only the negative results of conflict. Especially in the Human Resources profession, or as a manager or supervisor, you may even find that you spend too much of your precious time mediating disputes between coworkers.

Why People Don't Participate in Appropriate Work Conflict

There are many reasons why people don't stand up for their beliefs and bring important differences to the table. (In organizations, this translates into people nodding in unison when the manager asks if the group agrees, but then complaining about the decision later.) Conflict is usually uncomfortable. Many people don't know how to participate in and manage work conflict in a positive way.

In a poorly carried out conflict, people sometimes get hurt. They become defensive because they feel under attack personally. People have to work with certain people every single day, so they are afraid conflict will harm these necessary ongoing relationships.

Why Appropriate Work Conflict Is Important

Effectively managed work conflict has many positive results for your organization, however. When people can disagree with each other and lobby for different ideas, your organization is healthier. Disagreements often result in a more thorough study of options and better decisions and direction. According to Peter Block, in The Empowered Manager: Positive Political Skills at Work (Compare Prices), if you are unwilling to participate in organizational politics and conflict, you will never accomplish the things that are important to you at work, your work mission. And, that would be tragic.

So, knowing how to raise issues and participate in meaningful work conflict is key to your success in work and in life. These tips will help.

Tips for Participating in Healthy Work Conflict

Create a work environment in which healthy conflict is encouraged by setting clear expectations. Foster an organizational culture or environment in which differences of opinion are encouraged. Make differences the expectation and healthy debate about issues and ideas the norm. Placing emphasis on the common goals people share within your organization can help. People have a tendency to focus on the differences experienced with another rather than focusing on the beliefs and goals they have in common with each other.

If organizational goals are aligned and all employees are moving in the same direction, healthy work conflict about how to get there is respected. If you are a manager or team leader, do this by asking others to express their opinion before you speak your own. Tell people that you want them to speak up when they disagree or have an opinion that is different from others in the group.

Reward, recognize, and thank people who are willing to take a stand and support their position. You can publicly thank people who are willing to disagree with the direction of a group. Your recognition system, bonus system, pay and benefits package, and performance management process should all reward the employees who practice personal organizational courage and pursue appropriate work conflict.

These employees speak up to disagree or propose a different approach even in the face of pressure from the group to agree. They lobby passionately for their cause or belief, yet, when all the debating is over, they support the decisions made by the team just as passionately. If you experience little dissention in your group, examine your own actions. If you believe you want different opinions expressed and want to avoid "group think," and you experience little disagreement from staff, examine your own actions. Do you, non-verbally or verbally, send the message that it is really not okay to disagree? Do you put employees in a "hot seat" when they express an opinion? Do they get "in trouble" if they are wrong or a predicted solution fails to work?

Look inside yourself personally, and even seek feedback from a trusted advisor or staff member, if the behavior of your team tells you that you are inadvertently sending the wrong message.

Expect people to support their opinions and recommendations with data and facts. Divergent opinions are encouraged, but the opinions are arrived at through the study of data and facts. Staff members are encouraged to collect data that will illuminate the process or problem. Read six more tips about managing work conflict and keeping work conflict healthy and beneficial to your company.

Here are six more tips about encouraging meaningful and appropriate work conflict. You can also take a look at the first four tips about encouraging appropriate work conflict.

Create a group norm that conflict around ideas and direction is expected and that personal attacks are not tolerated. Any group that comes together regularly to lead an organization or department, solve a problem, or to improve or create a process would benefit from group norms. These are the relationship guidelines or rules group members agree to follow. They often include the expectation that all members will speak honestly, that all opinions are equal, and that each person will participate. These guidelines also set up the expectation that personal attacks are not tolerated whereas healthy debate about ideas and options is encouraged.

Provide employees with training in healthy conflict and problem solving skills. Sometimes people fail to stand up for their beliefs because they don't know how to do so comfortably. Your staff will benefit from education and training in interpersonal communication, problem solving, conflict resolution, and particularly, non-defensive communication. Goal setting, meeting management, and leadership will also help employees exercise their freedom of speech.

Look for signs that a conflict about a solution or direction is getting out of hand. Exercise your best observation skills and notice whether tension is becoming unhealthy. Listen for criticism of fellow staff members, an increase in the number and severity of "digs" or putdowns, and negative comments about the solution or process. Are secret meetings increasing?

In one of my client companies, staff members hold email wars in which the nastiness of the emails grows and the list of staff members copied can include the whole company. If you observe the tension and conflict is endangering your workplace harmony, hold a conflict resolution meeting with the combatants immediately. Yes, you do need to mediate. It's okay to have positive conflict but not to allow negative conflict to destroy your work environment.

Hire people who you believe will add value to your organization with their willingness to problem solve and debate. Behavioral interview questions will help you assess the assertiveness of your potential employees. You want to hire people who are willing to act boldly and who are unconcerned about whether they are well-liked. Look and listen for situations in which the potential employee has stood up for his beliefs, worked with a team to solve problems, or pushed an unpopular agenda at work. Yes, you want a harmonious workplace but not at the sacrifice of everyone's success.

Make executive compensation dependent upon the success of the organization as a whole as well as the accomplishment of individual goals. Pay executives part of their compensation based on the success of the total organization. This ensures that people are committed to the same goals and direction. They will look for the best approach, the best idea, and the best solution, not just the one that will benefit their own area of interest. This will also ensure that the people in their organizations spend their time problem solving and solution seeking rather than fingerpointing, blaming, and looking to see who is guilty when a problem occurs or a commitment is missed.

If you are using all of the first nine tips, and healthy work conflict is not occurring ... You need to sit down with the people who report to you directly and with their direct reporting staff and ask them why. Some positive, problem solving discussion might allow your group to identify and rectify any problem that stands in the way of open, healthy, positive, constructive work conflict and debate. The future success of your organization depends upon your staff's willingness to participate in healthy work conflict, so this discussion is worth your time.