What areas of personal improvement are you working on these days?
Story
One of our coaches was doing a 360 review, talking to a middle manager about a senior manager. The two general topics for all 360 reviews are:
- What are this person’s greatest strengths?
- What areas of improvement should this person work on?
After giving very good insight on both of those topics, the middle manager sighed and shook his head.
“I wish I could have something like this. I would love to know what people think of me.”
Our coach said, “Of course we’d be happy to do this for you too if the leadership approves it. In the meantime, would you like to know a little secret?” The manager leaned in closer as our coach continued. “You can run your own. Just ask these same sorts of questions to a few people you trust.”
The manager burst out laughing. “That’s super terrifying!”
Our coach continued the impromptu coaching session: “Who would you ask? Just think of 1 or 2 names.”
The manager thought for a minute and came up with one person.
Why Run a Self-directed 360 Review
Many people, like the manager in our story, don’t have a clear sense of what their current “personal growth goal” should be. People often know about the promotion they’re working towards, the project they’re trying to complete, or the KPI or target they’re trying to hit. Those are usually not the problem.
It’s personal.
What do you personally need to improve in order to hit those other business goals?
Example answers to this question are:
I need to get better at:
- Communicating clearly and concisely
- Delegating
- Engaging on a personal level with colleagues (rather than work)
- Holding difficult conversations
- Managing my work/life balance
- Prioritizing
- Regulating my emotions
- Resolving conflict (rather than avoiding it)
- Staying curious and not jumping to conclusions
And the list goes on!
Notice how none of these are targets that you “hit” or “miss.” They are ongoing, personal improvements (most likely around adaptive challenges).
These are the things are missing from many people’s daily work routines. Yet they are the catalysts that could make a huge impact on all the targets.
How to Run a Self-directed 360 Review
First of all, here’s what NOT to do.
- Don’t ask lots of people to email their comments to you (but a survey link is ok)
- Don’t ask tons of people (stick with those who know you best)
- Don’t ask people out of the blue (tell them why)
- Don’t expect people to understand what you’re doing (again, tell them why)
- Don’t expect to get all your answers from one person (“360” implies multiple perspectives)
What you do want to do is send/say something like this little template:
Hi {name}
I just read an article about “self-directed 360 reviews” and I wanted to try it. I’m looking for people who will give me honest and helpful feedback about both my areas of strength and my areas for improvement.
Since I respect your opinion of me, would you be interested in helping me with this in the next week or so?
Let’s have a quick peek at why this message works:
- It gives the context for why you want to do this (“just read an article”). In the story above, our coach encouraged the manager to say: “I was just doing a 360 interview for someone else and I was inspired to run one for myself.”
- It lays out expectations (“honest and helpful feedback about…”)
- It answers the reader’s question “Why me?” (“I respect your opinion about me”)
- It offers a timeline + escape hatch (“Would you be interested…in the next week or so?”). The one-week deadline is a great excuse for people to reply with “This is a really busy week for me” and then offer a better time… or just not offer an alternative time.
- It implies there’s a next step after they agree/opt out.
The next step should be to either send a survey link (anonymous) or book face-to-face appointments.
What to do with the Feedback
As with all 360 reviews, take everyone’s feedback with a grain of salt.
- Look for broad themes
- Is there anything that really resonated with you and “feels right”
- Don’t forget about the positive!
One of the most important things to do with the positive feedback is lean into those things more. Maybe you need to make more room in your schedule for the strengths you bring to the organization.
And you can keep it short. After you get replies to your few questions reply with “Thanks so much, I’ll think about all you’ve said!”
You could even follow up a few weeks later and ask, “Did you see any changes?”
Imaginary 360 Reviews
There’s another fun way to run a self-directed 360: you can just imagine these people giving you feedback. When we work/live with people for a long time, we can almost predict what they’re going to say.
So go ahead and predict it!
If there’s something you know people would say, and you think it “feels true,” then that’s a totally reasonable result from an imaginary 360 review. And you didn’t even have to talk to anyone!
Of course, it would be interesting to see what other people say, wouldn’t it…?
Whatever happened…
Remember the middle manager? One of his biggest insights about this type of conversation (as opposed to an imaginary one) was:
“This will really take our relationship to a new level. We haven’t talked about this sort of thing before.”
Another manager at a different company liked the self-directed 360 idea so much that he immediately sent an anonymous survey to everyone he works closely with. The next time our coach went into this manager’s office, there was a noticeable difference.
“Wasn’t your desk over there before?” our coach asked.
“Yep,” he replied. “It came through on my self-run 360 that people said my desk position in this room made me feel unapproachable. I don’t want that. So I moved it.”
Sometimes it’s just that simple.
Of course, other feedback may be harder to implement or accept. Could it be your fear of what people will say that is holding you back from asking for this kind of feedback?
What if that feedback is the key that unlocks a new, better version of you? Would that make it worth facing the fear?
Next Steps?
One of our most requested services is our unique approach to 360 Reviews. Would you like to talk about how we might partner with you and your team on 360 Reviews? Or maybe you ran one yourself and you want someone to talk through the results with you.
Book a free 20-minute call with one of our coaches to discuss how we can support you in making your next big breakthrough (even if it feels impossible right now).
Looking forward to talking to you soon!
