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Tips: Competency Assessment
How do I choose assessors for 360 Feedback?
Unlike the more traditional evaluation methods between a manager and employee, the 360° assessment process is a multi-rater system, involving information from your manager, peers, customers, direct reports, and yourself. A broad range of feedback is collected and tabulated, resulting in a competency profile for the behaviours assessed.
The purpose of the feedback is to assist you in understanding your strengths and weaknesses, and to contribute insights into aspects of your work that may need further development.
So, when considering who to select and involve in providing feedback you should:
· Select individuals with whom you have interacted in a variety of situations and on a frequent basis for at least 6 months.
· Choose individuals who will provide honest and accurate feedback.
· Choose a mix of individuals – include those with whom you have a good relationship with as well as those who you find more challenging. This will provide a more balanced view.
· Have at least 2 respondents per respondent type/category. This also includes your self-assessment and typically at least one manager.
· Both you and your manager will be required to complete feedback questionnaires.
· Let your respondents know their feedback will be anonymous
You are required to select a minimum of three assessors per category. If less than three are selected, or if less than three replies are received, the data will be combined into another category. Overall results cannot be provided when less than 4 respondents have completed the questionnaire.
Giving and Receiving Feedback
Feedback is about helping people to be more aware of what they do and how it impacts on others in order to help them determine whether or not their behaviour is having the effect they want. Giving and receiving feedback requires courage, tact, honesty, understanding and respect from both parties.
Giving Feedback
When giving feedback, try to:
• Focus on the behaviour rather than the person.
• Describe specific rather than general behaviour and give examples.
• Focus on the behaviour you observed not what you interpreted or concluded from it.
• Do it in a mutually agreed and timely manner.
• Direct it towards behaviour which the receiver can do something about.
• Give it for the receiver’s use, not as a release for your own feelings or frustrations.
• Allow the receiver to choose what they do with the feedback.
• Share the positive as well as the negative.
Receiving Feedback
When receiving feedback, try to:
• Actively look for useful information which may help you improve your performance.
• Remain objective and calm.
• Accept the giver’s point of view (whether or not you agree with it).
• Pause and reflect before responding.
• Don’t seek to justify or become defensive.
• Summarise to test your understanding.
• Be prepared to change your mind.
• Remain open to suggestions.
• Seek feedback from several people rather than just one.
Things to Consider
The following characteristics form an “ideal” model for feedback.
Good feedback is:
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SPECIFIC |
Related to specific actions and events rather than statements which are generalised or ambiguous. |
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DIRECTED |
Towards behaviour, not personality. It is easier and less threatening for the receiver to cope with feedback on what they do, not what they are. |
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ACTIONABLE |
Focusing on behaviour on which the receiver is capable of working. Reminding people of shortcomings over which they have no control only produces frustration and a sense of hopelessness. |
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TIMELY |
Feedback stored for a grand ceremonial debriefing may focus on behaviour that was unnoticed or has been forgotten. Feedback given before passions have subsided will seldom generate a reflective response. |
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FOCUSED ON CONSEQUENCES |
Rather than causes. The giver of feedback is seldom able to accurately interpret motive or intention. |
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OFFERS OPTIONS |
Opening possibilities and choices for the receiver, rather than imposing solutions and thus creating resentments or dependencies. |
Values
Values most likely to enable helpful feedback are: -
• A belief in honesty, tempered by sense of discretion.
• An unconditional positive regard for the individual.
• A belief in a person’s potential for enhanced performance.
• A belief that the feedback offered will help the recipient.
Coaching a 360 Feedback Session
Preparing for the Meeting
Give yourself at least 1 hour to go through the report
Things to consider when studying the report
• Develop hypothesis – your own list of questions
• What picture do I get of this person – his/her relationships, situation and the role
• What are the discrepancies and interdependencies in the information, both top level and detail
• The range used for the feedback scoring
• Does this person know what competencies are important for his/her role
• Test assumptions by considering if the detail of the information supports the top level assumptions
• Look for consistency in the feedback
• Look for blind spots
• Look for different ways of interpreting the information i.e. are the discrepancies in the feedback associated with the subject or the feedback givers?
• What are the options – the possible reasons or explanations for the particular feedback given
• How senior / junior the subject is in the position. This could affect the range of scoring i.e. the more senior the person is, the higher the expectations on their competence levels compared to somebody more junior.
• Differences in how people are using the range of scores. – e.g. 1 to 5 or 2 to 4. Remember the cultural differences affecting this.
• Read the comments. When reading the comments, it helps to divide them to positive and developmental to help focus
• Do not over analyse
• Empty your head – you have not got your own agenda and pre-conceived ideas on what should be said
Running the Meeting: Questions You Might Ask
Ask whom they have chosen to give them feedback – establish who are their peers, direct reports and managers in the report and what are their working relationships like with these people.
Don’t give them answers; ask questions to get them to find the answers themselves.
Think about peeling an onion when asking the questions – start with the outer layer and peel.
Outer Layer Questions:
• Have you already formed any opinions and what are they?
• What are your overall impressions about your feedback? How do you feel about it?
• What are the areas you would like to focus on?
• Why do you feel you want to work on these and why is it important to you? - Gives you the choice on how you approach the rest of the report – i.e. they may just want to focus on business acumen – could go to this in the report and work back
• Compared to your own perceptions how have the other(group)s evaluated you
• Which areas appear to be your strengths?
• In which areas are your ratings lower? Why?
Inner Layer Questions:
• Why might your manager/peers/direct reports be saying this?
• There are some differences in perception, I am very curious: How can these differences exist?
• Why is this possible? Why that might be?
• Can you think of a situation that might have brought this on?
• Why did that happen? How did you feel?
• What does this means to you?
• Do you want to change this? How can you change this?
• This low/high rating here, where do you think it might have come from?
• Suppose it was your best friend saying these comments - how would you take it?
• Why would your peers / manager / direct reports see this as a strength? What causes that?
• Is this expected to be a strength?
• How can you build on your areas of strength?
• What can you do to improve your development areas?
Reading Your Own 360 Feedback Report
If you are in receipt of your report the best approach to interpreting your report is to remember the purpose of doing the assessment feedback – it is to identify strengths and areas of development and indicate priorities for your improvement. The assessment feedback report shows how direct reports, manager(s) and colleagues etc perceive your behaviour and the impact it has on them. When looking at the data concentrate on recognising patterns in your data rather than examining in-depth the individual scores
When reading the report and analysing the data ask your self the following questions:
• What are the key messages?
• What are my strengths and development areas?
• What strengths can I build on?
• Why might a particular group have rated me as they have – are they best placed to comment on my performance in relation to this behaviour?
• Is there agreement among rater groups and what are their similarities / differences?
• How might individuals have arrived at their particular ratings?
• Can I use the comments to understand what interaction(s) the raters might have been referring to?
Remember, the report is all about perception - while that is not necessarily the ‘truth’ it does reflect how someone sees you.
Having reviewed and interpreted your report you should be able to:
• Identify three or four strengths and understand how you are going to build on them to improve performance.
• Identify three or four development areas and understand how you are going to change your behaviour in order to improve performance.
Receiving Feedback
At the end of the competency assessment you will receive feedback. How you receive and react to the feedback is important. Although you would expect most feedback to be motivational typically leaving a team member with a positive experience there are sometimes occasions when a team member will receive feedback that they disagree with and sometimes this may turn into a debate especially if it is related to non performance.
It is important to benefit from managers feedback, below are some tips when receiving feedback.
When receiving feedback, try to:
• Actively look and listen for useful information which may help you improve your performance.
• Remain objective and calm.
• Accept the fact that some feedback can be uncomfortable. Be willing to admit that you made a mistake.
• Accept the giver’s point of view (whether or not you agree with it).
• Pause and reflect before responding. Make sure you hear the entire message before reacting
• Don’t seek to justify or become defensive. - maintain an open mind and be willing to consider change.
• Summarise to test your understanding and look for ways to make improvements with your manager
• Remain open to suggestions.
• Thank your manager for giving you their feedback to you