Four Ways that 360 Degree Feedback Benefits Leaders

The key to any successful venture or project is effective leadership. As leaders are critical to an organization’s growth it is important to cultivate leadership capacity. Research indicates that 360 degree feedback is one of the most effective methods for developing leaders. In a study conducted on 350 companies by Linkage Inc., 360 feedback was identified as the second most important feature that impacted the success of leadership development.

This brings us to today’s topic: how 360 degree feedback directly benefits leaders. Below we examine four ways that leaders can benefit from 360 including customized development and creating a culture of learning.

1. Offers multiple perspectives:

   The 360 degree evaluation provides a well-rounded and broad view of the leader and their management practices. Raters from a variety of levels in the organization provide a realistic outlook on how the individual is perceived. These multiple perspectives, along with a self-assessment, identify the leader’s blind spots (unnoticed behaviors) and competency gaps. The variety of perspectives enables the individual to improve their working relationships and optimize their leadership.

2. Enhances skills & behaviors:

   Research on leadership has shown that there are key skills and behaviors that effective leaders have in common. These key competencies can be used in the evaluation to determine the individual’s strengths, areas for improvement and potential for advancement. The 360 feedback coupled with coaching will allow the leader to focus on developing new skills and/or modifying behavior to maximize their impact.

3. Customizes development:

   Some organizations create development programs without taking individual needs into consideration. One of the key benefits of 360 evaluations is that they form the basis for customized, individual development plans. As the purpose of 360 evaluation is development, leaders are motivated to take control of their career paths. Along with a coach, the leader creates a tailored training & development action plan to strengthen or acquire new competencies for continuous improvement.

4. Creates a culture of learning:

   Organizations that use 360 feedback for development are creating a culture of learning and continuous improvement. Every individual within the company is encouraged to create personal training and development goals. Since support for 360 comes from top down, this shows a strong commitment from senior administration to workplace learning. Through 360 feedback, potential and current leaders can be encouraged and motivated to attain a higher level of achievement.

Start implementing a Blue 360 degree feedback process to impact the success of leadership development.