Secrets to managing your imposter moments
Bill Gates has famously said, “We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve.” He is, of course, right and at Rambutan we believe that feedback must start at the very top. In our experience, some leaders recognise this and some don’t.
A 360° assessment linked to a series of tailored coaching sessions could be one of the best investments any organisation can make to: increase an individual’s self-awareness, understand leadership and organisational developmental needs, improve employee engagement and drive business performance.
Implementing a successful 360° assessment needs to be thought through and planned carefully. With our wealth of experience in this field and our own unique 360° assessment tool called Evolve, we know what it takes to make it a success for individuals, teams and the overall business:
The ten 360° success factors
- link the 360° assessment to a series of tailored coaching sessions so participants have the support they need to work on development areas and increase self-awareness, leading to improved business and personal performance
- ensure confidentiality for all survey participants; people need to trust that the feedback they give will be anonymous as this will help them be completely open and honest
- select a representative mix of survey participants to ensure a healthy mix of feedback; ideally the selection should be agreed with the ‘boss’ and not solely down to the person being assessed
- choose a 360° product that will allow feedback to be broken down by participant – boss, peer, own self, direct report etc. to allow comparisons to be made
- if an entire team is being assessed (e.g. the Executive Team), a composite report of overall team strengths and development areas can be a powerful tool to help build a high-performing team and can be followed up with facilitated team development days
- if giving feedback is not part of an organisation’s established culture, consider starting off with a 180° assessment, whereby only peers give feedback. This can still give very insightful feedback
- make sure you’re gathering feedback on the right things: bespoke assessments enable you to tailor questions to the organisation’s values and behaviours or leadership competency framework (e.g. Rambutan’s Evolve assessment tool)
- behavioural assessments work best: measuring frequency of observed behaviour can, at the same time, identify skills and knowledge gaps
- review 360° assessment after a minimum of three months (and then regular intervals) to track the progress of individuals against the development areas identified in their coaching programme. Ideally re-run the 360° assessment after 12 months to measure progress and identify further development areas
- embed the approach: make sure that the 360° feedback is integrated into a complete leadership performance management and development programme
Rambutan Evolve can be used to assess core leadership behaviours and can also be tailored to reflect any required leadership behaviours. It measures observed behaviours around six key areas: inspire, manage, collaborate, demonstrate, listen and empower. If an off-the-shelf assessment is more suitable, we have accredited assessors for the Hogan Development Survey, the Goleman/Boyatzis Emotional and Social Competence Inventory and the Life Styles Inventory.
Don’t just take our word for it on the business benefits of doing this. Here’s what Transport for London’s HR Director, Tricia Wright, said about working with us: “Their bespoke feedback tools give a unique insight into what is working well and not so well in any team and their approach to the associated one-to-one coaching is both refreshing and challenging. As a coachee myself, I’ve been pushed (willingly!) out of my comfort zone through their coaching interventions many times and I have improved as a leader as a direct result.”
Find out more about how a leadership 360° assessment and coaching programme can transform your organisation by getting in touch with us.
