Perform Like an Elite Athlete With 360 Degree Feedback

I’m pleased to con­tin­ue shar­ing con­tent with you from my asso­ciates and oth­er guest experts. Here is the first from my asso­ciate advi­sor Kristin Hazzard:

“Crit­i­cism may not be agree­able, but it is nec­es­sary. It ful­fils the same func­tion as pain in the human body. It calls atten­tion to an unhealthy state of things.” – Win­ston Churchill

Pro­fes­sion­al hock­ey teams and high-per­form­ing busi­ness­es have a lot in common:

Both have a vision for suc­cess and are aligned with goals and tar­gets to achieve them. Both have high per­form­ing team mem­bers who have spe­cif­ic roles and skill sets which they exe­cute pro­fi­cient­ly, and both are struc­tured in a spe­cif­ic hier­ar­chy that helps dri­ve per­for­mance and han­dle logistics.

The most suc­cess­ful teams also trust each oth­er, com­mu­ni­cate effec­tive­ly, hold each oth­er account­able, and push each oth­er con­stant­ly. When it comes to deliv­er­ing feed­back and recal­i­brat­ing for con­tin­u­al improve­ment, hock­ey is as good as it gets. It hap­pens on a play-by-play basis and busi­ness­es can learn a lot from this type of fre­quen­cy to gain pow­er­ful insights to improve.

One of the best tools we’ve found to deliv­er mean­ing­ful feed­back for improved per­for­mance and growth is a 360 review.

360 Degree Review

A suc­cinct, direct ques­tion­naire pro­vid­ed to key exec­u­tives, man­agers, peers, and direct reports, a 360 asks strate­gic ques­tions about an employee’s strengths and oppor­tu­ni­ties for growth, and deliv­ers qual­i­ta­tive and quan­ti­ta­tive data about how oth­er peo­ple view their per­for­mance –some­times in con­trast with how they view them­selves. Blind spots are revealed, and insights emerge. It’s a trans­par­ent process that can elic­it pow­er­ful changes in behav­iours which direct­ly cor­re­lates to improved results.

In hock­ey terms, it’s like watch­ing a game tape of your­self with real-time feedback.

Annu­al per­for­mance reviews are not fre­quent enough to elic­it pow­er­ful change in per­for­mance and behav­iour. Used strate­gi­cal­ly, 360 reviews get the right feed­back on the table, required to ele­vate the per­for­mance and capac­i­ty of employ­ees, which ulti­mate­ly boosts the strength of the team.

A long-time client has con­duct­ed quar­ter­ly 360 reviews with their exec­u­tive team for the past sev­en years. This ​‘game-tape’ rit­u­al has become part of their cul­ture – a nat­ur­al rhythm to give each oth­er hon­est feedback.

Our Unique Approach

Our approach to 360s is very dif­fer­ent than the tra­di­tion­al method­olo­gies because we don’t use 60 – 100 sta­tis­ti­cal ques­tions that become pages of data and com­par­a­tive charts. The 360s we admin­is­ter use 8 – 12 pow­er­ful ques­tions to focus on their align­ment with the cul­ture (core val­ues), strengths as a leader, blind spots, and what they could do to be more effec­tive as a leader.

After data is col­lat­ed, we offer a more robust ver­sion by div­ing deep­er and inter­view­ing par­tic­i­pants to explore themes that emerge, to gain the best insights and deliv­er the best recommendations.

If you haven’t expe­ri­enced a 360, this may sound daunt­ing or ter­ri­fy­ing. But, just like an elite hock­ey team, giv­ing direct, suc­cinct and per­for­mance-based feed­back is a nat­ur­al process, crit­i­cal to recal­i­brate and improve everyone’s per­for­mance, dur­ing and after a game.

The Chal­lenge

• How often do you pro­vide feed­back to mem­bers of your team (praise or redirect)?
• Who on your team needs help recal­i­brat­ing to achieve their goals?
• Who would ben­e­fit from a 360-feed­back assessment?

Reach out to us if you need help to pro­vide feed­back that improves per­for­mance, or to con­duct an impact­ful 360 assess­ment for you and your team.

Kristin Haz­zard, an Exec­u­tive & Lead­er­ship Coach at Lawrence & Co. Growth Advi­sors, was an elite hock­ey play­er who com­pet­ed at the nation­al cham­pi­onship lev­el and in the semi-pro­fes­sion­al Women’s Hock­ey League.