360 Feedback Norms - Distraction or Helpful Context?

It is natural to want to know how you compare with others, especially when receiving feedback on your leadership skills. 360 degree feedback is about individual self-awareness, change and development. As such, one could argue that when an individual is provided with comparison information it provides an opportunity to focus on how they compare to others versus their own strengths and opportunities for improvement. Consider a leader who receives feedback that puts them “above average” relative to those in their comparison group. Their relative ranking as compared to others may cause them to be less motivated to continuously improve their skills as they do not see a need for change. So, should we avoid the use of normative information in 360 degree feedback?

The incorporation of continuous feedback into performance management is the most common change being made to performance management systems by organizations today.

Implementing Real-Time Feedback as part of the performance management process will:

What is Crowd-Sourced Feedback?

Performance Management is Changing!

Despite the efforts that have been made by talent management experts over the past several decades to design performance management processes that actually improve performance, performance management has come under heavy scrutiny over the past couple of years. It seems the list of complaints about performance management is endless...

Industrial organizational psychologists are talent experts who study workplace issues of critical importance to business, including talent management, performance, coaching, assessment, selection, training, organizational development, and work–life balance. Each year the Society for Industrial Organizational Psychology surveys its membership to identify the 10 top workplace needs.

Google’s famous Project Oxygen study identified that the most important thing that managers can do to be successful is to coach.  This includes asking questions versus providing answers, providing constructive feedback and holding regular 1:1 meetings. In fact, they found that higher scoring managers are more likely than lower-scoring managers to have frequent 1:1 meetings with their team members. 

We all know that formal performance review discussions between managers and employees are just one component of an effective performance management process. The performance review discussion can be a powerful tool in building the employee-manager relationship when it is part of a continuous performance management strategy.

Sound talent assessment reduces the subjectivity that has long surrounded the succession planning process. This important first step in succession planning is focused on the critical evaluation of both individuals and positions (current and future). The consideration of retention risk is often overlooked during this important phase and only becomes a priority during talent planning....or after a valuable employee leaves.