By ANTHONY PANTALEONE
Special to HR.BLR.com

Anthony Pantaleone is vice president of Profiles International Inc., a company that helps clients identify, recruit, develop, and retain the right people for their key positions. To receive a free sample assessment from Profiles, click here.

A senior manager announces his decision to move to a competitor, and the senior management team convenes a crisis management meeting to figure how they'll ever survive without this key individual. But for the rest of the team, it's party time! The champagne is out, everyone's wearing funny hats, blowing noisemakers, and toasting their good fortune. They're all saying that with so-and-so gone, "maybe now we can get on with business."

What happened? How can someone so valued by the senior management team clash so badly with the troops in the field? The reality is that most senior managers have no awareness of how they or their fellow managers are perceived throughout their organizations, even at a time of so much talk about achievement of corporate goals through team-based efforts. It's no wonder that recent studies have shown that more than 30 percent of all people changing jobs are doing so to get away from their bosses. In other words, they're not leaving their jobs, they're leaving their managers!

This sort of disaster can only happen in an environment where the competency of management is appraised using traditional "boss-down" appraisals, with competency of a given manager assessed only by his or her direct boss. This traditional approach means that the views of those who most directly experience the effectiveness (or otherwise) of a manager's competency, his peers and direct reports, are never tapped. If your success depends to any extent upon your team then that's just not acceptable any more.

A new appraisal model for new challenges

The manager's universe has changed:

• There is increased dependence on team-based management and goal achievement through teams.
  
  
• Employee empowerment is the order of the day.
  
  
• Retaining key people is essential - they now have more employment choices than ever before.
  
  
• Great efforts are being made to get away from earlier approaches to remuneration that focused solely upon financial goals alone - favoring remuneration on the basis of performance, on how well the job is actually done.
  
  
• Everyone, including managers, are demanding the right to have their skills, and their market value, developed by their organizations on an ongoing basis.

This new world has rendered the traditional "boss-down" appraisal extinct, and a new, and more appropriate, approach to assessing management competencies that lead to performance has emerged. That new approach is variously called "multi-rater feedback," "reverse appraisals," or, most commonly, 360 Degree Feedback.

The reality today is team members will normally be more qualified to comment upon or review the competency of a fellow manager than would their direct "boss." So ask them to do just that.

The 360-degree feedback process

360-Degree Feedback harnesses the views of anyone who might have useful input on a manager's day-to-day competency. There are many tools available widely to facilitate 360-Degree Feedback, and these are generally quite logical, straightforward, and easy to implement. A typical process consists of five main steps:

1. The manager to be reviewed is involved in selecting several people for their feedback exercise - their own "Boss", a selection of Peers (fellow managers) and a selection of Direct Reports (subordinates). The manager and his/her Boss select team members that they feel can most accurately judge their day-to-day competence as a manager.

2. The review group complete anonymous questionnaires that rate the manager on key competencies such as Communication, Leadership, Development of Others, Task Management, Relationships, Adaptability, Personal Development, and Productivity. For speed, efficiency and anonymity these are completed online in as little as 10-15 minutes. Scores are normally on a five-point scale that runs from, say, "Never demonstrates this skill" to "Always demonstrates this skill."

One of the strengths of the 360 Degree process lies in the experience that respondents know that their feedback is anonymous and confidential - any feedback they provide cannot be traced back to them. Knowing that they can confidentially provide frank feedback that will be used by the manager, and his/her manager, to plan improvements in the way that they are managed on a day-to-day basis respondents are more inclined to be honest in their responses

3. The results of these questionnaires are processed by computer, producing a report that summarizes the reviewed manager's strengths and developmental needs in the competencies listed above. The manager's rating of her own performance is compared with that of his/her Boss, his/her Peers, his/her Direct Reports, and the appraisal group as a whole. The result is a detailed and comprehensive snapshot of the manager's day-to-day competence as a manager.

Better 360-Degree tools also provide tailored development plans to guide the manager on how best to improve their competency in areas that the appraisal identifies as needing some attention - which is pretty important when recent research has shown that more than 20 percent of all those changing jobs are doing so because they feel that their current organization is not developing them sufficiently quickly or well.

4. The reviewed manager then has a detailed, more objective assessment of his/her strengths and of the areas where some additional development is required. This assessment then forms the basis of a development plan agreed between the manager and his/her Boss - which not only ensures that the manager in question is fully aware of the dynamics of his/her relationship with the people around them, but is also effectively locked into the organization by the commitment of the organization to his/her ongoing skill development.

5. After a period of six or twelve months the 360-Degree appraisal is run again; the effectiveness of the development plan is assessed; and new development goals are set for the following period. This is key. 360-Degree Feedback produces its most impressive results when employed in a closed loop of: Feedback…review & produce individual development plan…execute development plan…review…feedback…and so on. Repeating the exercise regularly ensures that management can keep their fingers on the many important pulses in their fast-changing organizations.

360-Degree feedback vs. traditional 'boss down' appraisals

There are a number of reasons why managers at all levels are eagerly embracing this more equitable approach to competency appraisal.

Equitable. For the manager being appraised 360-Degree appraisals differ from boss-down appraisals in the same way that Judge & Jury courts differ from "Hanging Judge" courts. The manager benefits from a wide variety of feedback upon their actual job competency, and is no longer solely dependent upon the extent to which they have developed a good rapport with their direct boss to be deemed a competent manager.

Proven Effectiveness. For the appraising "boss" there is the confidence that positive change is more likely when an appraisal draws upon multiple sources trusted by his manager. 360-Degree appraisals have been shown to be more effective than boss down appraisals in driving a manager to make necessary behavioural changes or to improve management skills. If your Boss says that you need some improvement in some particular area then you may think, "what would she know?!" or explain it away as a "personality thing." If, however, eleven different people of your choosing, people with whom you work closely and whose views you trust and value, send you the same message then you really have to listen.

Team motivation. 360-Degree Feedback systems also have a positive team-building effect. Research has proven the motivating value of the exercise for those eleven people involved as reviewers - who are sent a clear message that their opinions are valued, and that they can help effect some positive change in the management where required.

Traditional reviews have given way to this much more effective tool for management development, with their use increasingly mandated in Fortune 500 organizations. Used regularly as an integral part of a strategic development plan 360-Degree appraisals can lead to more consistent management development, better alignment of corporate goals with personal development objectives, more open communication, and a stronger team ethic.