The Guide to 360 Leadership Assessment

The Why, What, and How of 360 Assessments

Looking for information on 360 assessments? You’ve come to the right place.

360 assessments are one of the most common tools used in evaluating and building leaders. Assessment, in general, is important; individuals can’t improve if they don’t understand what improvement means. They need knowledge of where they’re weak, where they’re strong, and where they’re just blind. That knowledge is especially important for leaders, on whom accurate feedback can be tough to get. Leaders have fewer peers. Direct reports are almost always hesitant to offer truthful criticism. Managers do not always have complete line of sight on their behavior.

These realities make 360 leadership assessments even more important; they may be the only means of getting a clear picture of leadership performance.

So, with all of that said, if you’re in HR and have an impact on leadership development, or if you’re a leader looking to improve, it’s important to understand this tool. To that end, let’s dig into a few of the commonly-asked questions around 360 leadership assessments. We’ll look at questions like:

By the end, you should have a comprehensive overview of how these assessments work - and you’ll have insight into how they can be implemented at your organization.

Ready? Let’s do this.



What are 360 leadership assessments?

360 leadership assessments are multi-level assessment tools that are used to evaluate leadership capability and performance. They’re termed “360” (short for 360 degrees - or a full revolution around a circle) because they’re meant to capture feedback from all angles to give the most comprehensive assessment possible. Here’s how The Balance puts it:

“The name of the feedback opportunity comes from the fact that performance feedback is solicited from all directions in the organization. The objective of the feedback is to give the employee the opportunity to understand how their work is viewed in the total organization by coworkers in any position.”

These are not simply performance reviews, which are often administered only by direct managers. They aren’t simply performance feedback, which may be solicited solely from direct reports. 360 leadership assessments are differentiated by the fact that they seek to assess all aspects of leadership across all meaningful professional relationships.



How did 360 leadership assessments start?

Tradition holds that 360 assessments were first implemented in the commercial sector in the 1950s by the Esso Research and Engineering Company (which was subsequently bought by Exxon Mobile). The technique was brought further into the mainstream by Jack Welch, the CEO of General Electric during the 1980s, who put the approach to use with notable success - Welch was able to increase shareholder value every year at GE on a foundation of industry-leading employee performance.

Popularization continued into the 1990s, and the tool was the focus of increasingly extensive academic study, as well; Cambridge Core notes that, “Arguably the first systematic treatment of 360° Feedback occurred with the publication of Edwards and Ewen's (1996) book, 360° Feedback: The Powerful New Model for Employee Assessment & Performance Improvement.” This trend continued into the new millennium, and, today, 360 assessment is recognized as a core component to the practice of HR - although there’s ongoing debate about how it should be properly implemented.



How do you facilitate a 360 leadership assessment? (Who is involved and who gives feedback?)

So - how should 360 be implemented?

At a basic level, facilitating a 360 leadership assessment simply means collecting feedback from a variety of stakeholders. However, there are two key components to consider: First, is the process administered objectively? And, second, does the outcome truly provide a comprehensive view of performance? (These two components are, of course, related.)

Let’s address objectivity, first. We recommend working with an outside consultant to complete 360 leadership assessments. Internal assessments, if performed by a manager, can easily be impacted by bias. A leader may argue against negative feedback, saying that their manager selected the wrong sample of respondents - and they may even be right. Or, a manager may be impacted by their own favorable opinion of the leader, and so not lend accurate weight to negative feedback in the process. If a 360 assessment is facilitated internally, it should be done by a department with as objective a perspective as possible (of course, this is probably HR). But the better approach - one that guarantees objectivity and can cause leaders to take results more seriously - is to bring in a third party to facilitate the assessment.

If you’re ready to move forward with a 360 leadership assessment, get in touch with us.

Next, how should you ensure a comprehensive view of performance? The answer is that you must solicit accurate feedback from a representative selection of stakeholders. Here’s what that selection looks like, practically:

  • The subject’s boss(es)

  • Three peers

  • Three direct reports (if possible)

  • Four internal/ external customers

  • Board members (if relevant)

So, in total, a 360 assessment should ideally include between 10-12 respondents. Responses are sometimes collected via survey; at Bermes + Associates, our process involves direct interviews with stakeholders to gather information as effectively as possible. The administration of the process usually takes between four to six weeks.



What is the value of a 360 leadership assessment? (Why are 360 leadership assessments helpful?)

Hopefully, this has become somewhat obvious by now. But it’s still worth stating explicitly: 360 leadership assessments are helpful because they result in comprehensive and objective feedback on leadership capability and performance. This feedback can lead to valuable performance improvement or personnel decisions.



Who should get a 360 assessment?

The short answer to this question is that anyone who could benefit from comprehensive, objective feedback should get a 360 assessment - in other words, most employees.

The reality, though, is that to implement 360 assessments for every employee in an organization would incur outsized administrative costs. Accordingly, 360 assessments should be provided to individuals who:

  • Have the greatest potential for impact on organizational success

  • Have the lowest degree of visibility into current performance

This translates directly to top-tier leaders and executives. Leadership performance has huge impact, and leaders often don’t fully understand their capabilities and performance due to the difficulty of getting accurate feedback. So, if you’re pursuing 360 assessment as a means of organizational improvement, start with executives. At Bermes + Associates, executive work is our focus.



When should you get a 360 leadership assessment?

360 leadership assessments are best used as a means toward improvement. As a result, there are several scenarios where they make particular sense.

At Regular Performance Intervals

360 leadership assessments may be used as a tool to track performance over time. Executives may be able to monitor improvement in particular areas - say, in effective communication for delegation, for example - comparing results at intervals to record progress.

Before (and After) an Executive Coaching Engagement

360 leadership assessments are an integral part of our executive coaching engagements. They provide a basis for coaching work, revealing areas that should be focused on and offering a means of creating improvement goals. Some engagements can benefit from an assessment at the end of the coaching engagement, as well, to demonstrate progress.

6-12 months after the Executive Assimilation Process

It’s important to note that executive assimilation can also hugely benefit from incorporating a 360 assessment into the process. We recommend this after a new-to-role executive has been in the leadership position for 6-12 months to create an objective snapshot of how well the executive is functioning. This is valuable on two fronts. First, it helps establish the new leader, who is often wondering what others in the organization think of him or her during the first several months. Confidence is built by getting opinions and feedback out in the open instead of having the leader fearing the worst or operating on hear-say. Second, the 360 leadership assessment is a proactive approach to leadership development. Too often, organizations only order 360 assessments when things have gone wrong and issues need to be fixed. By giving new leaders a comprehensive view of their own performance about one year into a role, organizations can equip them to continue to succeed. New leaders can identify focus areas and adapt their leadership style where necessary as they complete their transition into the new context. This is far better than attempting to remedy mistakes later.



How do leaders respond to 360 leadership assessments?

Leaders respond to 360 leadership assessment in one of three ways:

  • By accepting feedback and using it to grow

  • By taking an apathetic approach to feedback

  • By seeking to discount or deflect feedback

Accepting Feedback

The best case scenario is that leaders own feedback right off the bat. If feedback is negative - if it suggests areas of weakness or points where change may be needed - these people respond with, “Yay!” They sincerely want to improve, because they want to be better at helping their people and organization. They want to become better leaders.

The most common scenario, though, is that leaders protest or deflect feedback upon reception, but then come to terms with it over the course of about a week - and from there seek to own it and improve.

Being Apathetic

A second, less-ideal scenario is that leaders accept feedback as valid but don’t use it as a basis for action. They may say something like, “Well, I’ve always been that way.” This amounts to a shoulder-shrug approach that gets no results - and it’s a clear sign of a bad leader.

(Note that this reaction should be distinguished from the leader who acknowledges feedback and the reality of their own inability to change, but still takes steps to improve outcomes for their people. For example, one leader I worked with received feedback that he was difficult to read - a fact that he was unable to change. However, he adapted his approach to convey this reality upfront: “I know that people have a hard time reading me. I want to communicate well, but I have been unable to change this about myself. Please ask me directly if you are wondering about my thoughts.”)

Deflecting Feedback

This is another bad scenario: leaders get negative feedback and only protest its validity. They’ll say things like, “You interviewed the wrong people,” or “I’m only getting that feedback because of the situation our organization is in.” They never come around to owning feedback for themselves. Well-conducted 360s, though, are objective, valid, and meant to be helpful. Good leaders understand this and will take feedback to heart (even if it takes them time). Leaders who never understand this tend to have ego issues and don’t make for good leaders.



What are the next steps after a 360 assessment?

After a 360 assessment, the next step is to improve. Often, this improvement may be best guided by executive coaching. However, this is only worthwhile if the leader is willing to own their feedback.

If coaching does make sense, the path forward is usually to develop a customized plan using the feedback that’s been collected on the leader’s strengths and weaknesses.



How can my organization start with 360 leadership assessments?

This one’s easy: get in touch with us.

We’ve been assessing leaders for nearly twenty years and have a deep and wide-ranging database of tools to draw from. In-depth, interview-based 360’s, psychometric profiling, and career history assessments are among the tools we use to help executives fully understand their impact, limits, and better yet, how to move beyond them.

Our executive assessment outcomes are comprehensive feedback, a workable development plan, and a coach to back you up through its execution. Our fail rate for such assignments is among the lowest in the industry.  Our experience, passion and talent are our differentiators. 

Painful? Sometimes. Helpful? Absolutely.

If you’re ready to move forward with a leadership assessment in your organization, get in touch with us today to take the first step.