Does Your Leader-Manager’s 360⁰ Assessment have All Three Lenses?
The popularity of 360⁰ assessments as a talent management tool is spreading almost virally. This is in large part due to four factors:
- Today’s Zoomers, Gen Xers and Yers are hungrier for immediate feedback than previous generations. In fact, they expect it.
- Organizations are more ‘customer-centric’ and use performance measurement systems to drive continuous improvement. They are asking internal and external clients, “What do you think?”
- The simplicity and immediacy of online technology makes it easier and less expensive to provide 360⁰ assessments, which drives ever increasing use.
- At performance appraisal time, most executives enjoy having multiple perspectives to draw upon rather than being the sole judge of a direct report.
The Multi-rater Lens
Best practice organizations understand the virtue of gathering timely feedback about their leader-managerss from all possible angles. To this end they use the ‘multi-rater’ lens to enable leader-managers to clearly see how superiors, peers, subordinates and other stakeholders perceive them. In fact, most people see the multi-rater lens as the entire 360⁰ assessment process; however a fulsome 360⁰ assessment provides up to two more lenses.
The Psychological Lens
While the multi-rater lens gives a subjective, second-party perspective, the psychological lens provides an objective, third-party perspective. Quite simply, the leader-manager completes a series of exercises and is compared by a psychologist to specific reference groups. Through this objective comparison, the psychologist (or psychometric instrument) draws conclusions about the leader-manager’s personality traits, motivators, emotional intelligence, reasoning skills, vocational interests, aptitudes, working preferences, leadership and decision making style. The objectivity, speed and accuracy of this type of assessment make this lens very valuable.
Team Lens
The multi-rater and the psychological lenses place a spotlight on the individual leader–manager, but this only provides part of the picture. The team lens is an integral part of any 360⁰ assessment. The team lens looks at the team’s dynamics including: stage of development, team members’ engagement, and greatest gain potential areas as compared to high performing teams. The team lens broadens the leader-manager’s perspective, so a personal development plan can be set to address the leader-manager’s needs and the team’s needs in tandem. This ‘dual discipline’ approach always results in a more holistic action plan, which serves as a positive catalyst to the team’s and individual’s development.
The next time you consider a leader-manager assessment, consider using all three lenses. You will be glad you did! 
Transition is very rarely easy. I think this is mostly because we are creatures of habit and like to stay close to what we know. Take, for example, my transition to Canada. I came to Canada five years ago to attend University of Waterloo. It took me 3.5 hours to fly to Toronto from the Bahamas and I thought that was an extremely long flight! My transition to Canada was difficult to say the least. It wasn’t just the snow, lack of year-round sun, taxes, multiculturalism or the snow (did I say snow already?), but it was also being out of my comfort zone in a position where nothing was familiar. Was I scared? Of course not. I was terrified! I would have to learn new things, adjust my mindset and adapt to a completely different lifestyle. I had to change the way I speak (apparently quite a few Bahamian phrases are not as plain English as I thought!); the way I thought (i.e, my island mindset) and even some of the things I ate (there was no Bahamian food around!). The biggest challenge was changing my mindset. Every ten minutes (literally!) I was comparing Canada to the Bahamas – Canada very rarely comparing better or favourably. Eventually I realized constant comparisons were not helping my transition. In fact, why would I want Canada to be like the Bahamas? This was an opportunity to experience something new and different. This was an opportunity for personal growth through fresh experiences. How exciting!
Now that I have completed University of Waterloo, I once again find myself in a position of transition: I relocated from Waterloo to Toronto to work at Hazell & Associates (H&A). Toronto is quite a noisy, busy, “TTC” change from Waterloo! I have to say university life is quite different from working life. It is just wonderful to realize that H&A actually practices the transition principles that we relay to our clients – it allowed for a smoother transition for me. I have once again been given the opportunity to grow. Our transition workbook says a ‘distinguishing characteristic of accomplished and successful individuals is the way they perceive change and their capacity for managing change.’ This resonates with me. I now take a more positive approach to change. Of course the sun does not warmly shine for 350 days of the year in Canada like it does in the Bahamas! But I now see four beautiful seasons in Canada instead of just one. The beaches here look nothing like the Bahamian beaches – but then again the lakes in the Bahamas look nothing like the lakes here. Waterloo is definitely more peaceful than Toronto. But there are so many more activities and wonderful opportunities in Toronto – like working at H&A – that I would not have experienced in Waterloo.
I believe this new year, 2011, provides the perfect impetus to fully explore and embrace new transition opportunities! Yes, change is scary and exciting. Plus, I am told by Susan Jeffers, Ph.D., that fear will always exist as long as we continue to grow. And I want to grow.
The holiday season is upon us and it always comes with abundant opportunities to connect with friends, family, colleagues and strangers. It’s a time of year that provides us an ideal excuse to be in touch with others and where most people will accept your invitations at face value, as holiday greetings. It’s a time of year where we can feel the pulse of our network and react to its strong beats. And for anyone looking to better manage their careers, the holiday season is a great opportunity to tap into their network to help them achieve what they would not be able to achieve on their own.
Of course, networking is not simply a game of give and take. As the holiday season is analogous with giving, networking is no different. Networks, relationships and connections are commonly owned resources, like the earth – everyone can profit from it, but to do so, everyone must also strive to keep it flourishing and bountiful. So approach your network with open arms, uncovering others’ needs and problems and providing resources for them when possible. Do not take your network for granted.
And before you attend different holiday events, be sure you are prepared! If it’s more of a business function, take a moment to research who will be there, and perhaps you will discover specific individuals with whom you would like to connect. Also, refine and build your personal brand. Know your value and how to speak to it, and have business cards ready. Stand out! Of course, if the event is a more social setting, take a moment to genuinely get to know people better. You may be surprised at which conversations and connections end up bearing fruit in the future.
So take control this holiday season and reach out to your network in a mindful and assured way.
Three Career Transition Rules for Those Wanting to Navigate the Social Media Highway
The famous Canadian satirist Stephen Leacock once talked about a man who jumped on his horse and attempted to ride off in all directions at once. Today’s social media frenzy is creating a frantic ‘wild west’ scenario, which can be daunting to someone in career transition. So, to prevent Leackock’s Horseman’s Syndrome, here are three fundamental rules to help navigate the social media highway when job hunting.
1. Pay attention to ‘traditional old school networking’. Networking is still the number one source of jobs and means personally reaching out to those people in your immediate circle who know you and your body of work well. Employee referral programs are growing leaps and bounds. Social networking is helping to advance this trend by creating new communication tools that enable employees to better sell and represent their company’s employment opportunities to friends and acquaintances.
2. Start with ‘the end in mind’. Online images must be managed appropriately. Old school thinking stated ‘the first piece of work someone does for their next employer is preparing a resume’; today that may well be the impression created on Facebook and/or LinkedIn. That impression should be consistent with the values potential employers espouse. Today it should be taken as a given that before someone is made a job offer they will be checked out online.
3. Keep it simple. Save valuable research time and effort by leveraging the big ‘3’ web-based transition tools. Identify and regularly use:
• Webspiders that create a multiple job listing service and locate jobs that meet your specific ‘ideal job’ criteria;
• Dynamic data systems that provide information about organizations, their people and current events; and
• Online communities of professional interest – join one or consider starting one.
Safe driving!
I have never liked the word retirement. For me, it conveys withdrawal and being less than engaged. I believe life is all about engagement and contribution to the greater good. From my perspective, ‘passionate longevity’ should be the mantra in all we do through our career and beyond.
Serving as a Life & Career Coach for the past 30 years I have seen the good, the bad and the ugly including: people in their 20’s & 30’s already retired in dead-end jobs they hate ( fortunately, many eventually made a career change or started their own business and moved closer to their dream job and work bliss); successful executives creeping uncomfortably towards retirement believing anything after their present gig will be a precipitous step down; 65 year olds celebrating the end of their formal working career because now they can pursue ‘full time’ the volunteer work they love; and people well into their 80’s completely engaged in their ‘life work’ while some of their peers stagnate, resigned to being put out to pasture. How is it people can hold the same jobs and go through the same life transitions yet experience them completely differently? Why is what is empowering to some so deflating and debilitating to others?
At age 56, I am a baby boomer or what the current literature refers to as a ‘Mature Worker’ or ‘Zoomer’. No matter the label, I am at that magic life point where I can pause, stop Zooming, reflect back on a wonderful 33 year career and look forward to another 33 some years of ‘passionate longevity’ full of further engagement and contribution. I am also of the age where I can reflect on life’s lessons with a somewhat balanced perspective — my three kids remind me my Intelligence Quotient (IQ) is gradually diminishing, while my supportive older friends remind me my Emotional Intelligence (EI) is increasing. Using both my IQ and EQ I have distilled two essential life lessons about how to achieve passionate longevity:
- Be magnetic to what you love. The magic recipe for this life skill has 5 ingredients: 1. Identify your preferred skills and unique abilities 2. Know what interests you 3. Connect with people who share your values 4. Understand what types of environments motivate you 5. Identify and get into work and play activities that capitalize on 1 – 5
- Understand the nobility and greater sense of purpose in what you do. It is inspiring when you find it. This is illustrated wonderfully by a story; the first is about a traveller who encounters, one at a time, two different stone masons working different ends of the same structure. He asks each one, “What are you doing?” The first responds, “Isn’t it obvious? I am just laying brick”, while the second says “I am building a Cathedral where thousands will congregate over the millennium to celebrate”.
Whatever you do it is your choice, so be magnetic to it and take the time to see the nobility in it, and passionate longevity will be yours.
Now look in the mirror. What do you see? A cathedral builder or a bricklayer?
As I sit down to write Hazell & Associates’ (H&A) inaugural blog, I can’t help but wonder what my father, the indomitable founder of H&A would think of blogs, tweets and other social media platforms. Anyone who knew Robin Hazell, felt his passion for connectivity and storytelling. He was the ultimate collector and connector of people. He would have had exceeded the majority of us with Linkedin contacts and would have routinely check in with most. Given his rampant ADHD (undiagnosed) and impatience with books (but thirst for knowledge), I think he would have been a huge enthusiast of blogs and an addict of tweeting. A want to be minister and walking Chinese fortune cookie, would have finally found the ideal platforms to serve up his sage one liners (“ the process of recruiting is one of exclusion not inclusion until you are a finalist candidate”) and mini sermons.
While our intent with the H&A blog is to neither sermonize (yeek!) or channel our founder, we always like to revert to our core values when contemplating doing something new. Our values emanated from my mother and father and are the DNA of the H&A culture. Our founders are long gone from the business, but our fundamental values continue to guide us and keep us true.
So let me share the results of the value test we, the partners of H&A, applied to our decision to start a blog, as we want to give you, our first-time readers, an insight into our thinking behind the blog and a promise of what you can expect from it in the future:
It seems appropriate to end this first blog where I started – with Robin. One of his favorite questions, which is at the heart of all we do at H&A, was : “What makes your toe nails twinkle?” We are dying to know!
