360′s 3 Lenses

 

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!