This is an experiential task about increasing your sensory acuity – your awareness, your ability to decode the available sensory information – and to use that enhanced acuity to improve your communication with others.
“Would you tell me please which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the cat.
“I don’t much care where….” Said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the cat.
Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
In my work helping leaders deal with difficult situations, I often find that a concept from the field of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) can make a big difference to the way we approach problems. As a joke, I sometimes call this the concept the one-page guide to a successful life…. It goes like this:
Outcome
Know what you want, have a clear idea of your outcome in any situation.
Acuity
Be alert and keep your senses open so you notice what you’re getting
Flexibility
Have the flexibility to keep changing what you do until you get what you want.
As an example of how these three simple words can help, consider the sometimes difficult issue of giving feedback.
Firstly, lets assume that within the relationship you have permission (and perhaps a responsibility) to give feedback. And secondly, lets assume that the feedback is in relation to a fairly significant issue that is impacting on the person’s ability to adequately perform their role.
For the sake of an example, imagine you are a manager with responsibility for a group of professional staff. You want your team to work collaboratively internally and with other groups. Over a few occasions you observe less than useful behaviour from one of your staff members (lets call her “A”). She is quick to dismiss other’s ideas and input and she is reluctant to delegate project elements to other members of the team, even though this is important for the project’s success. You have decided that you need to give “A” feedback but you are worried that it might backfire.
Now try applying the Outcome, Acuity, Flexibility concepts…
Outcome
· My desired outcome is for “A” to understand how her current behaviour is getting in the way of the project’s success and, consequently, her success;
· Also, I want her to change her behaviour and to do so willingly ad happily.
· Also, I want “A” to remain motivated about the project but to recognise that she needs helps from others to ensure its success.
Acuity and Flexibility
· I begin the conversation. Fairly soon, I can see by “A”s behaviour that she is feeling very defensive about my comments. My message is not getting through, or at least not the way I want it to.
· I stop and change tact. I reassure ‘A” that she’s valued and needed on the team.
· I try a different approach - asking questions and listening. Now we’re getting somewhere; she’s admitting she needs input and help from the other team members. However, I realise that she’s not really committing to doing anything different herself, to changing her own behaviour.
· I change tact again, different questions and some gentle confrontation. “A”s admitted she needs help from the others; now she needs to acknowledge that through her communication style, she sometimes chases people away.
· I know the conversation’s not finished but I can see that “A” is tired and has probably gone as far as she can in one day. I make a time to continue the conversation and ask ‘A” to think about what kind of help she would like from me before our next meeting.
Notice how the manager in the above example remained aware of her desired outcomes, and was able use her acuity to be aware of what was working and what wasn’t, and was able to amend her approach as needed. This is what we mean by Outcome, Acuity, Flexibility. Another way of saying this is:
If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got. If what you’re doing is not working, do something else.
Or the well known quote (variously attributed to Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, Rita Mae Brown and an old Chinese proverb) might also be helpful:
The definition of Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Developing sensory acuity
So how do we develop our acuity, our ability to notice what is happening for someone else (before they storm out of the room).
Below is an exercise adapted from Joseph O’Connor and John Seymour’s book, Introducing NLP: Psychological Skills for Understanding and Influencing People.
The exercise involves developing the skill of calibration. Calibration is the NLP word that means recognizing when people are in different states. This is a skill that you already some ability with and that you already use at least in some situations. For example, think back to your last encounter with a tantruming two or three-year-old. Chances are you had some warning before the tantrum came – a dropped lip, tearing eyes, a change in posture.
But as O’Conor and Seymour note:
“Often our calibration is so poor that we only notice someone is upset when he starts to cry. We rely too much on people telling us verbally how they feel, instead of using our eyes and ears. We do not want to calibrate from a punch on the nose to know that a person is angry, nor do we want to hallucinate all sorts of possibilities from a twitch of an eyebrow”.
The answer is of course to practice!
An exercise with a partner
Team with your learning partner (or someone else willing to experiment).
Ask them, without talking, to think of a person they like a lot. As they do this, notice any changes in their physiology. This may include changes in:
· Their eye position;
· The angle of their head;
· Their breathing - deep or shallow, fast or slow, high or low;
· Facial muscle tone;
· Skin colour;
· Lip size,
· Tone of voice.
Now ask your partner to think of someone they dislike. Notice the changes.
The third step is to ask your partner to switch between thinking about the two people, letting you know when they are switching. Remember, you are looking to notice changes in physiology. Keep doing this into are sure you can detect some differences in their physiology. In NLP terms, you have now calibrated these two states of mind. You know what they look like.
The fourth step is to ask your partner to think of one of the people, but without telling you which one. Can you tell which one it is by reading the physical cues you have already identified?
Practising sensory acuity
Now that you have experienced consciously practicing sensory acuity in an artificial situation, see if you can pay more attention to using this skill in other situations.
Using sensory acuity is about paying more attention to the people around you and to using the information you gain to improve your communication with them. If you can “sense” that the person you are giving feedback is becoming upset, you don’t have to wait for them to tell you. You can alter your approach earlier to ensure that you both remain in a functional state.
However, it’s not about mind reading or assuming you “know” what’s going on for the other person. Using your sensory acuity helps you pay attention to the other person in the conversation and helps you gauge when to keep doing what you’re doing and when to try something new.
Finally a word of warning
Developing your sensory acuity (and accompanying flexibility) is about staying open to what happening in any interpersonal situation. As Zen philosophy teaches, to take in new information, you must first “empty your cup”.
“Like this cup,” Nan-in said, “you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?”
Nan-in was a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912).
Quoted in Shaseki-shu in Paul Reps, Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, p.5
In his book, Deep Survival, Lawrence Gonzales, reports on his research on people operating in survival situations. He analyses a range of situations – on high altitude mountains, in deep snow, in the wilderness – where people who didn’t survive looked and saw what they expected to see. He argues the survivors looked and were open to the changes in the environment. They saw the subtle shifts, the warning signs and they were able to recalibrate their mental models and alter their plans accordingly. He notes:
“A closed attitude, an attitude that say, ‘I already know’ may cause you to miss important information”
The same principle applies in interpersonal communication. Practising sensory acuity is a way of consciously remaining open to what is happening in any given communication exercise. Please don’t assume you have the ability to know what’s going on for others; rather use your sensory acuity as a tool to help you be curious about how others are responding to your communication; as a tool to help you ask the better questions.
Good Luck!
Copyright: Sue Sampson 2012
This documents provides a “bank” of 360 questions structured around some key leadership headings. The headings have been adapted from the NHS Leadership Qualities Framework and they are relevant to many settings.
Please collaborate with your manager, partner, executive coach or sponsor to:
1) choose 3 to 5 people to give you feedback in the next 2 weeks. Please request and collect feedback in-person whenever possible. As a minimum, collect feedback from your supervisor, 1 or 2 peers and 1 or 2 staff less senior than yourself and/or who report to you. And ‘rate’ yourself by completing the questionnaire yourself.
2) choose 15 to 20 questions you most want/need feedback about. Delete all the questions ( rows of the below tables ) you will not use so just your relevant/chosen questions remain in this document - and save your own version of the questionnaire with a new file name.doc.
Choose 15 to 20 questions:
- That are personally relevant to you;
- On which you feel your raters will be able to provide useful feedback;
- About which you really want feedback!
For best results, use your questionnaire as stimulus for a conversation with people giving you feedback. Especially those who are your peers or seniors. Spending time in conversation will generally yield greater understanding of your feedback. For those staff you supervise, please give them a free choice to have a face-to-face feedback conversation and/or complete the questionnaire without you. If you sense that staff have a need to give feedback anonymously, then you can set this up by asking them to put their surveys in an un-marked envelope and organising for them to be collected by a trusted person.
Record feedback from each person, along with your own self-rating, onto a summary copy of the questionnaire. Use different symbols and/or colours for different people or groups of people ( supervisor, staff or peers etc ).
For those who prefer accurate measures for frequency terms, please note your ratings mean this person effectively demonstrates this behaviour:
Never - 5% or less of the times required
Rarely - 6% to 35% of the times required
Occasionally - 35% to 55% of the times required
Mostly - 55% to 90% of the times required
Always - greater than 90% of the times required
Personal Qualities
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Self belief, Self awareness and Self management
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Make and X on the below word scale for each statement
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Demonstrates high levels of personal awareness of own style and behaviours and their effect on others.
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Modifies personal style to match the situation (eg: directing, coaching, participating)
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Responds appropriately to emotionally challenging situations.
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Remain personally effective under stress.
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Displays resilience
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Takes actions expecting to succeed and is optimistic about the future.
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Openly admits personal mistakes, actively seeks feedback and learns from experience and encourages others to do the same.
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Demonstrates a commitment to personal development.
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Positively influences the culture by challenging unproductive behaviours
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Drive for Improvement
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Make and X on the below word scale for each statement
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Fosters and encourages continuous improvement of work practices
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Ensures team develops effective partnerships with other areas, customers and other stakeholders.
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Shares resources – i.e. people, information - across Branch/teams and Divisions as needed (takes the wider Corporate view).
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Demonstrates initiative and courage by “going first” with new ways of doing things.
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Personal Integrity
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Make and X on the below word scale for each statement
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Demonstrates public service professionalism and probity
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Takes personal responsibility for individual and team challenges and problems.
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Behaves consistently.
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Walks the talk: Acts as a positive role model and words match actions
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
Setting Direction
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Seizing the future
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Make and X on the below word scale for each statement
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Focuses strategically on the key issues
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Anticipates future opportunities/threats and takes appropriate action.
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Plans effectively for the future.
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Develops innovative solutions to problems.
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Intellectual Flexibility
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Make and X on the below word scale for each statement
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Shows judgement, intelligence and commonsense
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Turns mistakes into learning opportunities for self and team.
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Effectively deals with uncertainty
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Takes the time to listen, with the intent of understanding, to differing points of view
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Broad Scanning
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Make and X on the below word scale for each statement
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Harnesses information and opportunities
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Marshals professional expertise
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Continually monitors, analyses and capitalizes on internal and external factors likely to impact on the Branch/team.
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Political Astuteness
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Make and X on the below word scale for each statement
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Identifies and engages key stakeholders to achieve outcomes
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Demonstrates an ability to get things done within the culture
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Identifies and engages key influencers to deliver change.
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Drive for Results
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Make and X on the below word scale for each statement
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Commits to action
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Gets things done – is decisive and meets agreed time lines.
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Solves difficult problems with effective solutions
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Looks beyond the obvious when problem solving and doesn’t stop at first answers.
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Engages with risk and shows personal courage.
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Sets and meets challenging goals.
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
Delivering the Service
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Leading Change Through People
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Make and X on the below word scale for each statement
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Creates and communicates a compelling vision or sense of purpose to staff.
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Inspires a sense of purpose and direction
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Effectively leads and manages the implementation of change.
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Treats people fairly when they make a mistake.
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Gives sufficient focus to the people management aspects of his/her role.
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Builds a trusting team environment where people feel safe to openly express ideas, opinions and issues
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Holding to account
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Make and X on the below word scale for each statement
|
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Effectively communicates work goals to staff.
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Helps employees understand their role and the value they add to the organisation.
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Effectively delegates tasks and authority to appropriate people.
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Gives timely, consistent and constructive feedback to staff.
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Effectively manages difficult performance issues in a constructive and timely manner.
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Empowering others
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Make and X on the below word scale for each statement
|
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Guides, mentors and develops people
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Coaches and encourages others to learn and develop new skills.
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Values individual differences and diversity
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Treats people as individuals and takes time to understand their backgrounds, goals and motivations.
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Demonstrates genuine caring and empathy toward team members
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Fosters career development: ensures staff have the opportunity to develop for future roles
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Builds organisational capability and responsiveness
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Effective and strategic influencing
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Make and X on the below word scale for each statement
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Communicates clearly
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Listens, understands and adapts to audience
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Negotiates persuasively
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Is a clear and articulate communicator who adjusts communication style to different audiences.
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Collaborative Working
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Make and X on the below word scale for each statement
|
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Nurtures internal and external relationships
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Facilitates cooperation and partnerships
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Shows pride in team achievements, and acknowledges and celebrates individual and team successes.
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
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Actively rectifies areas of communication, conflict and working relationship breakdown.
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Never . Rarely . Occasionally . Mostly . Always |
Copyright: Sue Sampson and Scott Arbuthnot 2010.
By Sue Sampson (2013)
What makes one leader able to engage the loyalty and commitment of followers to achieve extraordinary outcomes while another’s efforts are received with apathy and disinterest, and sometimes outright hostility? Endeavouring to understand this disparity, the leadership research field has generated an incredible array of theories attempting to define those key factors that create the difference between effective leadership outcomes and ineffective leadership outcomes. This leadership theory has been excellent at providing advice about what to do, but it mostly stops short of offering practical guidance about how a leader might enact a particular theory. For example, Warren Bennis (2006), in writing about his four competencies of new leadership, advocates that leaders keep reminding people of what’s important. But how does one do this in a way that is effective (let alone inspirational, transformational or authentic)? In fact mightn’t some leaders, upon taking this advice to heart, just be downright annoying?
This study posits that the difference between effective and ineffective leadership lies not in the macro – in the overall approach, in the big picture - but rather in the micro – in the small conversations undertaken everyday; the tiny interactions that make up the fabric of leadership. Therefore this study undertook to use qualitative research techniques to capture and analyse the detailed influence and communication processes of highly effective leaders. It sought to answer the question: What influence methods might effective, contemporary leaders be using? The concept was essentially:
- Locate some individuals displaying excellent leadership;
- Explore in detail with them the kinds of conversations and influence processes that they use on an everyday basis;
- Seek to categorise and describe the influence tactics used by these exemplar leaders so that others may benefit.
- Gather data from the leaders’ followers to substantiate (or otherwise) the leaders’ perceived influence processes.
Why more work on influence
Of course, this wasn’t the first study in the field of leadership influence. Work has been undertaken in the field of influence tactics since the early 90s with a set of 11 distinct influence tactics identified: apprising, inspirational appeals, consultation, collaboration, ingratiation, personal appeals, exchange, coalition tactics, legitimating tactics, and pressure (Yukl et al., 2005; Yukl et al., 1991). However, the primary work to identify influence tactics was undertaken in the 1980s and 90s and research exploring the suite of influence tactics appears to have been been static since the late 1990s. In the meantime, considerable work has been undertaken in the leadership field, particularly in transformational leadership (Bass, 1985; Burns, 1978), and in authentic leadership (Gardner et al., 2011; Walumbwa, et al., 2008). Essentially, leadership theory has developed and moved on and, it is reasonable to suppose, that new, more effective influence tactics may have also emerged. In summary, this study sought to contribute new knowledge to determine which influence tactics are being used by contemporary, effective leaders.
Results: eight new ways of creating influence with followers
The study identified a possible eight new tactics that contemporary, effective leaders are using to create influence with followers. The newly identified influence processes are discrete and separate from Yukl et al.’s (1991) suite of 11 influence tactics, although there are some key linkages and interactions. The eight newly identified influence tactics are described in detail in figure 1.
It should be noted that while some of these tactics, such as coaching, are already well identified in the literature; they have not previously been understood as an influencing process. Data analysis also found that effective leaders leaned heavily on two key Yukl et al. (1991) tactics: rational persuasion and consultation.
Figure 1: Newly identified influence tactics
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Challenging assumptions or broadening perspective |
Offering a statement or question designed to challenge a target’s underlying assumptions or broaden their perspective about a situation. Includes a subset, reality check. Here the leader clarifies what is and is not negotiable, the reality of the situation, as a way of challenging the target’s mindset. |
|
Coaching |
Asking a set of questions in a supportive way, to prompt a target to think about a situation differently, and to come to their own conclusions. |
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Listening openly and eliciting and acknowledging views |
Paying close attention to what the target is saying (both through verbal and non-verbal means); being careful not to argue or defend and instead to focus on understanding. Includes a subset, dealing with objections. Here, leaders focused on genuinely listening to objections (generally about a change or new initiative) and then working with the target to determine how the issue could be best dealt with. |
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Sharing responsibility (through participation and delegation) |
The tactic of sharing or delegating responsibility and enabling high participation involves handing over responsibility for decision-making or initiative development to an accountable group in some way. |
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Constructive feedback with support |
Giving clear feedback about behaviour in a supportive environment that includes assistance from the leader to identify and plan for future improvement. A key aspect of this tactic is ensuring that the staff member receiving the feedback understands that the leader is giving the feedback with positive intent, in an effort to be helpful. Includes a subset, clarifying expectations. Here, leaders consciously used conversation with their staff to clarify behaviour expectations |
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Modeling through behaviour |
Influencing staff or peers through one’s personal model. This tactic is usually implemented through a series of conversations and interactions and it is usually dependent on contextual factors such as the leader subordinate relationship. Modeling is most effectively used when leaders demonstrate self-reflection, and transparency about their behaviour, so that followers can observe critical aspects of their leader’s thinking process. |
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Inspirational vision |
Describing an attractive future state and demonstrating personal conviction and motivation towards the vision, showing that the future state is both worthy and achievable. Includes a subset, current state to future state. Here, leaders described the current state and the future state in such a way that the targets were motivated to begin to work on ways of moving from the current state to the future state. |
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Advocating or facilitating for |
Providing active and transparent support to a staff member on an important issue. By doing this, leaders are able to communicate both the importance of the task and his/her support for the person being asked to undertake it.
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Dyadic survey findings
The dyadic survey was used to assess subordinate perspectives for seven of the eight newly identified tactics, and one of the Yukl et al. (1991) tactics, collecting both quantitative and qualitative data.The data indicated high levels of quantitative subordinate agreement with respect to the eight tactics assessed: challenging assumptions or broadening perspective (two parts, one focusing on a subset category, using a reality check), coaching, constructive feedback, shared responsibility, listening openly (two parts, one focusing on a subset category, dealing with objections), inspirational vision, and rational persuasion. Qualitative responses were also analysed and found to support the leaders’ use of the tactics, with primarily positive responses.
Critical Leader supporting behaviours
Data analysis also identified some key supporting behaviours used by the leaders to facilitate and support their influence processes These supporting behaviours were individualised attention, acknowledging achievements, building and utilising strong relationships, demonstrating positive intent and trust in target capability and encouraging growth and development. These supporting behaviours are consistent with contemporary leadership theory. Utilising findings from the study, the following model is offered.
Figure 4. Model representing findings about effective leader’s influence processes
This is a brief summary article only. For a more in-depth article or to understand how Sue can help you to use these new findings in your own leadership or workplace, please contact Sue on 0412 024561 or 07 3388 3642 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
So, you’d like some feedback; like to understand more about how others see you?
Or you think that feedback might be good for you – kind of like medicine?
Or you’ve decided to embrace your leadership development and are keen to access whatever development tools are available?
Whatever, your reasons for considering a 360 degree feedback process, it’s important to consider whether 360 degree feedback is a useful tool for you right now?
So before you proceed, lets ask four simple questions:
- Is there relative stability in your team; have you worked with your peers, subordinates and mangers for a reasonable period of time (say at least 6 months)?
- Is the team reasonably functional? Or are there major on-going conflicts that are impacting on relationships?
- Are you ready for feedback: are you in a place where you can be curious and interested in others’ feedback. Or can you feel your defences rising, just thinking about it?
- Are you a volunteer for feedback or do you feel pushed into the process?
So, your team is relatively stable and functional, and you are ready for and volunteering for feedback, then lets begin.
About the ArbSam 360 Question Bank
The ArbSam 360 Question Bank is a little different to many other commercially available 360 degree feedback tools in several ways:
- With this tool, you select which questions you want to ask.
- You can choose how to gather the feedback – face to face via conversation (recommended) or anonymously via a form.
- It’s a free tool that you administer yourself: there is no third party managing the process and no third party invoice!
So why do we encourage you to gather your feedback face-to-face? Well good feedback is about strengthening relationships; it’s about building awareness and reaching a shared understanding. In our experience, participants who choose to gather their feedback this way report value and impact way beyond their expectations.
However, one way feedback has its place. If may be a better option if:
- the relationship is not mature,
- if raters are likely to be shy of telling you to your face how they really feel, or,
- if you’re trying to get a sense of how a large number of raters feel about an aspect of your behaviour and plan to follow-up with a conversation.
So let’s get started: Choosing your raters…
The first step is to decide who you want feedback from. The term “360 feedback” refers to feedback from above (your leader or manager/s), from the side (peers, key stakeholders, others you work with in an equal relationship), and from below (people who report to you). It’s up to you to decide how many people you want to collect feedback from in each category. And if a category isn’t relevant, then that’s fine too.
The best piece of advice in choosing your raters is: choose people whose opinion you respect; whose input you really want!
Choosing the questions
The ArbSam question bank includes 63 questions, categorised via the NHS Leadership Qualities Framework. You now need to choose those questions that are most relevant to you; the questions you want to use to seek feedback. To help do this:
- Consider your leadership objectives
- Ask: what do I most want feedback about?
- Select a first cut of the questions and answer them yourself first, checking for relevance.
- Have someone else (partner, supervisor, coach) give you their perspective about how useful your questions are?
Now it’s time to access the ArbSam Question Bank. Once you click into the Question Bank (attached to the email), the first step is to save a copy of the word document on your computer and edit it so that only the questions you want remain. The easiest way to do this is just to delete all the rows that contain questions that you don’t want. Aim to end up with 15 to 20 questions only.
Getting the feedback: Going the face-to-face route
If you’ve chosen to seek your feedback face-to-face, then the next step is to ask your raters if they are happy to be involved and offer them your edited questionnaire (showing only your 15 to 20 questions) to look at before you chat. Make a time to chat with them (30 minutes is enough time to begin with) and then dive in!
When it’s time for your chat, prepare yourself by with the following reflection.
- I may get positive and negative feedback: my aim is to remain curious and open about all feedback.
- I may need to ask questions to understand my feedback: my aim is to ask questions in a way which encourages my feedback giver to be open.
- I may feel defensive during the discussion. If this happens, my aim is to suspend my defensiveness and use curiosity to find out as much as I possibly can about their perspective.
- I may get feedback that doesn’t make sense to me. If I do, my aim is to remember that the feedback is representative of the feedback giver’s perspective. It’s important that I understand that they have that perspective, even though I may not feel it is true about me.
- I may need to reassure my feedback giver that the feedback is building our relationship. My aim during the conversation is to build my relationship with the feedback giver.
During the feedback discussion, take as many notes as possible and feel free to explore issues or ask further questions to discover as much as possible. But resist any temptation to argue or disagree about the feedback, or to interrogate or grill your feedback giver.
And remember to thank your feedback giver. They have given you their time and energy.
Going the one-way feedback route
If you choose the one-way feedback method, then you need to prepare your surveys and determine the best way of collecting the completed forms. You also need to decide important it is that your raters’ responses are anonymous and how you will achieve this and communicate about it. Finally you need to create a summary report that you can use to review your feedback. So key steps are:
- Prepare your surveys: Print off enough copies of your personalised version (with your 15 and 20 questions) and mark them so you know which rating group they are going to (leader/manager, peers, others, staff who report to you).
- Decide how to collect the completed forms: One option is to ask your raters to pop the completed form in a pre-addressed envelope and post it to you. Or you may ask someone else to administer the survey for you, collected the completed forms and creating the summary report (see step 4).
- Managing raters’ desire for anonymous responses: Chat with your raters about how the surveys will be collected and collated and what action you will take to ensure their responses are anonymous (pre-addressed envelopes or an administrator) and check if they are comfortable with the proposed method.
- Creating a summary report: You, or your administrator, can create a summary report by simply copying all of your raters’ answers onto one form. Use a different colour for each of the rater categories.
Making good use of your feedback
Now we have reached the best part of the process: actually reflecting on and utilising the feedback. It’s a good idea to get some help with analysing and considering your feedback so ask your reflective partner or another support person to be involved.
Use the following questions as a guide to creating a plan to utilise your feedback.
- What are the key messages / pieces of information in the feedback?
- What do I need to reflect upon / get more info about etc
- Where do I need to grow / where do I need to self- acknowledge
- What are my two or three key learning’s?
- What follow-up actions do I want to be visible to key people?
- Who do I need to thank?
Remain aware of your state of mind as you work through your feedback. Use the following reflection questions to help ensure you remain in an optimally functional state while reviewing your feedback.
- I may get positive and negative feedback: my aim is to remain curious and open about all feedback.
- I may feel defensive reviewing my feedback. If this happens, my aim is to suspend my defensiveness and use curiosity to explore the feedback.
- I may get feedback that doesn’t make sense to me. If I do, my aim is to remember that the feedback is representative of the feedback giver’s perspective. It’s important that I understand that they have that perspective, even though I may not feel it is true about me.
- This feedback may well be just the beginning of a conversation. What future discussion could/should I have with my feedback giver. How can I ask further questions to understand my feedback. How can I build and strengthen our relationship through further conversation?
- How can I thank my feedback givers and let them know I have appreciated and utilised their feedback?
Copyright: Sue Sampson 2011
In this area you will find articles and summaries developed by Sue and her associates. Based on some of the key academic work in the field, these articles are designed to assist clients make practical use of key academic findings. Additionally, in here you will find our bespoke 360 degree feedback solution. Fully customisable and free to use, this 360 degree feedback instrument has been designed to help you access meaningful feedback an initiate conversations that will enhance and develop your working relationships. Click on the drop Resources menu to find these articles.
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