Empowering Leaders: An Insight into 360 Reviews and Coaching, part 1 - 176

Uncover the secrets of unconventional leadership with your host, Sean, a special operations combat veteran turned performance coach. I promise you, this journey will transform the way you perceive and interact with your team. We delve into the world of 360 reviews, a game-changing method that gives you a comprehensive understanding of how you are seen by others. This can lead to deeper conversations, improved relationships, and ultimately, a shift in the direction of your organization. Be warned, favoritism doesn't fly here. We emphasize the power of honest feedback. So strap in and prepare to have some powerful conversations.

And we're not stopping there. We'll also uncover the transactional side of executive coaching and how it integrates with 360 assessments. These assessments uncover the hidden issues that could be hindering your organization's success and boost its functionality. Are you ready to enhance your career while connecting with the insights that fuel your life? Then tune in, like and share. Your leadership journey just got a turbocharge.

Are you an executive, entrepreneur, or combat veteran looking to overcome subconscious blind spots and limiting messaging to unlock your highest performance? Feel free to reach out to Sean at Reload Coaching and Consulting.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to the reload where we help unconventional leaders craft the life they truly want by questioning the assumptions they have about how life works. My name is Sean and I'll be your host on this journey. As a performance coach and special operations combat veteran, I help high performing executives kick ass in their careers while connecting with deeply powerful insights that fuel their lives. Hello, hello, welcome back. Today's probably going to be a pretty quick one, and I have been deep into 360 review mode and also 360 refresh mode, and so I figured it's probably a good idea to share some insights and I don't know tips about this process and it's probably going to be a multi part series just to break out some of the topics a little bit more, and today the real focus is going to be on really what is the purpose and what are the benefits. So, primarily, the purpose of getting a 360 review done is so that you can have a comprehensive understanding of how you are showing up Now, oftentimes, at least, with many corporate engagements and not all of my clients are corporate sponsored, so if it is a situation where the client has paid for the 360 out of their own pocket, then we definitely lean much more in sort of a comprehensive direction, and so the feedback that we solicit is not just from their colleagues or their boss or their board of directors or their subordinates, but also from parts of their personal life, whether that's their partner, their children, their friends, family, etc. Etc. Now, as I mentioned, you know, ultimately the fundamental purpose is to really get those different perspectives.

Speaker 1: 1:59

Now, why is it that one would subject oneself to receiving this feedback? Because, let's face facts, sometimes the feedback is critical and not in a constructive way. Not everybody in your life is in a place where they have the emotional maturity to, or even the understanding to, really address something that is bothersome for them or challenging for them in a way that is constructive. Very frequently we are in a position of having those around of it and, quite honestly, we ourselves are often in a position of similar nature. You know, if we were to be asked about the difficulties we have with somebody, perhaps our spouse, then we frequently end up in sort of relaying it in oh I don't know a much more personally affected way, as opposed to having a more enlightened approach that can deliver news in a way that is still impactful but that bears into account how the listener is going to receive something, so sometimes the feedback can be pretty roughshod. Anyway, why would somebody want to subject oneself to this? Generally, it's because either the sponsor or the client their self-paying wants to really understand what is happening.

Speaker 1: 3:37

Now, some organizations, 360s are just a standard part of the process and nobody has really asked the client whether they want to do it or not. It's just expected that at a certain level of leadership you are going to be, I guess, introduced to this process where folks are going to get to weigh in on how you're doing. But fundamentally, from a coach's perspective my perspective what we're looking for are insights on where the client is being inconsistent, whether it's inconsistent in their presentation, behavior, leadership style, the way that they potentially have favorites in their relationships and it's not to say that we can't have favorites in our relationships. Obviously, I think it's fairly logical and natural for individuals to click more with one person than another, but especially when it comes to how you lead and manage a team, if there is a heavy degree of favoritism noted by the subordinates, then that typically has a pretty powerful impact on the team's perception of how things get done, and especially if there is a view of their being sort of an inside circle and an outside circle, because oftentimes, if you are the person who is unconsciously creating that environment as the boss, then you might lose some very, very talented individuals because they feel that it's an unfair environment.

Speaker 1: 5:19

Now, another benefit, I guess, of doing a 360 review and I'll say that this is a possibility. Right, all of these benefits are possibilities, because it's not guaranteed that they're going to happen. But another benefit is that it can facilitate deeper discussion, or deeper discussions more likely, with team members and board members about how to improve relationships or the direction of the organization. Now, I say can, because something that's required for that and I'll probably talk about this more next week when I start to get into some of the challenges that come with 360s but it's not guaranteed that you're going to get honest feedback or that, if you do get the feedback, that you are going to have individuals who are willing to go the next step and have live conversations with you about the things that they think are challenging. And this is especially relevant when you are going to be talking to your subordinates, because they're very frequently concerned that they're going to piss off their boss and that things are not going to go well for their career moving forward.

Speaker 1: 6:37

But if you are in an organization excuse me or on a team that has the capacity to have difficult conversations and still maintain respect for one another, to be able to call a spade a spade, as they say, and to speak directly about certain subjects that are tough, well, in that scenario then you actually can cut through a lot of bullshit and save a lot of time guessing at what people mean and really drive to the heart of okay, well, what's been going on? Because quite often and this is what I found in my various engagements is that people don't typically intentionally screw up their relationships or screw up their team environment or the direction of the organization. Those things tend to happen in an unconscious way, and so if we can actually have a direct conversation, an upfront, outright conversation, well then you can really start to improve things dramatically. Now, as I mentioned, getting honest feedback is important, and here's another potential benefit is because it's being routed through an outside party the coach. Well, sometimes it's actually the only way that people feel comfortable providing on point feedback. Now, they may not be willing to have follow on conversations about it, but at least the issue can be flagged and sometimes they will present it merely sort of thematically, but then other times they'll give specific instances where something happened, and that specificity can be very, very powerful. You know, generally with my work I try to get people to focus on principles or themes or concepts that can be broadly applied, sort of like derivatives and mathematics, but to bring it into living focus and living color. Oftentimes having a specific example is very, very powerful. It sort of cements it or grounds it in a way that makes it tangible.

Speaker 1: 8:56

Now, the last benefit that I've listed here is, when properly curated by the coach, the 360 can really focus the feedback into specific actionable themes or areas. Oftentimes, when leaders are given feedback does tend to be sort of vague, because subordinates are often afraid to say very specifically like well, no, this is very counterproductive for me, and here is an example. So that's one area where these things tend to help out, but on top of it, it's sometimes especially in a 360, there can be so much feedback that's given depending on how many people you're gathering input from, and so in that, really my job, as I see it, is trying to focus so that the client is not overwhelmed with a million things that they're trying to correct or potentially look at and that really condensing it down into a limited number of specific themes that we can then put some real deliberate thought and action toward, and then, once those things are carried off or handled well, then yeah, sure, we can look at some other things. But where is the distinction between? This is something that is really affecting the team versus, well, this is really just affecting one individual and on top of that that one individual it's really more of an outlier, but because it may have been a fairly extreme outlier, it stands out in their memory. So really it's the attempt to figure out what are the patterns, and if it doesn't conform to a major contributor or major pattern, then can we drop this, at least for now, and focus on things that are going to be more impactful.

Speaker 1: 11:00

So again, super quick episode for you Just wanted to throw that out there Just more on the tactical, transactional side of the work that I do.

Speaker 1: 11:08

But what it does is it really sort of brings out the areas for discovery and exploration and allows us to get into the deeper work that I tend to do with clients. But we need some sort of entry point and typically a 360 is a great way to get there, because not only is it going to highlight some of the deeper issues, but it's also going to yield very tangible benefits in terms of how the organization is running, which is typically what executive level leaders are concerned with. It's a big part of their life. So, anyway, let's see. Oh yeah, this is where I'm supposed to ask you for your support, and that support looks like tap in the like button, thumbs up or whatever symbol or icon we're working with to say that you enjoyed this and, moreover, I always hope that these episodes are helpful to you. And if they are helpful to you and do you think that it would help somebody like you, then I would love it if you would share it with them. Otherwise, take care of each other and have a wonderful day.