You may have heard the term 360 performance appraisal or 360 performance review at some point in time. However, the odds are that you don't know much about it, or if you do, you're still not sure exactly why you might want one. Here's what you need to know:
Think About College
Back when you were in college, you had lots of professors. When you first went to register for courses, you had a choice of which professor to take and if you were smart about it, you went and checked out the scores each professor had.
These scores were not pass rates for their class (though that could be useful to know as well). Instead, they were scores assigned by students who rated their professors and said what they thought of them in an anonymous review.
Why do you think the college did that? After all, if a professor had tenure, then he or she couldn't be fired anyway, so what did it matter what the students thought?
It Helped Make the Professors Better Professors
Believe it or not, the professors more often than not welcomed these reviews as much as the new crop of students welcomed them. The reason is simple - they could learn what their students thought of them and try to improve their teaching methods.
If most students expressed the feeling, for example, that a particular professor was too harsh on grading, he or she could consider whether or not they really were too hard or if they felt that the students were expecting a cake walk.
Similarly, if a professor found that many students reported that they felt his class didn't cover the subject adequately, he could try to improve his teaching methods for the following semester. In other words, the professors used these appraisals from the students as a tool to help them improve in their work.
A 360 Performance Appraisal Goes Further
Now those college professors probably did get feedback from their department heads and possibly even from the dean of the school. However, they didn't get a complete picture handed to them where they could see everything that was said about them, by the students, by their fellow faculty, and by their superiors. Had they gotten such a review, it would have been akin to the kind of 360 performance appraisal that business people often get and even look forward to every day.
Everyone is Asked for an Opinion
In a 360 performance appraisal, you don't just ask your underlings (i.e. the students), nor do you ask just your superiors (i.e. the department heads) about what they think of your methods. You ask everyone who works with you, from your secretary to your colleagues to your underlings to your department heads.
Doing this allows you to generate a complete picture of what everyone thinks of your performance and how you can improve as a manager and as a career professional.
How it Works
Similarly to those student evaluations you filled out in college, a 360 performance appraisal asks everyone to fill out a questionnaire (anonymously of course) about you. A career coach will then take that material and generate a report for you based on the feelings of everyone you work with. The report will cover very specific issues that you can work on to improve communication and accountability and to build trust and rapport with your colleagues, underlings and superiors.
Why it's so Powerful
A 360 performance appraisal is a powerful tool for the simple reason that it gives you a perspective you can't get anywhere else. Your boss might tell you you're doing a good job only because she sees that your department is doing good work.
However, it wouldn't be until you got a 360 performance appraisal that you would find out that some of your top employees are unhappy because they feel as if you don't offer them the credit they deserve when they come up with a great idea to solve the company's problems. Ultimately, this could spell disaster for you since unhappy employees tend to be less productive and also are more likely to leave once the economy improves, giving you the headache of replacing them and losing that stellar review from your boss.
Similarly, if your boss doesn't feel you are doing your job but your employees report in the 360 performance appraisal that they think you are great, then you need to reassess why this is and how you can improve your performance so that you can climb the career ladder.
Think About College
Back when you were in college, you had lots of professors. When you first went to register for courses, you had a choice of which professor to take and if you were smart about it, you went and checked out the scores each professor had.
These scores were not pass rates for their class (though that could be useful to know as well). Instead, they were scores assigned by students who rated their professors and said what they thought of them in an anonymous review.
Why do you think the college did that? After all, if a professor had tenure, then he or she couldn't be fired anyway, so what did it matter what the students thought?
It Helped Make the Professors Better Professors
Believe it or not, the professors more often than not welcomed these reviews as much as the new crop of students welcomed them. The reason is simple - they could learn what their students thought of them and try to improve their teaching methods.
If most students expressed the feeling, for example, that a particular professor was too harsh on grading, he or she could consider whether or not they really were too hard or if they felt that the students were expecting a cake walk.
Similarly, if a professor found that many students reported that they felt his class didn't cover the subject adequately, he could try to improve his teaching methods for the following semester. In other words, the professors used these appraisals from the students as a tool to help them improve in their work.
A 360 Performance Appraisal Goes Further
Now those college professors probably did get feedback from their department heads and possibly even from the dean of the school. However, they didn't get a complete picture handed to them where they could see everything that was said about them, by the students, by their fellow faculty, and by their superiors. Had they gotten such a review, it would have been akin to the kind of 360 performance appraisal that business people often get and even look forward to every day.
Everyone is Asked for an Opinion
In a 360 performance appraisal, you don't just ask your underlings (i.e. the students), nor do you ask just your superiors (i.e. the department heads) about what they think of your methods. You ask everyone who works with you, from your secretary to your colleagues to your underlings to your department heads.
Doing this allows you to generate a complete picture of what everyone thinks of your performance and how you can improve as a manager and as a career professional.
How it Works
Similarly to those student evaluations you filled out in college, a 360 performance appraisal asks everyone to fill out a questionnaire (anonymously of course) about you. A career coach will then take that material and generate a report for you based on the feelings of everyone you work with. The report will cover very specific issues that you can work on to improve communication and accountability and to build trust and rapport with your colleagues, underlings and superiors.
Why it's so Powerful
A 360 performance appraisal is a powerful tool for the simple reason that it gives you a perspective you can't get anywhere else. Your boss might tell you you're doing a good job only because she sees that your department is doing good work.
However, it wouldn't be until you got a 360 performance appraisal that you would find out that some of your top employees are unhappy because they feel as if you don't offer them the credit they deserve when they come up with a great idea to solve the company's problems. Ultimately, this could spell disaster for you since unhappy employees tend to be less productive and also are more likely to leave once the economy improves, giving you the headache of replacing them and losing that stellar review from your boss.
Similarly, if your boss doesn't feel you are doing your job but your employees report in the 360 performance appraisal that they think you are great, then you need to reassess why this is and how you can improve your performance so that you can climb the career ladder.
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