@bbcomCIO

Do you think your a great CIO, VP, Director…..Manager?  If someone were to survey your teams and your direct reports would you score an A+ or an F ?  This was a question that I wanted to tackle head one.  How could I get an anonymous feedback loop (360 degree feedback) from my direct reports and the teams that work inside the IT department.  It’s simply not enough to feel like your doing a good job, you need to know your strengths and weaknesses.  It’s far better to get real feedback (as honest as you can get it) to guide you and allow you to keep doing what is good for your organization and focus on squashing the weaknesses you may have.

In our review cycles we have our employees go thru a 360 degree review process and I’m no different.  I set out to create a survey that could be 100% anonymous so people in my organization could speak freely.  We have a pretty good track record with that because I like that type of feedback.  The idea was simple.

1. Create a survey with limited but specific questions to get a measurement of how the teams in my organziation felt I was leading / or not.
2. Make sure it’s anonymous and that there is no way to track down who said what.  No names, no IP addresses, no emails, etc.
3. Present the survey in it’s raw format to the team, summarize all the feedback and present a plan for addressing weaknesses I have.
4. Keep this model going over the long haul.

The first part was pretty simple.  Google Docs to the rescue.  I won’t elaborate on it here but it’s trival to build a survey like I wanted in google docs and publish it as a nice, easy to fill out form.  - If you want help just let contact me.

I sent out a few reminder emails to get everyone to fill it out which was great, everyone responded.  Also I had one free form question where I requested at least (1) thing that I could do better.

I then gathered the information, put it into a presentation with RAW data and I setup a meeting and presented it just as I received it.  You might be thinking I’m nuts at this point.  How could I just get up and say here is what you all felt about X and how I’m doing on this or that and that I have weaknesses in “some” areas.

General questions were things such as.  Do I lead with Integrity  (Scale of 1-5), How well do I understand the people in my organization (1-5), Am I helping move our organization forward (Helping/Hurting), How well do I communicate Vision and Context (1-5).

Scales of 1-5 were something like 1 = Not at All and 5= All the Time.

I talked to my team and stated what I can do and where I’ll focus to be a better leader for them.  One feedback item that came back: Your technology bias can tend to drive decisions in a less than objective manner.   I have to admit I sometimes do that….not always, but maybe more often that I should or it wouldn’t have been on my feedback request.  My response – Ask more questions, leave the topic on the floor longer and have more  discussion before throwing out a direction or saying no to something.

So now the big question to you as a reader.  Are you willing to open yourself up to this type of review from your teams and direct reports?  Are you willing to expose your weaknesses to everyone while you stand in front of them?  To me it was an easy decision and one that I take to heart, how can you be an effective leader if you don’t know this type of information.

I’d say you could do this at work, at home, and with your friends.  Don’t we kind of already do that in many areas of our life?

Good luck with doing a 360 and I’d love to hear back from anyone who does it and how it works for you.