In medium- to large-sized organizations, 360 reports have become almost a standard way for colleagues to give feedback. This practice is being expanded for many reasons. Managers and supervisors have the chance to get honest feedback from their employees. The best source of information regarding strengths and weaknesses, which can be used to inform targeted development planning, is a 360 feedback report.

This information's value depends on two things: the quality and the interpretation. Based on our experience with 360 reports, we have developed the following 10 tips for feedback facilitators that will help their clients make sense of 360 reports and draw appropriate conclusions.

1. Make a plan for feedback. Create a plan to gather feedback. It should include an introduction that covers your objectives, confidentiality agreement, and plan, a middle that reviews each competency individually, and an end that draws overall conclusions. Discuss the plan with your client and ask them if there are any specific concerns or issues that they should raise.

2. You are responsible for the feedback process, not its content. The content of the feedback reports is not your responsibility. As a feedback facilitator, your role is to help the individual understand and interpret their feedback report as objectively possible.

3. Identify feedback themes. The 360 feedback report can be overwhelming in its detail. Instead of focusing on individual feedback 'outliers,' look for general themes in the feedback. You can identify the recurring themes in feedback using information from comments and ratings.

4. 360 feedback is a reflection of colleagues' perceptions. Remember that 360 feedback is reporters' perceptions about the competency level. Feedback information is valid, but perceptions can be used as feedback information. It is up to you and the client to decide what to do with this feedback.

5. Do not rely solely on numbers. Text comments should expand and amplify the messages from ratings by addressing client behaviours within their immediate context. To identify key feedback themes, integrate text and ratings.

6. "The devil is in details" Take a look at individual item ratings and overall competency scores. This is because competency models are designed to help organisations identify the necessary behaviours to succeed. However, they can be too simplistic. This means that some competencies may be displayed by one person, while others are not. A manager in Performance Management may be great at applauding high performance but not at picking up on weak performers.

7. You should look for agreement and disagreement between raters. There are two possible levels. Look for differences among raters. Is the person being rated differently by peers or direct reports? This could indicate that the person is different between the two groups (e.g. Listening to peers is more important than listening to direct reports. It could also reflect differences in the opportunities for observation among groups (e.g. The client's direct reports may not see as much of their Strategic Planning behavior than their peers or their manager. The second thing to look out for is differences within groups - people may treat others differently within the same group. One example is Integrity. Some direct reports may view a person as honest and open-minded, while others might not.

8. Do not get too focused on individual ratings or comments. Clients who receive feedback will often focus on negative comments or ratings. People like to have a clean slate, where all the positive comments are included. These are not the main messages of the feedback, so help the person to deal with them.

9. Learn the feedback response cycle. Nearly everyone is anxious about getting detailed feedback about their work approach. We have found that 360 feedback is generally overwhelmingly positive. However, for the more challenging aspects of feedback consider that people may well need to go through the Denial/Anger/Withdrawal/Acceptance (D.A.W.A.) In dealing with feedback, it is important to consider the Denial/Anger/Withdrawal/Acceptance (D.A.W.A.) cycle. It is helpful to assess where the client is in the feedback cycle at any given point. Sometimes it takes more than one feedback session before a client can accept the situation and begin to plan how to improve.

10. Summarize the main conclusions. Summarize the main conclusions. Discuss the key conclusions with your client. What are their key strengths? What are their perceived key strengths? What implications does this have for development? It is important to remember that strengths can be maintained and developed as well as areas of weakness. Sometimes it may not be possible or practical to change the behaviors that are underlying weaker competencies. Don't overwhelm the client by rushing to draw conclusions. Instead, focus on the strengths and areas that have the potential for development. For more detail visit https://www.testgroup.nl/360-graden-feedback/.