360° is often referred to as a fabulous awareness-raising tool for managers, and it’s true that it can have real advantages, as it gives managers feedback on the perceptions of those around them regarding their managerial qualities.
So why publish an article on the limits of 360°?
The image is illustrative and will already have provided some insights.
The Assess Manager team sees a dangerous limit to the 360° assessment tool, depending in particular on whether the manager’s stance is pro-company or pro-employee…
Let’s take a concrete scenario to illustrate our point:
The company’s management decides to change its organisation. Major changes are going to take place, including changes to job descriptions and responsibilities. In short, a project that will mobilise the energy of those who are resistant to change.
Managers are at the heart of the process to ensure that this strategy goes smoothly. Let’s look at the reactions of Paul and Xavier, both managers in this company, to this situation:
– Paul is resolutely humanist, he loves his employees and values them. His driving force in his day-to-day work is to feel appreciated by his teams. He helps them, sometimes ‘mothering’ them, doing their work if they’re in difficulty; he works hard and has a very positive image with his teams.
– Xavier is a manager who cares about the company’s success and is convinced that his role is to help his teams progress. He is quite confrontational and regularly looks for the boundaries of their skills to help them progress. His team is growing in autonomy and skills, sometimes at the cost of questioning themselves.
Faced with reorganisation, both react in their own way:
– Paul is protective. Faced with his teams’ outcry, he supports them and admits that the company is making some surprising choices, but that he is there to help them. As you’ll have gathered, this image is more a reflection of Paul’s attitude.
– Xavier is more detached, he has an objective: to accompany this change and not let the employees wallow in their misfortune, to help them mobilise new resources so that the change becomes an opportunity and goes as smoothly as possible.
If you set up a 360°, what kind of feedback will you get?
Paul will certainly get the best feedback in terms of the support he gives his teams. Is this the manager you would prefer to have by your side to support this project?
The 360° tool questions the perceptions of individuals: it is therefore directly influenced by the posture of the manager in his relationship with others, and in particular his need to feel appreciated by his teams, sometimes at the cost of the company’s image.
This example is just one of many that could be taken from the 360° questionnaire.
360° is a fabulous tool for questioning perceptions. But are perceptions always the best indicator of individual performance?
Assess Manager offers you the opportunity, in addition to any 360° questionnaire you may have set up, to complete this assessment of perceptions in order to validate the manager’s attitude in concrete terms and refine your analyses.
The Assess Manager management assessment tool is used today by recruiters, but also by professionals dedicated to helping managers progress (training managers, trainers, professional coaches). It uses comprehensive theoretical frameworks to broaden the range of analyses, including the Karpmann triangle (which probes a manager’s victim posture, which is essential for probing), transactional analysis, NLP for modes of communication, etc.
Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any further questions.
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