The Metiss Group's Blog

As 360-degree leadership effectiveness tools become better indicators of perceived leadership behaviors, more and more companies are embarking on formal 360-degree evaluations of their leadership teams.  These insightful reports help leaders focus on developing the leadership skills observed by others as being most needed.

However, prior to conducting 360-degree evaluations and delivering results, the leadership group must identify the leadership practices that are important to the organization.  Everyone should understand the organization’s leadership focus before getting their results.  Once leaders receive their reports, their natural tendency is to dismiss the feedback in areas in which they scored poorly.  Having committed to focusing on specific leadership styles before receiving feedback forces them to be more objective and embrace development opportunities.

Empowered leaders choose the important leadership practices before receiving 360-degree feedback and have more successful development plans.

Most leaders are familiar with the Chinese proverb: “Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still.”  A leader should be challenging their direct reports to be always growing.

One easy way for leaders to develop their direct reports is to empower them to chair the team’s weekly staff meetings.  This popular empowerment technique achieves many purposes.  First, it develops direct reports to run effective meetings. Secondly, it saves the leader time, as they are no longer responsible for meeting preparation and follow-up.  Finally, leaders become more productive in the meetings as they are more focused on the content and less on the process.

Leaders who empower and encourage their direct reports to always be growing will experience more success.

“I hate performance appraisals!”

The worst part about that perspective is that both direct reports and leaders share it.  Why?  Too frequently, leaders have not kept notes and records of both positive performance and course corrections throughout the year, much less shared these observations along the way.  So while the leader dreads the process of trying to remember enough meaningful examples in a 12-month hindsight exercise, the direct report dreads the thought of being surprised by observations that may be no longer meaningful.

Leaders should provide regular feedback immediately as the opportunity arises and make a quick note-to-self about the content of the discussion. Then, the annual appraisal is a simple matter of collecting and sorting the notes.

The note should include the date, observed behavior, and the result. For example: January 29th – Jim stayed late to help Tim with client presentation; demonstrated great teamwork, end product was excellent  and we won the account.

The performance appraisal becomes a meaningful review of a culmination of 12 months performance and shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone

Empowered leaders prepare for the performance appraisal all year long to conduct successful performance appraisals.

Successful companies set goals. Without them, they have no defined purpose and nothing to strive for; consequently, they stagnate and struggle for meaningful accomplishments. Goals are steppingstones to an end result. They must be present in every business plan and become a regular part of ongoing business operations.

A leader’s goals and those of their direct reports should be aligned with the organization’s goals.  Whether a corporate, department, or individual goal, the goal should be measurable and time-bound.

A measurable goal specifically defines what is to be accomplished – the more specific, the better.  The due date for the goal should be just as specific.  “Reduce turnover next quarter” is not a good goal; “less than 10 avoidable ‘A’ player resignations between April 1st and June 30th” is a measurable, time-bound goal.  Instead of “increase sales”, how about “distribution sales greater than $5 million by December 31st?”

Teams empowered with specific measurable, time-bound goals experience more success.