360 Degree Feedback In Developing Leadership Skills Management Essay

360 Degree Feedback In Developing Leadership Skills perplexity Es advanceThere is a enceinte deal of controversy well-nigh the relevancy of using 360-ground level feedback as a whoreson to develop leadinghip skills. Some facet 360-degree feedback as a collaborative in additionl, a tool mop upering a more than balanced circle of feedback based on the respectments of superiors, peers, and subordinates. These views lead me to wonder, how stiff give the gate this tool be if it does not agent in leadership styles and the potential for bias based on popularity? leave behind mortalality and popularity play a role in the valuatement? though extreme, there is some merit to my position. This realization guided me to my decision that 360-degree feedback is an effective tool to provide self sound judgment and can in like manner be go ford to enhance execution measures during annual counseling such as leadership, converse, and mission effectiveness.BackgroundThe underlying theory of 360-degree feedback asserts that an assessment lift upd from quintuple sources provides unique and meaningful information to the recipient. Rapid growth of its use was provide by the need to adapt to a changing human resources instruction environment and by numerous studies that supported the effectiveness of multi-source grades in post-feedback perplexity development.A significant complaint of the traditional performance appraisal administration voiced by services is that feedback is generally one-sided and can inadequacy objectivity. In the 1940s, the ground forces enforced a tool called the multi-rater system, also cognize as the multisource assessment assist.1The multi-rater system allows a persons evaluation to encompass reviews from not only a rater, but also a persons subordinates, peers, clients, and organisational hierarchy. This allows a reviewer to repel a more complete picture of a person and removes a singular rater from being able to determine the mess of a c arer. If an officers boss dislikes a subordinate, but he gets top tag from everyone else, it puts the bosss review in context, and would likely generate questions from the major(postnominal) rater over the rating ability of the boss.In 2006, the dark blue tested a prototype exemplification of the 360-degree feedback process in the Surface War furthermoste Community. Similar to Army results, the Navy prototype showcased a strength of the 360-degree feedback process is its ability to provide variable perspectives of raters. The Navy prototype findings also emphasized that a supervisor cannot honour all the inter follow throughs, strengths and opportunities for improvement of his subordinates for evaluation reports, especially if the span of control is broad.2So why should the supervisor be the only person to provide performance feedback?DiscussionA major returns to the 360-degree feedback process is that it provides an opportunity for race with whom a person co mes into frequent contact to offer feedback. This is an important shape because the rater should be the person that has comed the employee on a frequent basis. It would be unfair and impractical to ask a rater for input when the opportunity to observe an employees skills, talents and abilities hand over not been provided on a regular basis.Lets look at two examples of 360-degree feedback in action first lets look at an Army Captain who serves as a steer officer in an foundation battalion. His rater is the Battalion Executive Officer, a combat-arms officer, who does not know much some communication other than how to operate a radio. If the signal officer performs his conjecture well, the XO will likely pay him a reasonably favorable review on a traditional Evaluation Review. Now lets use a 360-degree feedback process and refer his higher-echelon counterpart, the Brigade S6 Officer, who is a Major and a signal officer, who gives the Captain an excellent rating based on his te chnical proficiency. If we involve his section, they can comment on his leadership, management style and his ability to explain complex technical issues in plain English. His peers in the battalion, other captains and the order commanders, all give him high marks for working with them to resolve communication issues. Now the 360-degree feedback process is given to his senior rater, the Battalion Commander, who now has a more complete view of this officer and how he has performed based on additional feedback from numerous sources, rather than the traditional counseling from one rater that would have communicated a generic, but reasonably positive review.Another example of how this mode is beneficial is to look at an Army infantry platoon leader, a foremost Lieutenant, who routinely sucks up to his company commander, volunteers his platoon for the toughest assignments, scores expert in marksmanship and fittingness and has impressed the battalion commander in a field operation. Th is inaugural Lieutenant would normally excel in the traditional counseling process, because his rater and senior rater have the impression that he is to a higher place and beyond the standard. Using the 360-degree process, lets say his platoon sergeant reports the 1st Lieutenant delegates much of his work to him and leaves work as early as possible. Some of his squad leaders complain that they perpetually get stuck with volunteer duty while the 1st Lieutenant is off somewhere sleeping. His fellow 1st Lieutenants do not like the jackass and view him as a show-off. When this review hits the senior raters desk it will give him a very different view and provide more discernment than the traditional counseling report would provide.The above example showcases that when feedback comes from many sources, its more difficult for a person to brush aside constructive critique and rationalize that the boss just has it in for me. If several people imply that a leader needs to improve verba l communication skills, chances are high that this is indeed a necessary area for improvement. Another advantage of the 360-degree feedback process is that it is designed with a leadership focus in mind. sometimes its difficult for individuals to understand the impact that their behavior may have on others. However, if they receive direct and frequent feedback on how their behaviors affect others they are more likely to be attentive.Studies show that the 360-degree feedback process is particularly strong when joined with an action plan developed by the person receiving feedback and shared with those providing the feedback. The action plan demonstrates the feedback was heard and the suggestions will be put to use as soon as possible. Studies also strongly suggest that each person receiving feedback, especially for the first time, should have a coach to help assess the comments and help to develop the action plan.3I recommend the 360-degree feedback process be coupled with competency -based job descriptions this aids in placing an individual in a position based on the competencies of the position and it ensures the individual is evaluated on those homogeneous competencies.Now looking at 360-degree feedback from the perspective of what we learned in seminar active leadership styles. The trait theory assumes people are born with ancestral traits and that some traits are particularly associated with great leaders. For instance, there is a nip in the highly-acclaimed and offbeat 1949 World War II film, 12 OClock High, in which Army Air Corps Colonel Keith Davenport, played by Gary Merrill, is the commander who becomes too close to his flyers and eventually cracks under the s gibe of seeing one of them site suicide. Colonel Davenport portrayed significant traits to be prosperous as noted in the trait theory (willing to assume responsibility and alert to social environment). If he was assessed using the 360-degree feedback model, he would have received rave revi ews from his supervisor, peers and subordinates based on his leadership style, but if evaluated on technical proficiency he would receive low marks due to the squadrons inability to perform precision daytime bombing.Major familiar Frank Savage commuted Colonel Davenport and pounded discipline and accountability into the squadron, and managed to get them back in the air with a new level of success. If General Savage was given the 360-degree feedback assessment, his rating would have surely required him to murder an adjustment in his tough leadership style. This was evident by the derive of transfer requests received from the pilots and the short fused IG inspection to assess squadron morale. General Savages tough leadership style ultimately proved to be successful with a significant increase in putting bombs on target as required for mission success. General Savage also projected many of the traits that are considered necessary to be a successful leader such as decisive, dependa ble, assertive, dominant and persistent.360-degree feedback is not a interchange for managing little performance. Instead it is a tool that can be implemented to help employees gain a rich, accurate perspective on how others view their leadership skills, interpersonal style and mission effectiveness. 360-degree feedback should not replace leaderships assessment and evaluation of performance. This is an important point because leaders may be tempted to use 360-degree feedback as a tool to facilitate behavior changes in poor performers. Rather than manage an employees day-to-day performance, leaders may view the multi-rater feedback process as a panacea. Although feedback from a 360-degree process can stimulate self-consciousness, it cannot replace direct communication between an employee and his or her superior. An organization should exercise great care in implementing a 360-degree feedback system because unfamiliarity with a person, differences in job and task characteristics, di fferences in rank, and cognitive differences between an employee and rater can wind assessments. Leaders should also be mindful not to view the 360- degree feedback process as a special event, using it once as part of a training or coaching session. If leaders take aim this mistake, the goal of ensuring that feedback is incorporated into continuous improvement plans will not be accomplished.Counter ArgumentTo counter my thesis, I must mention that there are potential pitfalls that deal with trust and confidentiality. The key to overcoming pitfalls are to inform everyone of the plan and to stick to it. Additionally, privacy to recipients, and confidentiality to raters regarding the feedback they provide, is an absolute must. As previously described, the dicey part is that we are nearing the line of subordinates possessing the capability to directly influence a leaders career. While 360-degree feedback is not a panacea, impact from any of the above risks would likely be minimal at best with todays motivated, quality all-volunteer force. Nevertheless, it would piss sense to establish safeguards wherever possible. Looking at the big picture, the benefits of 360-degree feedback far exceed the pitfalls that can be remedied with careful implementation and changes in organizational culture.Despite the benefits of 360-degree feedback, there are several potential risks which weaken its rigor and effectiveness. The most common risk is wrongfully assuming that using feedback from eightfold sources will compensate for intentional or unintentional distortion ( i.e. lying). The fair play is that feedback collected incorrectly increases rather than decreases the occurrence of error thus, destroying the credibility of the results. cultivationI intrust that 360-degree feedback should be incorporated into performance measures more specifically leadership, communication and mission effectiveness. The 360-degree feedback program is an excellent performance feedback tool an d should be designed for counseling purposes only. There are a couple of ways to regulate the use of this information. The first way is to introduce this technique as a leader developmental tool. Initially, the services could use the train-the-trainer model at the deck plate level, while incorporating it into its school systems. This method will train all leaders and supervisors in the proper use. Given that all leaders have supervisors, I do not envision significant difficulties. I strongly believe our current leader development system can provide leaders for the future force however, I strongly believe we can improve the system to make leaders more self-aware and thereby more effective. By implementing the 360-degree feedback method into our system, we will grow leaders who will win the many literal and figurative wars this nation faces in the future.