It's good to hear that the Senior Civil Service in UK has taken on a 360 degree feedback tool. They will be getting feedback on ‘how others in the team perceive their performance’ in five areas they consider are key: Strives, Communicates, Helps, Observes and Results. The focus is stated to be on 'leadership behaviour' and the feedback is intended to test how others perceive this in the team, how it translates into results, and how the recipient's work priorities match others’ expectations. Also how other perceive their behavioural style, and the impact they have on others. [I have added a comment on this below].

The UK’s National School of Government has put this together for Civil Service leaders based on the Cabinet Secretary’s new framework of leadership expectations and the requirements of Professional Skills for Government (PSG).

The tool was created by Julian Rizzello of the National School of Government. He explains: “360-degree feedback is proven to be a very powerful motivation for personal growth. Rather than attempt to measure a leader’s worth against a simple competency model, we have designed SCHOR360 to afford a deeper insight into leaders’ behaviour and its results, enabling participants to gain a clearer understanding of their overall impact.”

The profile includes the priorities for attention and also a mandatory coaching interview to interpret the results. Cost is reasonable.

Comment: it's always interesting to compare other 360 tools with the holistic Leader/Manager Model. As far as one can tell, 'Strives' is in Task Leadership, 'Communicates' is in People Leadership, 'Helps' is in People Management, 'Observes' is in People Management, and 'Results' is in Task Management. In contrast to many 360s it does at least have elements in all four quadrants (though how well each is covered is another matter). It is interesting to note, however, that 3/5 of it seems to be about Management and only 2/5 about Leadership. Maybe that's just as well! Anyway, it's a big step forward, and the coaching interview is a critical element.

Source: UK's Public Technology

Labels: 360 feedback, Leadership, Learning