In Part 1, we took up the assumptions about the Leader/Manager Model. It's a great model for looking at leaders and managers and how they perform, but why would we ask the team about that?
Well, who is really in the best position to know what a manager does as a manager and how s/he might do it better? The manager's team/direct reports, surely? And as a manager is, after all, almost totally dependent for success upon how his or her 'managing' is received by the team, who else's feedback on this can be more important than theirs?
- The team members themselves are in easily the best position to say how well their abilities are being used and how better use might be made of them.
- There is no shortage of guidance as to how a manager should manage: management theory, national standards, organizational competency studies, etc. However, the views of the team members tend to be:
- more RELEVANT - related to their own situation and to their unit's objectives
- more FOCUSED - related to that one person and to specific problems and issues
- more REALISTIC - taking account of the manager's personality, the limitations in the situation, etc.
- Finding out these views, which cannot be obtained from any other source, must increase the manager's self awareness (a goal of much management training), and reduce any dangerously 'blind' areas.
- The abilities of a team of people, including their leader, always exceed the abilities of the leader alone.
- Many of the most successful organizations either have used or are using 'upward feedback' of some kind.
- The evidence is that it works. Performance does change as a result and, although the change is seldom as much as the staff themselves might wish, they do usually see some improvement. Most recipients also usually say how useful they have found it.
(Excerpted from The Leader/Manager Guide © Peter R. Farey. To be continued).
[more]Labels: 360 Facilitated, 360 feedback, Teams, Upward Feedback |
