Moment of Truth!

Srinivasan Iyer reveals how organisations are using 360° feedback to groom their managers and create an open working culture. It’s usual for managers to rate their subordinates. How about reversing the wheel? How about asking your team members how good you are as a manager? Constructive feedback is the key to development. But how many of us, especially in India, are ready for a Sach ka Saamna? Simply put, 360° is a feedback mechanism where superiors, peers, subordinates and internal customers observe the behaviour of a manager and give their feedback. In a formal appraisal system, most managers do get feedback from their superiors. When it comes to peers, often feedback is in the form of informal opinions aired over the coffee table – 360° captures this feedback as a formal written document. If taking formal feedback from peers is unnerving, asking your juniors to rate you calls for shedding all your inhibitions and ego as a manager. Expectedly, most managers aren’t comfortable being rated by their subordinates. However, it’s an opensecret that the most popular topic during lunch is ‘the boss’. The boss is discussed around the vending machine, in the elevators and corridors, and in hushed tones in office cubicles. Whether you like it or not, the favourite pastime of employees is to rate their bosses. 360° feedback, also known as full-circle or multi-rated feedback, provides a structured framework to capture the perceptions of subordinates about their boss by probing them on selective behaviours of their boss that need to be aligned with organisational vision and value. By doing so, 360° feedback creates a transparent working culture and reduces informal grapevines. The moment of truth is feedback from internal customers. Do managers understand the expectations of internal customers? How good do they rate vis-à-vis the expectations? Can internal customers trust their commitments to meet the deadlines? All this and more is revealed through the ‘on-your-face’ remarks of the customer in the 360° feedback. What is in it for the manager? Why should he stand trial and go through the grilling experience of knowing the truth? 360° feedback helps every manager to know his or her strengths and weaknesses. It provides valuable insights about how people perceive the manager and thus becomes the underpinning premise for professional development of the individual. What’s in it for the organisation? A wellrounded objective feedback improves communication, dissolves conflicts, builds teams, and creates an open working culture. 360° also leads to increased accountability both on the part of the manager and those that assess him. Customer feedback leads to improvement in the responsiveness, speed, quality and reliability of internal customer service in the organisation. The picture is not rosy as it seems, though. There is also a bad, and even ugly, side of the 360° appraisal system. Get the feedback right and it will do wonders for your organisation and the careers of your managers. But if you don’t get it right, it will be one of the worst human resource disasters, from which you will take months and even years to recover. Don’t introduce 360° just because your competitors are doing so. An enthusiastic HR manager impressed by attending a seminar on 360° appraisal or by reading a book cannot drive the change in the organisation. You need to assess whether your organisation has the culture and capabilities to initiate and sustain a 360° appraisal. Like all change interventions, it needs the support of core management. Unless it originates from the boardroom, it cannot permeate to the cabins and cubicles. If you don’t have an organisational vision and values, clear job descriptions and well-defined competencies, it is better not to introduce 360° feedback. Why? Because your organisation is just not ready for it yet. If you have all the above in place, the next step is to identify the ‘raters’. How are they chosen? The concerned manager chooses his raters and so does the organisation. The final list of raters is a mix of both, the criteria being people who interact frequently with the person receiving the feedback. And then you need to firm up the 360° criteria and questions relevant to your organisation’s unique needs. Sorry, cut and paste doesn’t work here. What works wonderfully in one organisation may fail miserably in another. It’s also very important that you coach your people on how to give and receive constructive feedback. Beware of paralysis by analysis. The conventional appraisal process requires just two people and one form. 360° feedback multiplies the number of raters, the organisational time that needs to be invested and the sheer paperwork. But yes, in the end it’s worth all that and more. Resistance to 360° feedback is not uncommon. Maruti Udyog introduced it forits managers only two years ago. As more and more Indian organisations realise the immense potential of organisational transformation through 360° feedback, they are experimenting with a wide horizon of areas besides just performance appraisal. It’s a strategic tool for leadership grooming and cultural transformation at Johnson & Johnson. The Aditya Birla Group uses it to create a transparent and open work culture where employees can trust each other. At HSBC, 360° feedback facilitates employee development, career growth charting and succession planning while it is a culture building initiative at NIIT. The Tata Group does not limit 360° feedback only for assessing the performance of its managers – even departments are assessed using this tool. Even the managing director’s personal scorecard incorporates it. The dynamic Tata Business Excellence Model (TBEM) requires all Tata companies to necessarily have the 360° system in their organisations. Despite several organisations successfully using 360° feedback as an integrated part of the formal performance appraisal process, the debate on whether it would be worthwhile to de-link it from decisions that affect incentives and promotions rages on. Maersk India Pvt Ltd and AppLabs do use 360° feedback extensively but more as a development tool rather than for formal appraisal. Some other prominent organisations that use it as a developmental tool include Wipro, lTC, Motorola, Smith Kline Beecham, Nokia, Shell (India), Philips, HCL and Star TV. Isn’t it time you got your people to talk and share constructive feedback? When should you start? You can start anytime provided you do a reality check of your organisational preparedness and ensure that you get it right the first time.