Reproduced from The 360 degree on 360 feedback blog....

This post is very much about my own experiences of using 360° feedback as a coaching tool and I don’t profess to be an expert. I would be very interested to read views on alternative approaches, so if you do read this, please don’t refrain from adding a comment and enhancing the post with the benefit of your own experience. It would be appreciated.

I think that feedback gathered using a 360° process is a wonderful thing. If you get the process right then you will receive feedback that is fast, confidential, targeted and benchmarked, creating a powerful picture for the individual on how they are perceived by a range of their colleagues.

This feedback picture can be vivid, nuanced and full of insight, but it can never be the truth. The feedback that colleagues give to the individual will always be subjective, it will always be open to bias and some respondents will never have the time and inclination to give feedback that is honest and specific. No matter how much attention you give to the design of your questionnaire, if you are running the process for more than one individual then you will not be able to completely bespoke it for each of those individuals, tailoring each question to the specific demands of their job roles. The point I am trying to make is that the 360° process gives the individual this fantastic feedback picture, but it should not be presented to them as the truth.

This is the first point in my mind when I use 360° feedback as the basis for a coaching session, however that doesn’t mean that I feel wary about how the session is going to unfold. Instead, I feel excited, as I believe that this kind of feedback represents a powerful opportunity for the coach and coachee.to generate insight and self-awareness.

Self-awareness is very rarely easily achieved, especially in relation to how we are perceived by those around us and it is not surprising that we shy away from examining how our behaviour impacts on others. Even if we are prepared to put aside our fears of being judged, then collecting meaningful feedback from our colleagues can be an awkward process, for instance, walking around the office asking each person in turn ‘so then, what do you really think about me?’ is just going to make you feel more odd, rather than enlightened.

The 360° feedback will provide a powerful, if imperfect, picture of how an individual is perceived by their colleagues, focusing not just on their areas for development but also their qualities and their particular talents. This gives the coachee a rare opportunity to generate powerful insights into their behaviour and raise their levels of self-awareness. It is worth reminding them however, that this all within the context of their working environment. They are not being given feedback on their worth as a human being, rather they are being granted insights into say, what the people they manage think about their ability to set meaningful objectives, or what their own manager thinks about their strategic skills.

Here lies the rub. For many of us, the tendency when we’re presented with this vivid picture of feedback will be to pick out the negative points, the stark scores or statements that stand out and prick at our pride. Sure we’re happy that our colleagues value our open and positive communication style, but we CANNOT BELIEVE that they don’t think we’re quite so hot on delivering projects on time. How DARE they! It’s natural to indulge in some self-flagellation, but it isn’t going to get us any further down the road. So this is where I think the coach needs to work really hard to ensure that the 360° process remains a useful process for the coachee.

I feel that if I’m coaching someone through a 360° feedback session, I need to ensure that we have a really strong and robust structure to our conversation. At the beginning, when we set our ‘contract’ together, I’ll be sure to let them shape their outcomes for the session and the areas that they want to explore, but I’ll also be a little bit directive and establish that as well as taking a look at the areas where they feel they want to develop, we’ll be exploring what the feedback tells us about their key strengths, their qualities and the talents that their colleagues feel they bring to the workplace. I will propose that we take a forensic approach to all the feedback that has being generated, establishing which is strong, honest, accurate and focused – the stuff that we can work with and which can be of use to the individual. That’s the good stuff we want to pick out the key themes from, getting us closer to the truth. The rest will be of no use to the coachee and they can take the decision to discard it.

I will be clear that some of the feedback will be of no surprise to the coachee and that it may be more beneficial to focus on the themes that contain fresh insights and new understanding, rather than treading on old ground. And I will also offer the idea that you cannot please everyone all of the time, that there maybe aspects of the coachee’s behaviour or work-style that don’t go down well with some individuals, but that those choices are made for the sake of the organisation and shouldn’t lead to knee-jerk reactions.

Finally, I will emphasise the context within which the feedback has been created, reminding them that the 360° process is powerful yet imperfect and does not represent the truth, rather it represents an opportunity for the coachee to find their own truth.

These are the kind of parameters that I want to build into this kind of session. They underpin the conversation and help provide a supportive and positive space within which the coachee can explore all the marvellous feedback that has been collected for them. With any luck, they will gain new understanding, recognising where they might build on their existing strengths and where they might try new ideas and strategies in their drive for self-management. As the coach in this kind of session, I would be seeking to understand what learning needs the coachee had identified for themselves and the opportunities they would grasp in order to meet those needs.

My final thought around using 360° as a coaching tool is that I would be surprised if you can tie up all the themes that emerge in just one session. After such a powerful barrage of feedback, the coachee is going to need some time for reflection and let these new insights and ideas settle into the mind and it may take one or two follow-up sessions before they’ve really absorbed everything that has been handed to them by their colleagues.

To conclude then, I believe that the 360° process is a powerful coaching tool that if handled carefully, can enable the recipient to reap some rich rewards in terms of self-awareness and new insights.

Over to you. What do you think?

Having taken a look at the concept of sanctuary, it's now time to get cracking with the second of my three 'mini-projects', which was also inspired by reading 'The Mentor's Book' by Mike Pegg. I want to take a closer look at the following idea:

Creating a compelling picture of perfection.

This is a technique that I encountered throughout the time I was studying for my coaching diploma, that the individual is much more likely to achieve their goal if they take the time to transform that goal from a simple statement into a fully-formed and fleshed out vision for success. That may sound a bit corny, but it's something I've seen work in practice, both in myself and when working with people I've coached. It's not a complex process, it requires nothing more than exercising your imagination in a way that is fun and rewarding.

I'm tempted here to launch into a detailed definition of this process, as I see it, but instead I'll hold back from that and let my thoughts develop, allowing myself be influenced by others as I build a much fuller understanding of what the phrase above means to me. I do however, have a clearer idea of how I'm going to go about building that understanding. To begin with, I'll shoot a short video, where I will attempt to explain why I find this conecept so interesting. Then, I will attempt to use social media to collect some input from others. Rather than opening it too wide, I'm going to see if I can target a few people whose thoughts I'm really interested in and see if I can co-erce them into making a short video for me. I'll ask them three core questions:

1. What tools do you use to create a compelling picture of perfection?
2. What process do you follow?
3. How have you used the pictures that you've created?

Next step would be to see if I can take what I've learned from these people and see if I can improve the way I create my own pictures of prefection. I'm also toying with the idea of drawing some of these pictures and asking a wider selection of people for their own examples, but I'll see about that when I get to it. I feel quite excited about this one, as I'm hoping that I will get a lot out of it. We. Shall. See.

The OCM have selected a number of Kogan Page titles that will add value to your coaching and mentoring practice. The OCM have also negotiated a 10% discount off any book purchased through this site.

This will help you keep up to date with the latest trends and developments within the profession as well as maintaining your CPD obligations and with such a range of titles, there is sure to be something that will be of use to you.  

Please click here to visit the bookstore.

Reproduced from my own blog...

My deadline for the first of my three ‘mini-projects’ is the end of August, so true to form, I’m pulling this all together on the last day of the month. There’s nothing like a bit of self-imposed pressure to get the juices flowing again is there? Truth be told though, this isn’t at all feeling like a chore. Instead it feels like one last chance to have a paddle in all the thoughts and ideas generated by my original question:

Where do you find sanctuary?

Eleven people sent me an answer, using a variety of methods, and this is what I feel that I learnt from them about where people find sanctuary.

Place

This was the answer that I was most expecting, as from the outset the link between sanctuary and place was foremost in my mind. Still though, it was very enjoyable to see the variety of places where people might find sanctuary, from offices to gardens to the seaside. Some clear themes emerged, the most prominent being the importance of re-connecting with nature and the sense of calm and privacy that can be found in your own home. It was interesting how two people both mentioned how being outdoors gave them a sense of perspective:

“By the sea. At the top of a hill. Anywhere that I can get some perspective.”

“Out walking and especially on top of a hill, mountain, fell etc somewhere where I can see for miles.”

It is nice to be reminded that a view of the larger natural world opening up in front of you can quickly place your own troubles and concerns in perspective and perhaps not so insurmountable.

Three of the respondents told me about how they had decorated their places of sanctuary to suit their needs, using either soothing blues, bold colours or references to a zombie apocalypse to create the bolthole of their dreams. This got me thinking about how you might design your own sanctuary, which is a concept I’m going to return to later.

Two last fleeting thoughts about place. Firstly, the word ‘journey’ popped up a lot in the responses, which made me wonder if for some, travelling to your place of sanctuary, undressing yourself of your everyday trials and tribulations along the way, is just as important as getting there? Secondly, I really need to go and visit Oxwich Bay.

Being

My preoccupation with the link between sanctuary and place was soon shattered through the introduction of a range of ways in which the respondents found their own version of sanctuary. We had activities (walking, rowing and reading), emotions (humour) and just interacting with the people you love. There was a strong emphasis on family here, as well as sharing time with people with similar passions or ideals.

I was now thinking that sanctuary was not solely dependent on your physical environment, but could just as easily be found through spending your time with the people who mean the most to you, or doing the activities that mean the most to you. Sanctuary was not just about seeing, it was about touching, hearing and most importantly, feeling.

A thought just popped into my head. I read ‘Playing The Enemy’ recently, within which John Carlin explores the links between Nelson Mandela capturing the hearts and minds of white South Africa and the Rugby World Cup of 1995 and I remember reading about how Mandela’s most cherished texts within prison were the Greek classics and the works of Shakespeare. So this man was trapped within a physical environment designed to break him down, but his ability to read, an activity which kept his mind alive, was absolutely his sanctuary.

All in the mind

The next idea that I was reminded of was that sanctuary is something that can be totally removed from the physical realm, as it is a place that you can travel to in your own mind.

Jackie spoke of finding sanctuary in her own imagination, a place where she has the space and time to reflect and create. Mike talked of a specific mind-set, an attitude which helps him guard against complacency and Ken and Karyn relate how they find sanctuary in their own minds, Karyn through prayer and Ken through a process he feels is akin to meditation.

So again, I’m now thinking that you don’t have to BE somewhere to find sanctuary, you don’t even have to be DOING anything in particular, you just have to be ready to travel there in your own mind.

The design and discipline of sanctuary

By now, having absorbed the answers I’d received and played around with them a little on paper, I was coming to some conclusions. What really struck me was that the people who had got back to me were not finding their own places of sanctuary by happy accident. Instead, they were exercising both design and discipline in creating a sanctuary that really worked for them, be it a place, an activity or a state of mind.

They were crafting their own sanctuaries and creating the design of their choice, either physically (decorating the office space or family room) or mentally (Ken visits the Arctic when he’s stuck on a sweltering tube carriage). These individuals had made the choice to be the architects of their own sanctuary.

And they were exercising discipline in making sure that they were able to reach their states of sanctuary. They had recognised where they were, how to get to them and that they could recognise when they needed to access them. I had a real sense that they were willing to work to ensure that their sanctuary gave them the most positive impact possible.

What I’m wondering now is, of the people who saw my original question, did some of them look at it, draw a blank and move on because they’d never thought enough about where they find their sanctuary? Perhaps not enough of us have exercised that design and discipline in identifying our sanctuary? Which would mean we would find it harder to get there and thus take longer to recover from setbacks or the problems that have been plaguing us.

I would guess that highly effective people, whatever field they might work in, have a very good handle on where their sanctuary is and can access it pretty swiftly. From a coaching angle, I think that I would enjoy working with people to help them identify their own sanctuary and recognise how they might access it when they need it.

Methods

Finally, a word on the methods I used for the first of these mini-projects. Basically, I really like using these social media tools. People could answer my question in a short sharp tweet, expand a little in a comment on my first post, or go hell for leather and write a blog post of their own, using pictures or video to add colour and insight. It’s powerful stuff and I’m keen to continue to play with it. If I’m going to get better at it though, I need to continue to build a meaningful network based on two-way communication. Twitter is based around the concept of the more you give, the more you get, which means that if I expect more people to respond when I throw out a question, I need to make sure I answer some more of their questions.

Thanks very much to all those who got back to me – much appreciated.

Please click here to find out about the question I'm asking around 'sanctuary'...

http://www.vimeo.com/5937651

You can also read more here....

www.alexjdawson.org.uk/?p=126

Thanks,

Alex

One of the most enjoyable aspects of completing my Diploma has been the opportunity to look back over the last nine months or so of learning and reflect on the ways in which my coaching practice has changed and developed.

I've recognised that the way that I write notes during a coaching session has undergone an evolution of sorts and that the notes I produce now are radically different from those from the sessions that were taking place last September and October.

Back then, I was trying to capture the session in the same way that I wrote when I was attending a lecture at university, lots of frenetic scribbling, desperately trying to keep up with the lecturer, bullet-point after bullet-point, traditional sentence structuring and a very linear approach. This was my tried and tested way of making notes, honed through years of school and further education, so it made sense that I would adopt it when I started working with my learners.

I soon became aware that not only was this style of note-taking proving to be a distraction during the session, in that capturing so much of what was happening on paper was preventing me from looking at the learner and seeing what was going on with them in terms of their body language, but it was also starting to feel like an overly-laborious process when it came to writing up my notes, post-session. I was reminded of my mum, a marriage counsellor, who would spend hours at the kitchen table, painstakingly writing her session notes.

Now, I daresay that Mum's process was right for her and right for her clients. But it didn't feel right for me. In terms of note-taking, I came to appreciate (with the help of my FCM!) that I wanted the onus to remain with the learner. I wanted them to take the responsibility for recording what actions they wanted to committ to and when they would complete them by. After all, they were their actions, not mine. However, I also recognised that I enjoyed taking notes and that if I did them in a different style, a more natural style that suited the demands of a coaching session, then they could still serve as a very valuable reference point for me.

I began to write my notes in a more 'mind-map' style and soon found that this method was much more effective for me. Firstly, it was much less labour intensive, with less words written and more opportunity to really focus in on the learner, maintain eye contact and sharpen the listening. Secondly, I was able to keep the notes to just one page and create a map of sorts that would chart the journey of each session. Using words, arrows, bubbles and symbols I could see how one of the learner's thoughts had lead to another and how those thoughts had combined to create a beautifully crafted idea or solution. On the page, the learner remained at the centre of the process and the (perhaps) too rigid 'beginning-middle-end' structure of linear note-taking was done away with. Thought patterns and themes became more easy to spot and the whole process began to feel more creative, rather than a chore.

With one of my more technologically minded learners, I used a website called Exploratree to copy the mind-map I had created in my notes. I sent them a link to the map, which they could then adapt or edit to suit their own needs and style.

I find this kind of technology exciting and I hope that it's going to be just one of the ways in which I continue to experiment with the way that I take notes.

This month sees my last round of meetings with my three learners, as part of my Diploma course, a period which began with the final session with my own coach, my splendid FCM.

Right now, it feels very much like I'll reach the end of the month feeling in the mood to quote that marvellous thespian, Mr. Vinnie Jones, in order to proclaim: "It's been emotional!". I have throughly enjoyed collaborating with my learners over the past seven months, being invited to be a part of their journey and having the opportunity to support their learning.

I'm sad that the relationships are coming to an end, but I'm equally satisfied that we've done some good work. To be honest, I'm also a little relieved that I'll now have a little more space to finish my reading, writing and reflecting, ensuring that I can get my assessment folder completed in time.

It feels like it is time to crack on, complete that final lap and finish this part of my learning journey. Avanti!

I've been pressured to start a blog on The Coachvine (or web-log as it has been defined) so here are some initial thoughts.

One of my main activities currently has been acting as Chair of the UK EMCC standards Committee helping to develop a European Individual Accreditation (EIA) programme. In the UK 25 individuals have applied for accreditation on a pilot scheme and the assessment, verification and approval processes I'm involved in are both rigorous and time consuming. Also of course a very rich learning experience that will contribute a lot to the final programme when it is launched across Europe in June this year. We'll be giving a progress report at the UK EMCC conference at Ashridge on April 7th / 8th and I'll be happy to go into more detail of this significant development there. So please contact me.

I'm also a regular reader and occasional contributor to the UK's leading coaching and mentoring publication from the CIPD, 'Coaching at work'. I thoroughly recommend it to all of you. And not just because last month it carried an article from me making the point that the volume of psychological inputs into current debates had almost drowned out inputs from other disciplines and given an unbalanced, and potentially dangerous, perspective of the importance of psychology in understanding coaching and mentoring which is a truly multidisciplinary profession. Please see "Out of mind" (Coaching at Work, vol 4, issue1,p19).

In this month's issue the Chair of the British Psychological Society (BPS) Special Interest Group has responded to my article and I hope you'll read it. You may think that she is simply quoting my own views just as a straight crib from my latest book as she presents a very reasonable and balanced view of how psychologists should position themselves in the ongoing debate. And I know many psychologists follow her advice. But a vocal minority do not I'm afraid. Her own claim in the article that coaching psychology is an 'allied' profession to coaching and her concern for the 'appropriate' use of psychology in coaching is a clue to the 'separate and superior' mindset that some of the psycho-politicians in the BPS have in relation to the non-psycho qualified members of the human race.

These Special Interest Groups of course have a valid and important role to play in the developing profession and I know from personal experience of working with practicing psychologists that most are heartedly fed up with the divisive politics that some individuals and organisations choose to play. Some of the organisations that I am a member of are particularly guilty on this count. But perhaps that is a topic for another day.