Learning from Your 360-Degree Assessment

By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN

Many nurse leaders have the opportunity at some point in their careers to have a 360-degree leadership assessment. These assessments can be extremely valuable learning tools if viewed in the right way. Some leaders may feel insecure about the findings. I am currently working with a non-healthcare leader who is focused on figuring out who said what on the open-ended questions instead of trying to improve his leadership.

The reaction of insecurity is not uncommon if you have never had this type of assessment. While 360-degree assessments are routinely used in leadership development programs or executive coaching agreements, most organizations don’t make the investment of doing them with their leadership staff. This may be to avoid confusion about the differences between these assessments and performance evaluations. 360-degree leadership assessments are usually intended to be a developmental tool. Unlike a performance evaluation that is very tailored to specific job expectations, most 360-degree assessments are based on best practices in leadership. Feedback is described as 360 because it involves assessments from your supervisor, your peers, your direct reports, other observers and your own evaluation of yourself.

On the 360-degree assessments usually have a series of likert scale questions about leadership behaviors. They also usually include a few open-ended questions. Five that I particularly find valuable to get feedback include the following:

What is this leader’s key strength?
What should this leader do more of to increase their effectiveness?
What should this leader do less of to increase their effectiveness?
What should they continue doing in their leadership practice?
Is there one thing that this leader could do in order to support you to more effectively do your job to the best of your ability?

Once the process is completed, the leader receives aggregated scores. The intent is that they should be confidential. Especially important in a 360- degree assessment are the recurring themes from the ratings, and how closely aligned the self-rating is to the ratings of others. I once heard an executive coach use the metaphor of a movie theater. The leader is the movie and the supervisor, the leader’s staff and peers are the audience. Some people will really like the movie – others not so much but everyone probably has an opinion. It is the aggregated opinion that is most revealing. As one of my colleagues reflected after receiving her first 360 degree assessment – “this is like a social mirror for me”.

One of the best ways to grow as a leader is to receive a 360-assessment about your strengths and opportunities in leadership. The evidence indicates that, contrary to popular belief, asking for feedback from others in the organization is strongly correlated to a leader’s overall effectiveness. If you have the opportunity to do a 360 degree assessment, embrace it as a gift that can ultimately lead you to a much higher level of development and possibly success in the future.

Read Rose Sherman’s book available now – The Nurse Leader Coach: Become the Boss No One Wants to Leave

Read to Lead

Kouzes J.M. & Posner, B.Z. (2017). 360 Degree Leadership Practices Inventory Online.