“Dan” was flustered. He thought he had led his team of vice presidents with clarity and decisiveness.
Instead, based on my 360 interviews with his CFO, CTO, CRO, HR leader and executive assistant, they reported back that he was:
“Vague in the direction of the business.”
“Changed his mind on what the business should focus on.”
“Unclear in his verbal discussions, with little to no written confirmation.”
“Disengaged with the reality of the business.”
“Too easily influenced by the latest business or strategy book.”
While this short post can easily dive into topics like ‘CEO vision or focus’, or ‘clarity of communication,’ or ‘how to effectively motivate teams with a pivot,’ or ‘leading without micromanaging,’ etc., this tip is really about using 360 reviews.
Every quarter, I conduct the following and it is amazingly effective at getting real ‘game film’ (as a coach, I don’t get to watch my CEOs in action most of the time, and not all personal reports from them are accurate 😉 ):
I set up 20 minute interviews with the CEO’s direct reports (which often include their life partner or spouse - more on that in another post).
I ask them what rating they would give on the two or three goals that the CEO has declared for the time period - using a score of 1 through 5 (5 is excellent).
I then ask their verbatim feedback on what the CEO had done well, and what they need to improve on, and with their permission, include that in a Google spreadsheet.
As the CEO coach, every quarter, I can then provide a quantitative score on even soft skills by averaging the numbers provided by their reports, and also share qualitative input on areas of progress and improvement needs.
This assumes a healthy relationship between the CEO and the direct reports, and even if not the best, with the permission of those being interviewed, I can provide either anonymous verbatim statements or ‘neutralized’ feedback that still gets the message across.
There’s more to share, but just hoping this helps ignite an idea or two for you.
And I would love to hear of other ways to get accurate performance feedback that is simple and effective.
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