I am shortly going to participate in my first formal 360 appraisal exercise, results to be used for my personal and career development. Theres a standard list covering the usual job/competence/approach questions, but theres also the opportunity for me to invent a few of my own.
To give you some context, I've been with the same company for 13 years, been promoted from office junior through to middle manager. My current perception of how colleagues view me can best be described as: "enthusiastic, innovative and hard-working non-specialist who lacks credibility with senior managers and doesn't always take people with her through change." Thanks!
Kate Francis
One Response
Use behavioural questions
Hi Kate
One tool you may want to use is the ‘STAR’ behavioural question and response. I specifically use it in behavioural interviews – but it is excellent for giving and receiving specific, behavioural feedback.
STAR stands for Situation/Task, Action and Result.
Ask for feedback which covers all three – what the situation was, what they saw you do (Action) and the outcome (Result). Then ask for their recommended action for a better result in a similar situation.
e.g. ‘You say I lack lack credibility with senior managers, can you give me an example of when you saw me doing some that encouraged this – what would you recommend I do differently?’
Push for a complete ‘STAR’ response. e.g. ‘so the task I was doing at the time was…’, ‘can you remember what I specifically said/did?’, ‘How did you/they feel/respond?’.
Get them to focus on a real situation rather ‘you usually do xyz’. Push back for specifics.
Then ask ‘in a similar situation what could I do (or better still, ‘what have you done in the past?’) to gain credibility?’, ‘And if I did that, what would be the result?’
Hope this helps, good luck
Annah