A 360° Review is Not a Performance Evaluation in Business and at Work

Truth be told, I’m not a fan of the traditional 360° review. If not structured properly, it can be a decidedly unprofessional anonymous popularity (or unpopularity) survey, complete with potentially demeaning and at times discriminatory language – a tool of subjective and mean-spirited personal destruction, rather than a tool supporting professional productivity and success – the tool’s original intention.

The Everything DiSC® 363 for Leaders is a much more professional tool; the raters (managers, peers, other team members, customers and vendors) are limited to professional and compliant pre-populated drop-down (professional and compliant are important goals in using this and other HR tools, to avoid adverse impact against protected-class categories of employees) responses, making it a more objective professional development tool – a sample report can be found at the link, below:

Everything DiSC® Sample 363 Report

The 363 report more appropriately empowers both the professional and their supervisor with the same relatively objective and data-thorough report to have a meaningful and productive career / executive development conversation in support of the professional’s success, allowing equal focus on the professional’s strengths and developmental areas, particularly in the areas of interpersonal communication and overall leadership.

Where any type of 360° review is most abused is when the supervisor uses the results as a substitute for the performance review that the supervisor should have written – the ultimate sin of supervisory laziness. The 360° is not a substitute for supervision and regular performance feedback (ideally, on a monthly or quarterly basis, ditching the useless and stress-inducing annual performance review).

How do you ensure that 360° reviews are used as professional development (and not performance evaluation weapons) tools in business and at work?