A 360-leadership competency assessment is a great tool to improve skill development for leaders and managers.
There are many tools on the market but in this article, I will explore the one from SurveySparrow who contacted me about making a video on their software.
Leadership Competencies can vary from one assessment to another, so it is best to use competencies that you know come from a trusted source. Some assessments come with pre-determined competencies that cannot be changed, while others give you the option to use your own.
I decided I would test the SurveySparrow tool on myself, and my first inclination was to use competencies that I had written for my paper version of a manager skill assessment. However, after reviewing the default leadership competencies of the SurveySparrow tool, I decided to use those to keep things simple.
The important thing to keep in mind is that a 360-degree evaluation survey is a development tool, not a performance assessment. You need to approach this from the perspective of using the tool to increase self-awareness and learn where improvement is needed.
There should be a high level of trust between all contributors so the person being surveyed feels that this is being done in their best interests.
The 360-degree survey can be used for any position but the most common is leadership and management.
Competencies
The SurveySparrow 360-degree survey for leadership is divided into 7 sections with several questions in each. The sections are:
- Leadership Skills
- Communication Skills
- Team Skills
- Organizational Skills
- Creativity Skills
- Interpersonal Skills
- Organizational Alignment
A 360-degree assessment is designed to get feedback from all those who work with the person being evaluated. The participants would be the person themself, their boss, their peers, and direct reports.
The SurveySparrow tool allows for complete customization. This includes the number of competencies and the scoring levels.
At the end of each section there is a place to add text explaining your reasoning for the scores you gave. I found this very helpful feedback.
There is also a section at the very end to type in your development plan of action. This can be done by the boss after discussion with the person being evaluated. Or it could also be a coach hired by the organization. You can try SurveySparrow for free and should you decide to subscribe to their software, here is a code to receive a 25% discount StephenSurveySparrow25
