Enhancing 360-degree feedback for senior executives

In the past few years, management development has increasingly involved 360-degree feedback-an experience in which a person receives ratings of performance from peers, superiors, and subordinates; compares these with self-ratings; and perhaps gets limited coaching and sets goals for improvement. It is generally considered an effective development technique for all levels of management. Senior executives, however, because of the breadth of challenges they face, including personal challenges, sometimes require a richer feedback experience-one which also includes such information as detailed verbatim descriptions of performance, observations from family members and friends, pyschometric measures of personality and motivation, and data on early history, plus an extended coaching relationship with one or more professionals in leadership development. In this report, the authors offer guidelines for how this enhanced feedback can be provided safely and effectively.