Date: Wednesday, October 18, 2023
Time: 1:00pm Eastern / 10:00 am Pacific
Presenters:
Skylar de Jong, OD Consultant & Coach
Sara Isom, OD Consultant & Coach
Tom Boots, Executive Coach
Mike Wilson, Executive Coach
360 feedback is a valuable tool for self-improvement, but it can also be daunting. This webinar will show you how to use coaching to make the most of your 360 feedback experience.
This webinar is for anyone who has ever received 360 feedback, or is about to receive it. It’s also for coaches who want to learn how to help their clients get the most out of their 360 feedback experience.
Transcript
Skylar de Jong | 00:02
It looks like we’re about at starting time. Welcome everybody, and we’ll give, we’ll, I’m sure we’ll have some people funnel in over the next 10, 15 minutes. We usually have some late stragglers. Um, but I, I wanna get things kicked off because we have some really good guests today and I don’t wanna, uh, delay too much from some of the, the meat of what we’ll cover. Um, so we will be talking about, you know, coaching for 360 feedback. So whenever we’ve got 360 assessments, we highly recommend some coaching. We’ll talk about why, and, and then we’ll just talk about some of the best practices and things we’ve seen in our individual coaching. And, um, there’ll be time for questions as well for those attending in attendance today. Feel free to put your, your questions in the chat, uh, throughout. We’ll also save some time towards the end to field some questions. We’ll have around 10 to 15 minutes towards the end. We’ll save you for some questions. So, uh, let us know what you’re interested in and you have, you know, some experts in the room that can, can give you some good feedback around that.
Skylar de Jong | 01:10
As we go through, there’s really three things I’m gonna cover. Uh, one, I’m gonna cover some logistics and some setting the stage. And then I want to get to some discussion where we’re, we will talk some best practices and then we will, we’ll open it up to questions towards the end. Um, as for logistics today, those of you attending, you do get, we will, we are recording this first off, so know you’re being recorded. And we’re gonna upload this reviewing later too. So if you can’t stick around the whole time, we’ll be recording this session and you can access it via our YouTube channel later. Um, also though, those in attendance, you get SHRM and HRCI credit for in attendance to this. We have monthly webinars, and so you can come to any of our monthly webinars and you’re gonna get credit for, for SHRM or HRCI.
Skylar de Jong | 02:01
So come in and, and enjoy the, the, the featured content we put on. We try to make sure we’re, we’re putting together some really good stuff, um, on the topics of employee engagement, on leadership development, on coaching, and some of those best practices. As mentioned today. You can, you know, engage via the chat, ask some questions throughout, um, and get involved. We want to hear what you have to say today. Uh, just before I dive in, something I do wanna talk about is decision, decision-wise. I mean, we’re here decision-wise, Sarah and I, uh, employees of decision-wise consultants and coaches here. We have Tom and Mike, we’ll introduce here shortly. They partner with us, but we’ve spent decades of decision-wise, creating and managing employee surveys, employee listening, and we’ve worked with thousands of organizations, uh, all throughout different industries. And we’re continually testing and validating our survey questions and, and looking at the different databases we have for benchmark comparisons.
Skylar de Jong | 03:05
So we’re, we’re reliable. We come with tons of experience in the survey, experi survey Arena, and even in the, the 360 assessment arena where we’re doing some leadership development and assessment. So check us out, check out our website. We want, we definitely want you to, to, to look more into what we’re doing and engage with us and become one of our clients if you’re not already. Um, and we wanna provide some solutions for you. As I mentioned, where we specialize on employee listing, we do all sorts of surveys. Um, we know that you’re dedicated to listening to your employees voice and making sure they’re heard every step of the way. So we have annual surveys that we do. We do pulse surveys, whether they’re, you know, on a timeframe. We do ad hoc surveys with pulsing, and then we do some onboarding and exit surveys with your employees, and then even anniversaries.
Skylar de Jong | 03:56
So every year or every five years, uh, you know, anniversary of people being with your organization, you can put out a survey, you know, asking how they’re doing, taking a pulse on how they’re doing from there, this bottom layer here, 360 degree feedback is really the basis of leadership development and, uh, is something that we’ve built our whole company around too. It is a foundational thing, and we’re gonna talk more about that today. Um, so without further ado, I do want to more formally introduce our, our presenters today, and I’ll actually give them a chance to, to introduce themselves and what they work with. Um, but we’ll start with Sarah, then we’ll go Mike and Tom. So Sarah, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself and then we’ll go from there. Okay.
Sara Jane Isom | 04:42
So my name is Sarah Jane Em, uh, like together mentioned. I am a consultant here at Decision wise as well as a coach. Um, I come to decision wise with a variety of backgrounds. I’ve worked in the entertainment industry for over 20 years. I worked in hr, um, for 15, 20 years. Um, on that side of it, in the business side, I’ve done a lot of coaching, um, in lots of different areas. I’ve worked with, uh, military leaders. My husband was active duty military. Um, I’ve worked, uh, in manufacturing, banking, real estate, uh, just, oh, just a lot of different areas, marketing. Um, and I, my favorite part about business is developing people and developing, um, and creating an environment that allows people to engage with the best sides of themselves. So I’m happy to be here.
Skylar de Jong | 05:40
Thanks Sarah. Mike. Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Mike Wilson | 05:45
Alright. Hey, I’m Mike Wilson. Um, and a little bit about my background. I started my career with a Fortune 500 medical device company, Becton Dickinson, and, uh, and then ventured into entrepreneurship. Co-founded a, a, uh, a medical device training company during the.com era. That didn’t last too long ’cause the.com bubble blew up. Um, and then got into, uh, this area of leadership development and training. Worked for a couple of fantastic organizations, uh, crucial Learning and the Arbiter Institute and, um, for about 20 years. And then, um, ventured out on my own into executive and leadership coaching, which, which I’m doing now. And my, my passion is really, um, working with executives, leaders, business owners, helping them to, to really be, become, and, and do extraordinary in, uh, in their, in their life and in their business and at work. And so, yeah, it’s a little bit about me.
Tom Boots | 06:46
Awesome.
Skylar de Jong | 06:47
Thanks Mike. Tom, tell us a little bit about yourself.
Tom Boots | 06:51
Thank you, Skylar. Yeah, I’m Tom Boots and I serve as a coach for decision wise as well. I’ve been a coach and a, an organizational development and learning and development consultant for about 30 years, working with companies of all sizes as well as many federal agencies. And, uh, Sarah, like yourself, I worked with military quite a bit, army and Navy and Air Force and Marines, actually all, all four of the majors there. And a little bit with Coast Guard actually too. So anyway, I, my favorite part of what I do really is helping leaders foster cultures that enable people to perform at their best and also feel the most engaged and happy about their careers.
Skylar de Jong | 07:44
Awesome. I love that. Um, then I, I, I neglected to introduce myself. Let me also share the two bits about me. Um, so Skylar de Young, I’ll be moderating today, kind of facilitating the conversation, also participating. Um, but here, decision wise, I’m one of our consultants and, and coaches. We do 360 coaching. We employee engagement. Um, I’ve been with decision wise for nearly three years. Uh, previous decision wise, I have worked in consulting and client facing roles in many different areas, specifically within finance and tech industries. Um, I come with a, a Juris doctorate and an MBA, I’m too educated. I’ve spent too much of my, my wife and i’s muddy on some, some degrees and hopefully leveraging them and helping coach some leaders. And to, to what Tom kind of added on is we get into, we do some consulting and some coaching. I find the coaching is one of the most meaningful aspects of my role here, decision-wise, where I get to have some one-on-one connections with individuals.
Skylar de Jong | 08:46
And that’s what makes me excited to talk about some of the best practices we see in those coaching sessions and what we’re doing with leaders. And, and, and even to hear from, from Tom and Mike, there’s some of two of our external coaches that we partner with regularly. They do more executive level coaching and more long-term relationships. Sarah and I will oftentimes do 360 coaching. We’ll do one or two sessions with individuals, and then if, if people want longer term coaching within, say, well, let’s introduce you to Mike and Tom and a couple other coaches we’ve got in our network. So, um, excited to have them with us today. Before we get to some discussion, I do wanna set the stage a little bit about the importance of coaching. So that was actually some of the marketing is what, you know, how important it is to have 360 coaching.
Skylar de Jong | 09:33
If you’re doing 360 assessments in your organization, we highly, highly recommend having coaching done with that. Now, we’ve done some research. We, uh, obviously we know the value of it because we’re in those sessions and seeing the value in one-on-ones. But we did some further, you know, research on saying, well, why are 360 coaching necessary? Why is some sort of debrief or understanding of the report so necessary? And what we did a few years back is we actually had a client that had 244 leaders. This was a large Fortune 500 business, and they did, they did some 360 assessments with these 244 leaders. And we went, this is a great opportunity for us to gather some feedback from these individuals. We, we ran 360 assessments and then we included internal coaching and had some coaching available for them. We trained their individuals to do some coaching and it wasn’t mandatory.
Skylar de Jong | 10:30
They had the option to, to engage a coach within their organization. But these leaders all did go through a 360 assessment. After a few months after that period where we did the, the 360 assessments with these leaders, we, we gave them a follow-up survey. And the, the questions you see here, what we asked, we really just wanted to be short and sweet and gather some data. So we asked if they had got coaching, if they felt like they’d got sufficient coaching, um, if they’d created some goals and a development plan, and then if they had met with their manager and had some follow-up conversations. And then the third thing was, or the, well, the fourth thing I should say, the third thing was the regular conversations. The fourth was overall, was this an effective process? Did you find this valuable? And the results were pretty astounding and validating for us as coaches and as an organization.
Skylar de Jong | 11:21
What we saw was 94% of people who said that they had enough coaching and set goals also said this was an effective process. So if they got the adequate coaching and set some goals and took action based off of it, 94% of people said, this was great. We really valued new 360 experience. On the flip side, those who didn’t experience any coaching, we saw 34% of them say this is an effective experience. Now, I myself have had this experience when I was an undergrad. I was in the leadership role and they had us do a 360 assessment when I was back in my wheel days in my early twenties. And, and I didn’t get any coaching coming out of it. And I remember having a negative experience. I read through like a 25 page report and I focused on all the negative aspects of the feedback.
Skylar de Jong | 12:15
And I did not really have a great experience. And so I’ve personally have seen like the value of coaching, but this was super validated to see that individuals surveyed also didn’t really enjoy the experience nearly as much if they didn’t have the proper lenses put in by a, a coach. So let me, and last thing for setting the stage, I wanna talk about what we’re gonna focus in today and, and the questions. And as we, we decided on what are we gonna talk about, we’ve got some of the best coaches, how are we talk about just best practices in general? And what I followed was we, we do a certification course here at, at, at decision wise. And as part of that certification course, we have all sorts of different resources on how best to do coaching. But we have a process workflow, which is pretty foundational to having a, a really good coaching session coming off of a 360.
Skylar de Jong | 13:10
And these are the major steps that we have through that workflow. I’m actually not gonna spend a ton of time going through this. I’m not gonna go through the details, uh, of each of these stages. You’ll have to join us for one of our certification courses to see some more of that. But what we wanted to focus on today, and what I wanted to talk to Tom and Mike and Sarah maybe add my 2 cents on, were these first three categories of building rapport in those coaching sessions, defining the roles that you have in that session. What is the role of a coach? What, what should they expect? Um, and then establishing priorities. How can we help them set some goals and talk about their goals? And we’re gonna have some discussion around these three major things. Now, in my coaching as I get into a session, we, we regularly have 90 minute coaching sessions after 360 debrief.
Skylar de Jong | 14:02
It’s a long report. We wanna give people the chance. We usually find that if we do them in 60 minutes, we’re really cut short on time. But as on my coaching sessions, honestly, I’m oftentimes hitting 30 and 40 minutes just covering these three things. And we’ll, we’ll dive into those a little bit more. So I’m gonna stop talking here in a moment. And I want to dive in first on building that rapport and setting things up for coaching. And Tom, I’m gonna go to you first. ’cause as we had a discussion kind of preparing for this, I really liked something you, you kind of started touching on of, um, well, before we even get into the session, hopefully we’ve, we’ve set up some of what the session’s gonna be. And you talked about, you know, how are we setting that up and what are some of the best practices? And I, I wanted to just kind of field you, do you mind sharing some of the thoughts you had around how
Tom Boots | 14:53
Can we even set up the session before we get into it? Yeah, well, before we get into it. And you know, when, uh, first of all, one of the key pieces to me is that the coaching itself, that people embrace it as an opportunity. And part of what helps with that is if it’s not mandated. Now in some organizations, they feel like, Hey, we’ve got to require it, because people won’t take advantage of it if they don’t. And I understand that and, and, you know, we’ll work with that too. I mean, we do, we often work with that. But when people come into this with the idea that, uh, this is about my development and this is an opportunity to be vulnerable with someone, it’s not gonna be reported back. There’s, you know, always that sense of confidentiality is important. And if they see that it’s not about their performance.
Tom Boots | 15:52
’cause you know, all, all of the three sixties that we recommend, uh, related to this kind of assessment, it’s for development. It’s not for your performance review. And so emphasizing that, emphasizing that this is a snapshot in time and it’s related to people’s perceptions and perceptions how, you know, we, we, they, they come from everyone else’s experiences, not just of you, but in their own lives and where they are in their careers, where they, how they interface with you, the, the power dynamics, all these things. They’re all important and they’re actually really critical for you to understand the organizational dynamics and how you’re coming across as a leader. And then what if the common, what are the common themes? So I try to set that up at the beginning after we first chat a little bit about the rapport. Sure. But preparing people to come into that with that mindset, uh, I think that’s really key because, you know, and but building the rapport part of building the rapport is really building trust as well. Because this is a conversation where things, where people feel vulnerable, this is, you know, what we’re trying to help people do is, is yes, go through process their emotions. We’re not therapists here, we’re coaches, but they will experience those emotions and helping them process through that, set that aside for a moment, and then be able to really look at the data in a way that, uh, does not feel quite as scary. And where we can say, we’ve got some power here to take this and do something helpful with it.
Skylar de Jong | 17:44
Yeah. And I, I love that. And, uh, I’ve actually, Sarah and I were chatting about the vulnerability aspect before I, I want her to share a bit about that here in a moment, but I wanna push on one thing that I, I love that you said, even towards the beginning of, ideally this is about development, right? They should be about development. And that should have been like, communicated before we ever get into a coaching session. Sadly, as coaches, sometimes we show up, we don’t know what the person has, has been told. And that’s where we get to, to build that rapport and kind of make them comfortable. But I think that before the coaching session even begins, there’s a lot of things we’re hoping in crossing our fingers that the organization has done. Um, Sarah, I see you kind of nodding on that too. Like, what are some of the things you’re hoping that the, the team has done before we even show up to a coaching session?
Sara Jane Isom | 18:38
Um, I’d love that. I loved, uh, I’m hoping that they’ve looked at the report, um, and, uh, and just by looking at the report, usually that will put them a little bit of, in a, in a vulnerable, vulnerable spot to begin with because it, they, uh, there’s usually some surprises in there for them. And so, um, um, and so it’s hard to come in and be vulnerable, especially with a stranger. Um, it’s harder to, it’s hard to come in and, and talk about things that they want to improve, um, even if they want it. And so one of the ways that I like to build rapport actually comes from, um, my time doing theater, um, is when I would have people come in and audition. You know, that’s a very vulnerable thing to do, to sing in front of someone <laugh>. And, and so, uh, for them to do their best, I want them to feel as comfortable as possible.
Sara Jane Isom | 19:38
And so, uh, usually helping them just like, just chat, just do like some small talk. I usually don’t get to business right away, you know, ask about what’s going on in their life. Do they have any pets? Do they have any kids? Do they, um, you know, I’ll talk about anything. I like your shirt. Where did you get it? Where do you like to shop? You know, just anything that I can find that can just break the ice and just have it very, um, calm and comfortable. And then I will often share something that might be a little bit vulnerable for me, because I have found that if I am vulnerable first, that it allows them to be vulnerable. And so, um, I might share something about being a mother, I might share, um, you know, that I, I tend to be a workaholic and I’m trying to be good about, you know, cutting back my hours or just something that I don’t drop a bomb on them <laugh>, but just something small that I can show that it’s okay to be vulnerable and we’re in a safe place here.
Skylar de Jong | 20:51
Yeah. I think setting that, that stage of you’re in a comfortable place. I mean, Tom even talked about we’re not a therapist, but we do want people to open up and be vulnerable. Mike, what, what are some things you’re doing to set that stage and, and set, set it up so that people can feel comfortable?
Mike Wilson | 21:07
Yeah. Well, well first, I don’t know if you can see, I have a little bit of a black eye right here. And
Skylar de Jong | 21:12
Are you getting in a fight, which with your coaches,
Mike Wilson | 21:13
Or is that, that’s, that’s what happens when you don’t build good rapport in the coaching session? So, um, <laugh> Yeah. Yeah. And I love what’s been said a a couple things that, that I’ve seen that, that tend to help, um, to lay the foundation here and build that rapport is, as a coach, support the organization, right? That, hey, this is, this is an, it’s an invitation in to, to growth and development rather than a calling out, right? Rather than a report card on your performance. And so supporting the organization as a coach is just really important to help that coachee, um, you know, feel at ease and, and, and comfortable. Um, you know, I think also, um, the, uh, that vulnerability is so important that, uh, you know, was mentioned, uh, and as we can share, you know, our own vulnerability, that that goes, that goes a long way.
Mike Wilson | 22:11
So, um, seeing them, you know, uh, being, being vulnerable ourselves, being kind of real ourselves, um, maybe sharing, uh, my experience like, like, uh, um, with 360, uh, a little bit, you know, is, is helpful too. Um, there, there is a nice little tool that coaches use, um, and, and I don’t know if it was mentioned or not, but, but giving people a little space. So you take the, you take the 360, but then give them a couple of days, you know, with it to kind of sit with it is, is, is helpful too. Um, but it, it is very common to come in and seeing some negative, you know, that we perceive as, as negative feedback or, or lower scores than what we thought in certain areas. And so, um, realizing that we go kind of through, through this, uh, uh, what’s, uh, there’s an acronym for it, Sarah, right? There’s a surprise and there’s, uh, maybe a little bit of, of, of anger <laugh> at, Hey, I had this negative feedback, which builds a resistance in me toward it. And, uh, but then we kind of, as we’re sitting with it for a while, we kind of can see, all right, um, what can I learn with it? And if you have that, that mindset that, that Tom mentioned of, uh, development, right? Rather than performance, then it’s like, Hey, where can I go from here? Anyway, those are a couple things that, uh, found, I found helpful.
Skylar de Jong | 23:41
Yeah. Now that C model is powerful. We, we talk about it in our coaching sessions, we talk about it in our coaching training. Um, and for those that are thinking about like the stages of grief, it very much is aligned with those, right? You’re processing new information, you might be surprised, you might be angry, you might be resistant. And ultimately we want you to get to that acceptance stage. Um, as I’ve been in a lot of coaching sessions, uh, we’ve, we’ve definitely seen that you’re gonna have people show up to those at all stages of that. Sometimes they’ll only read their report five minutes before. They still might just be shocked. And, and having that set in, um, they might be frustrated and angry and be stuck on a comment. Um, or they might be an acceptance stage. Sometimes I do get people that are like, oh, I’m really glad I got this feedback.
Skylar de Jong | 24:35
And, uh, people process through that in all different ways. But as a coach, we’ve definitely gotta go to where they’re at. And that’s something I’ve learned. And, and I, I like that, you know, the examples you’ve shared of being somewhat vulnerable and finding some connection, um, it’s, it is, I, I feel like this is actually the most important thing to me, is that building rapport in the session, this will set the tone for the whole coaching session if I’m able to connect with them. Great. And I’m trying, and I, some people have the walls up and there’s no chance at all, and I might fill that out in the next, in the first 10 minutes or so. Um, and that’s fine, right? They’re all coming from different, different spots. Uh, but, you know, I, I found that especially on Fridays, I’m more relaxed as a coach.
Skylar de Jong | 25:25
The weekends coming, and I have some of the most enjoyable conversations where I’ve talked to people. I remember one person I was working with, they had, I think about a hundred rubber ducks on their desk. And of course I had to talk about that, and we talked about that for like 10, 15 minutes, and she ended up sending me a rubber duck coming out of that. And so, uh, <laugh>, but we talked about various different rubber duck collections we have. Um, but those types of things, and building rapport can be really important. Tom looks like you, you had something to add to that?
Tom Boots | 26:02
Yeah, thanks. Uh, I was just thinking about, you know, when you talk about that, sometimes people have those walls up and, you know, again, in the workplace, we, we all learn as professionals. When we say act professionally, a lot of the time, we mean, you know, wearing a certain kind of suit of armor or having particular walls up or putting ourselves in a role that we, that, that the culture defines for us, the culture we work within those things, we’re, we’re asking people to let us behind that curtain a little bit. And, you know, when you mention the Sarah model and the shock and the anger, I would rather start to see a little of that than just the wall. Yeah. And that’s something that we as coaches learn to accept and deal with. Uh, if sometimes we can get, I don’t, I don’t really mind which emotion it is.
Tom Boots | 27:01
Sometimes we get people laughing. That’s part of that bonding and that building tr if we can laugh together, then, you know, that’s even, that’s great. I’d love to get there. But if we can’t get there, then, you know, let’s get to the angle, or let’s get to sadness at first. What’s behind the sadness? Because one of the other things thinking here, and I don’t want to go too deep into, again, we’re not talking therapy, but we are talking about getting people to action. And if you think of emotion words, if you ever deal with empathetic listening or active listening, we’re listening and watching for people to have energetic reactions, not passive reactions. And so something like sadness or apathy or disdain, those are not going to engage me as much. So getting people to the, to the things like the anger is actually an energetic emotion. So we can use that hopefully and move that on to, okay, you’re angry about what are we gonna do about it in a productive way that aligns with your own goals and with the culture of the organization now, you know, now we’ve got something to work at. Anyway, that’s what came to mind when you were talking about that, this guy.
Skylar de Jong | 28:15
Well, it is true. Like, uh, I, I agree as a coach, I’m regularly getting into those sessions and, and hoping that I’m seeing some emotion, because when I’m seeing a stone wall, I also know that this isn’t gonna be as productive. Um, because as a coach, I, and I, I’ll share this even towards the beginning, and this is somewhat getting into like defining roles some of the next stage. But, um, I’ll regularly talk about how as a coach, I’m here to come to you, I want to see where you’re at and understand where you’re at. And if, if there, you know, if we built that proper rapport, the chances of them letting us in and being vulnerable is that much higher. Um, that’s why I do feel like this is really, really big deal. I had one other thought that I just kind of noted.
Skylar de Jong | 29:05
It was from earlier, actually. Uh, Tommy mentioned something around, ideally this isn’t a mandatory exercise that they have to have a coaching session. Um, and <laugh>, we definitely, it is interesting from our perspective where we’re selling three sixties and we’re selling coaching sessions. We’re saying, well, you should have coaching sessions. You should buy them and make them an, an option, but you should be educating and encouraging them along the way. Something we do with organizations that is a best practice, but sadly not all organizations take us up on it, is we’ll do a pre-webinar, or we’ll say, well, let’s get your participants together and talk to them about the process. Let’s make sure we, we reduce any anxiety around it. I mean, getting a lot of feedback from different people can be an anxiety ridden experience. And so in those, those pre webinars, we’ll oftentimes talk about here’s what the process can look like, here’s what the timeline is, but then we’ll share that Sarah model too with the participants and even raters and say, here’s what to expect.
Skylar de Jong | 30:08
Um, and I found that as we do those, uh, or even if we have internally, we don’t have to do that. We can, you know, help our clients do that as well. But you, if you’re communicating what the purpose of the 360 is, and it’s about development, we’re investing in you, and here’s the resources and here’s the process, they’re much more likely to, to utilize coaching and then also have a really positive experience in it. It’s those people who get into the sessions who have their walls up that I go, yeah, you were probably told by your supervisor, you have to be here. I don’t say that, but that’s kind of what’s coming through that messaging oftentimes. Tom, did you have a, a note to add to that?
Tom Boots | 30:49
Well, I was just thinking about, you know, another thing that organizations can help with in preparing for the sessions before people get the results, for sure. But even at the beginning of the process, when they’re first inviting people to, if, you know, some organizations assign who is going to respond to your 360 other ones, allow you to invite people. I, I like to encourage people to invite, uh, one or two people that, you know, know you the best. One or two people who, uh, who you, you know, frankly have a little challenge knowing whether or not they, they, they see all of you or what they see about you, you’re not really sure because this is a moment of building awareness. And then in that process that when we’re asking people, we’re introducing the 360 to, to let people know that, look, almost all the time you’re going to get, you know, 90% to where more or more, whatever that percentage is. And I, I would like to actually look at, dig into the decision wise data for this, and you may know it already one of you, but how many people receive at least one piece of feedback that feels really triggering? You know, what percent, 90%
Skylar de Jong | 32:10
Seems low to me. I feel
Tom Boots | 32:11
Exactly
Skylar de Jong | 32:11
Like 99%
Tom Boots | 32:13
Of people. Sure. Right? And so letting people know that, yes, it’s a challenging process, but that when you get it, you know, we, we all go through it and it’s part of growth. It’s just like learning to ride a bike and you fall occasionally, you skin your palms, your hands or your knees, and you get back up and then gradually you figure out, oh wow, I can keep going. I’m not gonna fall anymore. Except in extreme situations, this is part of building that and becoming an effective leader in the, or an even more effective leader, it takes a lot of those kind of, you know, semi painful, stressful experiences that help us grow and grow and grow. And then we start to maybe be hungry for more feedback because we realize that through that we can just continue to develop.
Skylar de Jong | 33:03
Yeah, as you go ahead, Mike, actually I wanna hear from you and then I’ll add it. Um,
Mike Wilson | 33:08
Just, just a quick add to that from Tom, which was, which was great, is that, uh, when, when the leaders, um, who are organizing this, the 360 in an organization, um, when they’ll model this, right, when they’ll step in and, and take it themselves and do it themselves, it also sends a a really huge message that, hey, we are development, right? Uh, as a leader, um, that’s the, a huge message to send leaders lead. And so if they’re stepping into this, you know, initially and being a part of the process and that, that that drops the anxiety throughout the organization. And so that was just one, one thing to add on top of what, uh, Tom mentioned.
Skylar de Jong | 33:51
No, that’s again, program medically, like that’s a huge best practice of ours is, you know, don’t just distribute these throughout middle management. ’cause again, that’ll feel like it’s about performance. But if you have your c-suite, your executives going through 360, say SMS as well, and talking about how they’re developing and improving and having the proper coaching and conversations that are coming out of this, you’re gonna create a desire within your organization where it’s all of a sudden gonna become rather than punitive or about, like I said, about performance, or that’s the feeling, it’s all of a sudden gonna be like, well wait, our CEO’s going through this. I wanna model that. I wanna model our, our CEOO, and they’re going through these things. I want that. And it, it creates that desire that, yeah, I want the leadership development too, and just reinforces that. Sarah, I see you nodding. Did you have any other thing to add to that? I want to,
Sara Jane Isom | 34:43
Yeah, so I’m thinking, uh, part of like establishing rapport and then it goes in, um, really quickly to me with defining roles, like it kind of bleeds into it really quickly, is I ask them what kind of leader they think they are and what kind of leadership style they, they like, or, you know, because that helps me know how they see themselves. Because even though we talk about how Thomas was talking earlier about perceptions, um, I think it’s important for them to understand that they’re bringing their perception to the conversation as well. And so understanding their perception, where they’re coming from and how they see themselves, um, is good to talk about as well. And then I can gauge some, like how much self-awareness is there, because that can really flow into the conversation as we get into the competencies later. And then the next thing that I wanted to talk about is a little bit, um, what Mike mentioned earlier about, um, the support of the organization.
Sara Jane Isom | 35:45
And one of the things that I said, regardless of why you think you’re here, regardless of what the organization decided on why you’re here, we’re here for an hour and a half to talk about you, and you get to drive the conversation and you get to, um, we can make this as much as you want it to be. And so regardless of even some of the expectations you might have had coming in, we can set these expectations now and have a really great conversation and, um, drive the growth that you want. Um, how, you know, however you wanna do that.
Skylar de Jong | 36:24
I love that, Sarah, and I’m glad you brought that up. That was actually something i, I intended to touch on because we do sometimes have people coming in walls up and we, we need to try to break those down as much as possible. And a leader here, uh, decision wise has said, you know, I try to flip it on its head and say, how lucky are we that we have 90 minutes to talk about you and your development? Right? And that’s kind of like the, the, the adjustment of that vision and what we’re gonna be doing. ’cause oftentimes people come in with the attitude of like, really gonna spend 90 minutes, I don’t have 90 minutes. I’m super busy. What am I doing here? And, and really just by framing it that way and saying, Hey, we’re gonna talk about your development. This is 90 minutes for you.
Skylar de Jong | 37:08
Um, let’s do this and let’s dive in. And what, what’s helpful for you? Um, again, as a coach, going to where they’re at, uh, is a huge part of that for sure. Um, okay. I had another thought, but I’m sure it’ll come back. I love these conversations. Did you get some coaches in a room? We’ll, we’ll, we’ll go off on lots of different tangents and I should set the expectation. We wanted to talk about all these different topics, but we may not get to all of them. I do wanna move along and I want to talk about the next major stage, uh, that we’ll see in these sessions. And by the way, if I were to talk about like, my timing, get it a 90 minute session that the building rapport 20, 20, 30 minutes. And if it’s going well, that’s a, that’s a really good valuable piece of that because going through the rapport, I’ll explain the ins and outs of it, but if I can get to a place where I’m spending some time connecting with them, that’s gonna make the rest of the session so good. But this next part I don’t spend as much time on per se, but it’s also pretty paramount. Um, Sarah, you and I talked a little bit about this. We’ve got some things we’ll talk about, and I think we’ve, even, even all of us have touched on it a bit, but how are you purposefully define some roles in your co coaching session, Sarah, then we’ll, we’ll go from there too. Around the room.
Sara Jane Isom | 38:32
Yeah. Well, kind of how I mentioned before, how it bleeds right into defining roles is after I felt like I have some good rapport with them, I actually, um, very clearly state. I said, now, this may seem obvious to you, but I’m just going to set some expectations or, or define our roles so that you, you know, what you’re getting into and you know what you’re getting out of me. And so, um, I usually just say, I am, I’m here as a coach. Um, I’m not here to tell you what to do. I’m here to help you figure it out. And, and we can work that through together. I tease them that I’m not their therapist, <laugh>, I can’t prescribe any medication for anything. We’re going to talk about <laugh>. Um, I usually get that usually helps people laugh and, um, and feel a little bit more comfortable.
Sara Jane Isom | 39:25
Um, but then I say, you know, I tell them that I’m here to leave you in a place like for an action plan. I’m here to help you develop an action plan. And so it’s not just to talk about the data, but I’m here to help move you forward. And then I say, what I ask from you then is that you can be open and vulnerable, bring your context, your personal experiences, your um, your perspectives, because that will help color and flavor the, um, the report later on. And then I just talk about the perceptions and then, uh, I talk about confidentiality, that our conversation, while I might have to show the report, depending on what their company has decided, the report might be shown to other people, but what they and I talk about is just between us and I don’t have to report back on that.
Skylar de Jong | 40:21
Yeah, love that. Um, yeah, I always cover the confidentiality for two reasons. I want them to know how open and they can be if they, you know, if we are asked to give their supervisor the report or give HR some sort of reporting out of it, I want them to know that upfront, uh, they need, again, that’s part of that building rapport and trust. Uh, but that needs to be there for sure. I’d say the majority of time it is a completely confidential session. Um, but I want them to know that upfront, Mike, what Mike, and, and I wanted to hear from Tom as well. Oh, no, Sarah,
Sara Jane Isom | 40:54
Sorry. I just wanted to say, what I just said is usually about how long I take that, like that’s usually about how long I take.
Skylar de Jong | 41:02
Same say, Mike, how are you defining the roles? And then Tom, I wanna hear like that as well. Like what’s your approach to setting application?
Mike Wilson | 41:11
Yeah, I’ll, I’ll just make share a quick story that that, uh, stands out to me fairly recently was, uh, meeting with A-A-C-C-E-O who’d gotten some feed, the feedback, and we had our session and, uh, and he came in kind of as Tom described in the, uh, surprise and anger mode, which sometimes can be good, right? You’ve got this energy and, uh, um, and, and he went right to, okay, you know, I am a little bit upset about this, but, but, uh, you know, I’m seeing some things there and I, and I realize I need to do some things. So Mike, what is the plan I need to have? Right? And, and so that was kind of a opportunity to say, well, it’s, it’s not my plan, right? It’s, it’s, I’m here to help you, um, as a, as a coach, and as a coach, my role is to ask some powerful questions to help you get gain insight, um, to help you figure out the plan you wanna make and to make that, and, and give and give that, uh, person that coachee the, the CEO, the, the confidence that they really do have the answers.
Mike Wilson | 42:19
And that’s kind of the role of this session, is that they really do have all the answers. This, this information that’s coming in is, is information to help, to help them, um, make great decisions to, to help get, gain more clarity and have more awareness around, uh, where they wanted to go with that. And so, um, anyway, yeah. Uh, not, not a ton of time there, but it is really important to, to kind of understand, um, the roles that a coach plays and that the coachee has as we go through this. Otherwise, you can be derailed pretty quickly and, and, um, and, and in that right space is so important.
Tom Boots | 43:00
Yeah.
Skylar de Jong | 43:03
Tom, what about you? What, anything, anything different or what are you doing at same kind of ideas?
Tom Boots | 43:07
Uh, very similar. I think this blends with the next thing is priorities, right? Sure. Uh, and so this one sometimes blends with that to me because that after describing my role and asking ’em if they have any questions about my role, uh, then when I talk about their role, usually secondly in this process, and that they are the drivers, just as all you said. And, and part of my, my role is asking questions and, and helping just point toward things that maybe in the emotional processing of this they haven’t noticed, especially the positives. Uh, and, and then when I start to move toward priorities, and I don’t want to get too far there ’cause I know that’s where you’re going next. Exactly. You’re good. But when I move toward that, I’m asking them now, in your role in looking at this, part of what I want you to think about is your role in the organization.
Tom Boots | 44:06
So there’s the role in this session and there’s your role in the organization and where is it? What are, what changes are occurring? What, what changes have occurred? Uh, what, uh, what priorities does the overall organization have that you help fulfill that you will support? And how will what we’re talking about today impact that? How can, what we’re talking about today, raise your capability to actually contribute more to that? And so it, you know, it’s expanding the sense of the role so that they’re not thinking about just the role in this moment, but starting to give them that vision of the, the way that this session can help with their larger role. And then that goes into the priority discussion.
Skylar de Jong | 44:56
What I like how you naturally kind of lead that into like, let’s establish some priorities along this route to, um, because that’s a really good thing. I’m even learning from that and going, how can I do that more in my own coaching, um, of making that most smooth transition? The only note I’ll add, again, as I’m go coaching, I’ll regularly mention the, the thera, I’m not your therapist type type thing too. It’s a good connection and it’s valuable because oftentimes they are vulnerable and I’m like, I just wanna set the right boundaries and expectations. The other one that I’ll regularly touch on is I’m not a consultant. I’m not here to tell you what to do with these things. And I’ve emphasized that more and more because we get feedback, uh, as on our coaching after we, we send some follow-up surveys. And the the couple things that it’s not, uh, we’ve seen across our coaches is sometimes people go, well, I thought they were just gonna tell me what to do with this report. I came, they came in with that expectation. And this is again, where it’s like, no, right at the beginning, I wanna cut that off. I am not gonna tell you I don’t know enough about you. I don’t know enough about your goals and your priorities to go there. And they then kind of use that as a lead to also like, let’s talk about your goals and let’s talk about your priorities. But I’ll, I’ll usually cut that off. Sarah, go ahead.
Sara Jane Isom | 46:13
Yeah, I just wanted to say, I think, uh, I, I wanted to add on, I guess to what was said is that defining roles, actually, I think also defining the role of the feedback assessment, right? Like what is that role? And, um, yeah. And so, and then one other thing that I touch on when I’m defining that role and I talk about perceptions, which I felt like Tom did really well earlier, is I’ll say, these are just the perceptions around you as an employee in a work environment. This does, this isn’t indicative on whether or not you’re a good mother or a good father, or you know, what your neighbor thinks of you or, um, and you know, because I think people get so caught up around one thing that sometimes they want to apply it to their entire life. And, um, I just want to say this is, this is the perceptions of you, of, of in one environment with a small group of people. And while that’s valuable in moving forward in your career, you know, you can choose how you apply it to the rest of your life.
Skylar de Jong | 47:16
I love that. Uh, for time’s sake, I wanna make sure we’ve got some time for, for questions as well. And I, and I’m actually gonna leave some time for Sarah to make a plug for our coaching sessions too, but I will just say for establishing priorities, I regularly ask them what are their goals? And I usually say, time bound, what’s one or two goals you wanna accomplish in the next six to 12 months? I ask that question to everybody and a coach, and I’m sure you’re asking some sort of that as well. I wanted to continue the conversation, Tom and Mike, but, uh, I wanted, like I said, I wanna make sure we’ve got some time for some questions before we get there. I did want to, and I’ll, I’ll kind of lead this into to Sarah, ’cause I, I wanna stop talking as much as possible, but we’re the best coaches in the world, all four of us here, we want you to use us, of course.
Skylar de Jong | 48:07
Um, but that’s not always feasible. If you’re doing, like we did with that other organization, 244, 360 reviews, uh, we just don’t have enough time in the day to do those. So we generally talk about how we’re really good for the, the more senior level coaching, or if you’re doing some cohorts, you’re breaking this out and saying, Hey, we’re just gonna do 10, great. Engage us. Let us do some of that coaching for you. But as far as feasibility, there’s more than one person who can be a coach. So Sarah, why don’t you talk about each of these different groups and then I can go to the next slide about our CER course too.
Sara Jane Isom | 48:43
Yeah, so within these different groups, um, any organization can use these or all four. So obviously we would fall into the external coaches category. Um, and, uh, uh, you’ve heard from Tom and Mike how they kind of got into their coaching career. Um, uh, Skyler and I got in it in a different way. And so there are different ways that you can become an external coach to, um, to coach, um, different companies. So that’s one way you can do it. Um, but within a company, uh, to do our, our 360 feedback certified coaching thing, a lot of companies will use their human resource department. A lot of, um, I’ve worked as a human resource manager and I definitely felt like I did this <laugh> without the 360 coaching certification and, um, how much benefit that would’ve helped me, um, during that time. I see you nodding too.
Sara Jane Isom | 49:41
Skyler <laugh>. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so, uh, that’s, that’s another way that you can do it, um, as a human research or human resource professional. Um, a boss or a leader, a manager, those are other, uh, great candidates for the 360 certified coach. Um, we have many of those people go through, um, sometimes in, uh, companies instead of going through their hu human resource development, um, or their human resources, uh, department, they’ll actually have like random people be the coach so that there’s a little bit of that distance between the, the person being coached and the coach. And so that’s, um, that’s where a boss or a leader or a manager peer and then also peers and they can fall kind of in that same category within, um, that giving that distance between human resources and then the employees. Um, and then it also allows, uh, peers to develop those leadership skills or develop, um, give them a little bit more responsibility within an organization that’s not just, um, at the managers or the leaders.
Sara Jane Isom | 50:54
So what does the 360 feedback coaching certification look like? Um, it’s a two day experience. The training will take place over two different days. Um, the first day will give you kind of, um, the basics and then the second day is they’ll take those basics and it will be applied learning where you actually get to practice what you’re learning and do some coaching with, uh, different individuals within the training. Um, the training that you’ll get is learning how to interpret the 360 assessment, um, and then that, that practicing as well as gaining some best practice guides and materials. There’s, uh, decision wise has a lot that they can offer in that area. Um, and then not only that, but then if you go through the certification, you get your own 360 assessment done and coaching session, which is also very helpful. And then those who do want, um, to show those certifications on a resume or on LinkedIn, you do get a LinkedIn badge and the same certification that you get for attending some of these, uh, these webinars. But you can, uh, find all of this information on our website as well. And, um, it’s great, great way to, uh, start your coaching career.
Skylar de Jong | 52:13
Yeah, we’ve had some individuals that were working in HR one organization and then they’ll move to another, and then they’re able still exhibit that 360, uh, coaching and that they’ve got, um, that certification. And then we’ll do some programs that there are other organizations. So we do have some time, we wanna take some questions, field any questions around some coaching best practices, um, what are you seeing at your organization that you need help on, and what we answer for you. So again, put that in the chat. Um, you can also raise your hand and I think we can give you access to, to your mic as well, um, on an individual basis. So let us know.
Mike Wilson | 52:52
And I would just jump in and say, uh, I, you know, going through the, the 360 certification process myself, it was, it was fantastic. Uh, great training, great opportunity to practice, really felt comfortable coming out out of that, being able to, to go through these, uh, coaching sessions and, and debriefs with, with, with those who’ve gone through it. So. Fantastic.
Skylar de Jong | 53:14
Awesome. Thank you, Mike. Yeah. Um, yeah, he’s doing his own coaching, but he recently went through our certification course just a few months ago, so really awesome. Wendy, Kaylee, can you let me see if, trying to find Wendy to see if we can give you access to your mic?
Speaker 4 | 53:44
Hi, Skyler.
Skylar de Jong | 53:45
Hi.
Speaker 4 | 53:46
Great session. I wish it was two hours. Um,
Skylar de Jong | 53:49
I know I wish for time to <laugh>
Speaker 4 | 53:52
The data that you started off with showing 94% effectiveness versus 34 effectiveness. If you have a coach, I’m curious if you happen to have any data similar to that around whether or not the manager receives the report. This is sort of a hot, raging topic with our clients at new measures, is whether the managers or supervisors should receive one.
Skylar de Jong | 54:15
Yeah, so I don’t know about data or research, but we have, I mean, we’ve de I mean we’ve been doing three sixties for 25 years, so we have a best practice around that. And it is that if this is about true performance, uh, not, not about performance, but about development, leadership development, if it’s a bad leadership development, then the participant should be highly encouraged to share their report with their supervisor, not mandatory. That said, as I also coach people individually, I always tell them, share your report strategically. What I mean by that is what are you get an action off of, share those pieces. If you just share a 30 page report with your supervisor, guess what? They’re gonna skim it and they’re gonna look for the critical feedback. They’re gonna look for the low marks. What you want to do is share the report and say, Hey, I’m actually really focused on these three competencies.
Skylar de Jong | 55:10
I talked to my coach about it, and here’s where I would love your help. And we’ll even model some of those best practices for, uh, some of those conversations. But to answer your question briefly, we don’t recommend mandatory review of those by the supervisor. Now, if this is about performance, which some three sixties are about performance, and some of them are a mesh of that, which we can talk about the, the <laugh>, whether that’s best or not, if it’s about performance, then sure, share it with the supervisor, um, and have that be part of it, but that’s kind of our stance as far as best practices. Tom, Mike, Sarah, anything to add to that?
Tom Boots | 55:50
I, I’ve experienced that same thing, yes, Skyler, in that, you know, if, uh, we talk about building trust and rapport and openness to this, people are that much more concerned if their supervisor has seen it, they, and if they invite people to be part of it, uh, then if they know their supervisor’s gonna have it, obviously they’re try to find the very best respondents they can. So either they, you know, try to gain the
Skylar de Jong | 56:16
System.
Tom Boots | 56:18
Yeah. And, but, but you know, regarding the hybrid approaches, I’ve also seen three sixties used in succession planning and something like that where it’s not exactly performance, but it’s not just development, it’s also related to the priorities of high potentials and things like that. Then I have seen that be useful, uh, for managers to get it. But again, it, it’s art of the framing that occurs before the session ever happens that everybody understands. And in fact, again, and best practice there is, if you don’t wanna be part of succession planning, that’s okay too. In other words, you’re not forced into being part of a high potential pool. That’s an opportunity and a lot of people would want it because they wanna progress in their careers.
Skylar de Jong | 57:07
Yeah, I mean, I’ll add that. Uh, um, and I love that question, Wendy. Um, there are lots of reasons to do 360 feedback or multi-rater assessments. 360 feedback traditionally and historically is about development. And, and so that’s, again, that’s where we’re coming from. But I mean, you could have it about succession planning. You can have this around performance improvement plans. You can have somebody that needs some feedback and there’s supervisors maybe not giving them. So there’s lots of reasons to have a 360 assessment. Uh, to Tom’s point, it should be communicated beforehand, what’s the purpose, and then let’s align how this is gonna go through a process. If it’s about performance, if it’s about performance improvement or succession planning, have some open conversation about that. And then the set up, the process from there. So, and it will be different like whether you share the report with a manager, whether the HR gets involved, whether individual coaching, and, and we’re happy to talk more off offline about this too.
Skylar de Jong | 58:12
I could go on. Um, so other questions than the others. Great. Well, if we don’t have any others that come in, uh, it’s been great, uh, meeting with Mike and Tom. I know we’ve got just one minute left. I want to especially thank them for, for coming in and sharing some of their expertise, uh, as they’ve worked in leadership development coaching for a number of years longer than Sarah and I, I think we, we’ve become some 360 experts, a very niche area, but Tom and Mike bring some awesome experience to the table and we’re so grateful to have a partnership with them and have them in, in our group of partners. So, uh, feel free to reach out, check out our website. Um, any other parting words you’ve got for us? Tom, Mike, or Sarah?
Mike Wilson | 59:02
Uh, just thank you. Thanks for the opportunity to be here with you all loved it and, uh, yeah, it’s a fantastic process to get coached around 360. I, I went and had a 360 years ago as a director and no coaching and didn’t get a lot out of it. And so this is a fantastic opportunity. Take advantage of it.
Skylar de Jong | 59:23
Absolutely. Appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Great session. Awesome. Well thank you so much. I just wanted to feel free to reach out. Go ahead sir. Oh, sorry. Oh,
Sara Jane Isom | 59:31
I just wanted to say that for those who are on that are hoping to do coaching, just trust yourself, trust your gut, trust your instinct. Um, it’s, uh, it’s, it’s not as scary as it might seem getting into it. And, uh, and just talk to people like they’re human beings and you’ll be fine <laugh>.
Skylar de Jong | 59:50
Yeah, and it’s hugely valuable. That’s one thing I’ve loved about this is as I shared from the get go, I find some of the most meaningful and purpose for my, my sessions with individuals and I’m usually wanting more of that. So it’s awesome. So thank you all for attending. Uh, feel free to reach out to us and we will connect you with some of our great coaches. So well have a good one. Take care.
