Develop coaching competencies using 360 degree feedback

Last week we looked at how 360 can support conflict resolution and, as part of that, we suggested that on-going coaching can support managers to become more effective.

This blog now turns the table on 360 and looks at how 360 can be used with the 360 facilitators or coaches themselves to help develop their coaching competencies.

Coaching is a significant investment for any organisation. The services of a good coach is not cheap to and it is notoriously difficult to provide evidence that coaching works and that it yields a clear business benefit. And yet, organisations continue to spend development budget on coaching.

While it is hard to show the impact on the bottom line, you can measure behavioural change which will be, ultimately, the outcome of any coaching intervention. Having those who are being coached going through a 360 degree feedback process before and afterward the coaching takes place, can help to show that the coaching has had a positive impact on the targeted areas.

Using 360 to develop coaching competencies

A good coach will also be committed to their own self development. He or she is likely to be accredited by a recognised body and engage in CPD as part of their routine - and coaching accreditors will require the coach to engage a supervisor, who will support the coach’s ongoing learning and practice through reflection and further coaching - and how they develop coaching competencies.

The supervisor will no doubt require ongoing evaluation - and using a 360 assessment is a good way to do this. By collecting 360 feedback on a coach and looking at his or her impact and effectiveness on the coachee behaviour, can help in the coach's own development. Look to include feedback from coaching peers and members of learning groups, the coaching supervisor(s) as well as their coaches.

To help in this, we’ve developed a 360 degree feedback questionnaire for coaching behaviour that we provide with our software to help our customers demonstrate that coaching has a positive impact and also to support coaches in their ongoing development. For more information on this, get in touch.

Case study:
We use our Coaching Capability questionnaire with all our clients who go through our 360 Feedback Facilitation programme.  They go through the 360 before attending the training, allowing them to focus their learning on the programme on the areas where they are less strong.  They can also focus more on their existing strengths and support colleagues in these areas.  They also get to practice giving and receiving feedback using their own reports, providing a completely realistic and authentic feedback situation, and focusing on competencies and behaviours which are relevant to what they are learning.  They can then repeat the 360 further down the line to track improvements in key areas, once they’ve put their learning into practice back at work.

Over the past few weeks we have looked at a number of ways in which organisations can extend their use of their 360 tool.

As part of our product development plan we always make sure that users can measure easily change over time, and can illustrate this to those that need this.  It may be that your current tool does not have the capability or functionality of some of the areas we have talked about. Perhaps you want to talk to us about that?

At a time when 360 is seen as a 'nice to have' or a quite 'soft' approach to development, we are keen to help users demonstrate the return they get from their investment.

We've developed a short guide which will help you audit your own use of 360 and how you may take action to get more value from your 360 degree feedback tool. If you would like a copy of this, then please do contact us and we shall email it to you.