The "Always" of Leadership

How many of you have participated in a 360 degree feedback process at work? For leaders, receiving feedback from colleagues feels like report-card day! If you think about it, it is surely a report card of behavior perception i.e. how colleagues perceive their behavior and what conclusions they draw from that (as is evident in the verbatim comments that form a part of such reports). It is very interesting to observe how people respond to feedback that they get and I must say I have really seen it all - from gratitude and enthusiasm, to surprise and shock; from calm and knowing acceptance to utter disbelief and rejection.

THE DREADED RATING SCALE

The design of such instruments is very telling...there are a set of behavior statements and a set of options from which one has to tick the appropriate one e.g.: A statement like "listens patiently to others' ideas" can be rated as Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Usually or Always. Needless to say, most people rate themselves as Always (5/5) while their colleagues rate them as "Sometimes" or "Usually"..much to their surprise and chagrin.

ALWAYS: THE HALLMARK OF LEADERSHIP

On a recent such assignment, I debriefed about 25-30 people on their feedback reports...and I soon realized that there was magic hidden in the word "Always". It set my mind in motion and I reflected back to the leaders that I have personally witnessed/ worked with in my career.

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