Leadership coaching provides a structured and supportive environment for leaders to grow, develop their skills and achieve their personal and professional goals. It also empowers leaders to become more effective, adaptable and impactful in their roles, ultimately benefiting both themselves and their organisations in building constructive workplace cultures.

At BRS, we believe that for a participant to get the most out of their leadership coaching, obtaining 360-degree feedback is a critical part of the process to ensure our coaches are taking an evidence-based approach to assessing where they are at and their development needs are incorporated into their coaching plan. Here are the top 10 reasons we believe using 360-degree feedback is beneficial for both personal and professional development of leaders at all levels:

1. Comprehensive Assessment: It provides a comprehensive assessment of a leader’s performance from multiple perspectives. This includes feedback from peers, direct reports, supervisors and sometimes even external stakeholders such as clients and key partners. This well-rounded view offers a more accurate representation of a leader’s strengths and areas for improvement.
2. Reduces Bias: Traditional performance evaluations often suffer from biases, such as focusing on recent events or when one trait influences the perception of other traits. 360-degree feedback helps mitigate these biases by aggregating feedback from different sources in a range of different leadership competencies.
3. Increases Self-Awareness: It helps leaders gain a deeper understanding of their own strengths and weaknesses. This increased self-awareness is crucial for personal growth and development as a leader as awareness precedes acceptance which leads to action and improvement.
4. Promotes Accountability: When leaders receive feedback from multiple sources, they are more likely to take it seriously and feel a sense of accountability to address areas of improvement. This can lead to more tangible and sustainable growth in the long term around responding to this constructive feedback.
5. Enhances Communication Skills: Leaders often need strong communication skills. 360-degree feedback can highlight how their communication style is perceived by different stakeholders, helping them to adapt and improve their approach to leading, influencing and collaborating with others.
6. Fosters a Culture of Feedback: When leaders participate in a 360-degree feedback process, it sets an example for the entire organisation. It encourages a culture of open communication and continuous improvement, as everyone sees that even the leaders are committed to self-improvement.  Feedback is a gift and needs to be seen as such rather than something that is often feared and avoided.
7. Aligns Leadership with Organisational Goals: It ensures that leadership behaviour aligns with the organisation’s goals and values. It can identify if there are any discrepancies between what the organisation values and what the leader is currently exhibiting and then put in place strategies to address these gaps.
8. Supports Development Planning: The feedback received can be used to create a targeted development plan. This plan can include specific actions and milestones to help the leader grow in their role.  Coaching without a development plan is not prudent as every leader needs to be committed to improvement through a strong focus on their development.
9. Builds Trust and Credibility with Others: When leaders are open to feedback and actively work on improving themselves, it builds trust and credibility with their team. It shows that they are committed to their own development and to the success of the organisation.
10. Improves Employee Engagement and Satisfaction: When employees see that their feedback is valued and leads to positive changes in leadership behaviour, it can boost morale, job satisfaction and overall engagement.  They are also more likely to provide feedback for future surveys as there is psychological safety to do so.

360-degree feedback is a powerful tool in leadership coaching because it provides a more holistic and unbiased view of a leader’s performance, leading to more effective development and growth.  Without an evidence-based approach to coaching, it is often anecdotal and not based on a sound foundation.

With all leadership coaching at BRS we utilise the Human Synergistics tools to provide 360-degree feedback. If you’d like to learn more about the tools we use click here or, please contact enquiries@brsresults.com.