Work-based task 1b

Work-based task 1b:
360 leadership assessment and reflections

Introduction

As leadership is a relational process between leaders and followers, an important source of feedback to improve our behaviours are those who have directly observed and/or experienced our practice. A 360 degree leadership assessment involves gathering the perspective of those who we connect with through different roles and work-based relations. This includes people we manage and/or supervise, our peers in our organisation or external partners, and those who have more senior roles in our organisation.

Overview of process

Whilst many 360-degree leadership assessments involve anonymous ratings via online surveys, in this programme you will be taking a qualitative approach. This will enable you to develop a rich understanding of how others experience your behaviours through discussing your leadership directly with colleagues.

We would like you to undertake individual discussions with up to six people who have directly observed and / or experienced your leadership behaviours.

It is your decision as to who you approach to participate in the discussion, but there should be at least one person who represents each of the following perspectives:

• Someone who is directly managed by you and / or receives practice supervision from you
• Someone who is your peer in the organisation (or in an external organisation) – i.e. has similar level of responsibility
• Someone who is more senior in your organisation – this does not have to be your line manager but they must have had sufficient interaction with you to comment.

Please see a Guide to planning and conducting the interviews for further suggestions..

Once you have completed the interviews we would like you to complete a reflection of up to 1,000 words on what you have learnt about your leadership.

This should be based around the following questions:

• What did people say were my strengths as a leader?
• How did their views of my leadership compare with my own self-assessment?
• What behaviours do I want to ideally demonstrate by the end of the programme?
• What could limit my ability to demonstrate these ideal behaviours and how I will overcome these?

There is no right or wrong format for how you capture your reflections, the only requirement is that your Learning Group Facilitator is able to understand your learning and observe your reflections against some of the resources provided to you regarding leadership of self.

You are required to send a copy of your self-reflection to the Programme Manager by the date given during the first Contact Day (This is ordinarily two weeks before Contact Day 2).