Leader's guide to understanding your 360 feedback reports

You've done your self-assessment. Your feedback groups have completed their surveys. Now it's time to look reports and results. You'll either receive them as an export (like a PPT) or be invited to view them in AskYourTeam.

You'll usually see 3 to 4 reports:

• Questions Report
• Leader Alignment Report
• Text Analysis Report
• Compare Report (only applicable if you've completed a 360 using AskYourTeam before)

This guide will introduce you to those reports and what information they show, but before we jump in, remember:

It's normal to get a mix of feedback. There might be some positive feedback and some feedback that's not so positive. There might also be some feedback you don't expect. That's a good thing because you can't take action on things you don't know about!

Your 360 is about your own personal leadership journey. It's not a performance measure. The process is designed to help you identify your strengths and uncover opportunities to develop your skill set even further. Even the world's top leaders still undertake 360's or attend leadership coaching. There's always something to learn! 

Let's start by reviewing how scores are calculated in the reports.

How agree-disagree questions are scored

Leadership Effectiveness 360 surveys are based on a series of agree-disagree scale questions.

There are seven possible responses for each question:

• Strongly Agree
• Agree
• Somewhat Agree
• Somewhat Disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly Disagree
• Don't Know

With the exception of Don't Know, each response contributes a score. The responses are then averaged to give you an overall question score as a %.

What does a score's colour mean?

Each score has a colour. There are four possible colours and each one represents something different:

🟢 Green is excellent. Make sure to celebrate your strengths! What best practice can you share with others?

🟡 Yellow is good. You're performing well in this area. What could you do to move the needle towards green?

🟠 Orange indicates an area that needs a bit of work.

🔴 Red indicates an area that needs greater focus.

If I get 100% for a question, does that mean I have nothing to work on?

100% means participants strongly agreed with the statement and you're performing very well in that area. It doesn't mean perfect because perfect doesn't exist! We all have something to work on or to learn.

Think of it this way: 100% shows you have strengths in a particular area, so what could you do to develop those strengths even further?

Questions Report

This report provides a high-level overview of where you are scoring well and where there might be opportunities to improve. It takes the agree-disagree scale questions in the survey and combines your self-score with that of your feedback group(s) to create an average score.

You can view average scores by:

• category (question group)
• question (individual question)
• top 10 and bottom 10 questions only

What if I see orange and red in my report?

Don't panic. Remember, these are responses from a specific moment in time. Leadership development is a journey. These scores represent information you can use to create a focused and targeted leadership development plan. So when you take part in your next 360, you can see those colours change and measure your progress.

Leader Alignment Report

This report separates your self-score from your feedback group(s). You can then compare the scores to see how closely you're aligned.

If the report is configured to show a single, aggregated group of participants you will only see two bars in the report per question:

• Self
• Feedback Group

If the report is configured to show multiple groups, you will see up to five bars in the report per question:

• Self
• Manager
• Direct Report
• Peer
• Others

If there are not enough responses from a specific feedback group, that bar will be greyed out and won't contribute to the 'diff' score. The 'diff' score is the greatest difference (high or low) between your self-score and that of a feedback group, represented as a %. You can use the 'diff' column to explore where your self-assessment differs from how others have scored you.

What does it mean when there is a big difference between my score and my feedback group(s)' score?

If there is a big difference in the response to a specific question, we call this a potential blind spot. It's an opportunity to build self-awareness and reflect on whether your actions or approach are having the intended effect.

What does it mean if my score and my feedback group(s)' score are similar?

This means you have strong self-awareness as a leader. Your perception matches the experience of your feedback group(s).

• High average scores: Shows both you and your feedback group feel you perform well in this area.
• Low averages: Shows both you and your feedback group feel there is work to be done.

Text Analysis Report

If your Leadership Effectiveness 360 survey included free-text questions, you might receive written feedback from participants. You can review the comments received in the Text Analysis Report.

Useful comments should give you greater context about your strengths or any opportunities for improvement. This is usually done by sharing an example of a situation or interaction.

Not every comment you receive may be useful or actionable. Take on board what makes sense to you.

Compare Report

The Compare Report allows you to compare your new scores to past ones. It will only show as an option if you've completed a Leadership Effectiveness 360 with AskYourTeam before.

Comparing scores allows you to track your journey over time and see the impact of any changes you've made.

Bar chart comparison

This is the default view of the compare report. It shows your survey scores as horizontal bars, with your newest score at the top.

You can view results by:

• category
• question

Line graph comparison

Select the Over Time tab to view your journey as a line graph.

You can view results by:

• average (this is the overall average score for all matched agree-disagree scale questions)
• category
• question.

How to generate a Compare Report

If you've logged into AskYourTeam to view reports, you'll need to navigate to another section of the system to view the Compare Report.

To access it:

1. Select Compare from the left menu.
2. Use the drop-down to select the leadership surveys you've participated in. You need to select at least two.
3. Select Next.
4. You will see a list of questions that were matched between surveys and able to be compared. Select Reports from the top navigation to access your Compare Report.

What's next?

Take a moment to check in with how you're feeling. Receiving feedback can be challenging. Make sure to take some time for yourself and to reflect. Reach out for help if you need someone to talk to or to get another perspective.

When you're ready, let's review what's been done and what's next. We can use the AskYourTeam Ask, Listen, Act, Measure continuous improvement cycle as a guide.

You've completed the Ask and Listen stages:

• Ask: You've asked for feedback from participants as part of the Leadership Effectiveness 360.
• Listen: You've listened to what participants had to say. You've been through your reports and results in detail.

Now it's time to transition to Act and Measure.

• Act: Select what feedback you want to act on over the next 9 to 12 months. You're in the driver's seat. Work with your leadership coach (this might also be a manager, consultant or HR specialist, depending on your organisation) to create a leadership development plan and identify what resources you need. For example, do you need to schedule coaching sessions? Do you need a budget to attend a conference or online training course?
• Measure: Plan your next 360. This should be in about 9 to 12 months' time. Re-testing helps measure the impact of your actions and all the hard work you've put in. We don't recommend running a 360 within 9 months of the last, as you need to give yourself enough time to make changes and embed them with your team(s).