Surviving a 360 Degree Evaluation

 

At one time in the past the evaluation of a pastor or President amounted to a simple board vote –answering the question, “Shall we retain the pastor (President, etc.) or get another one?”  You were “in or out” based on the number of yeses and no’s.  There was no attempt to help the leader improve—he [usually it was a he] was simply voted out or kept—like we do the President of the USA.  The only “measurement”  was the strength of support.

 

That simple yes-no vote is giving way to the more recent “360 evaluation” where leaders (now more than pastors and college presidents—it includes staff ministers too).  The most recent format is  “the 360 degree evaluation.”  In a “360” people “below you, beside you and above you” give detailed input on how you could do better.  If you are a youth pastor this means the teens, your fellow staff members and the senior pastor and board evaluate you anonymously. The questions may be detailed and numerous they usually fall into three categories:

  • What is this leader doing GOOD?
  • What is this leader doing BAD.
  • What should this leader ADD to their leadership approach?

Of course the categories are more sophisticated than the elemental GOOD-BAD-ADD and the questions are worded softer (like, “What are areas of improvement this leader might consider in the future?”) the categories are almost always in the simple good-bad-add areas.

 

“Experiencing a 360” can be personally devastating for a pastor or college president or staff pastor.  You are breezing along thinking you are doing OK then BAM! they hit you with all kinds of stuff detailing your glaring weaknesses.  It can make want to run home and pout. Most 360s are anonymous so the people you lead feel quite free to expose your weaknesses.  Your peers will sometimes be the most vicious in describing their own weaknesses they see in you.  And your superior(s) might never tell you face to face what they’ll put in your 360—then they can “help you with these things the people apparently see” as if they are all on your side.  It can be a distressing experience for a leader who feels called to do God’s work.

 

So, how can a leader successfully respond to a 360 degree evaluation when they’ve detailed so many of your weaknesses that you want to simply go get a job at Taco Bell?  Try this:  organize the correction into the following categories so you can survive the 360 without giving up on your call:

 

  1. That’s true and I need to change.

Is it true?  Is it serious?  Is it correctable?  If so, then let these people help you get stronger and make measurable goals for correcting your weaknesses.  Get accountability and commit to report to some group on your progress.  Establish your own feedback channels to see if you’re improving.  Become an improving leader on your own prompted by the 360.

 

  1. That’s a perception I need to correct.

Sometimes the weaknesses people see aren’t really your weaknesses—they are misperceptions.   If your 360 said “She doesn’t care for people” it might be a perception they got from your constant busyness or that you talk more than you listen.  Rather than taking it personally and pouting or saying, “Why, that’s a total lie!” accept it as a misperception and make a plan to let your real self show through.  To the people you lead “perception is reality.”  If they perceive you as uncaring you are uncaring (to them).  Find what send these signals and fix it.

 

  1. That is something I need to start working on.

Maybe this weakness is true, serious and correctable but it is so big and so deeply ingrained in you that you won’t be able to fix it fast.  Or it could be something like “lack of refinement” or “inadequate education” that might take years to address.  Simply list these areas to “start” working on.  If it is a journey of a thousand miles, just take the first few steps this coming year.  Most folk are satisfied that you are starting on long-journey corrections.

 

  1. That’s a needed change to work on in the future.

There will be some corrections you just can’t handle at all right now.  You accept that in an ideal world you’d be this way, and if you were a perfect leader you’d do this, and maybe some day (after you address the more debilitating weaknesses) you could work on these, but for now you’ll put them on the agenda of the future.  You’re not saying they are not good suggestions—just that there are other things to work on first.

 

  1. That needs clarification, and I will work to get it.

Some of the things your read on a 360 will stun you.  You’ll screw up your face and say, “Whaaaaaaaaa?” You won’t see any connection between what they say about you and the real you.  You’ll think they must be talking about someone else—certainly not you.  If it is only a single comment you might dismiss it—but if there are several they will make you wonder—“Could I actually be like this?”  You’ll say, “no!”  But, if you run into some like this on your 360 put them into this fifth category then get a trusted person to explain to you what they might mean.

 

  1. It’s wrong.

This final category is where you stick the things that are simply not true and you know it.  Here is where you file the tiny minority of responses that are vicious.  Here you deposit those cruel statements that deplore what almost everyone else said was your strength. Or you might simply decide to deny some areas—after all, most of us have already declared our weaknesses as strengths!  If you insist that an area is, “just a part of the total package of who I am,” then assign it to category six.  Of course we must be careful not to assign the entire 360 here, right?

 

While a 360 degree evaluation can be a devastating experience for a God-anointed leader it can be also become an avenue to improvement.  And improving certainly is a worthy endeavor—even for those called by God.

 

So what do you think? What insights do you have on evaluation of pastors, staff, district and denominational leaders or even college and seminary presidents?  I’d love to hear them!

 

Click here to comment or read comments for the first few weeks after this posting

 

Keith Drury September 19, 2006

www.TuesdayColumn.com

 

The notion of “360 Degree feedback” was  introduced to the public by Kouzes & Posner, the best-selling authors of The Leadership Challenge (1987) and Credibility, (1993).  They designed a multi-rater feedback assessment called the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI, 1997). Later Bill Hybels (and later still) John Maxwell popularized this idea for evangelicals Click here for Sharon Drury’s summary of this leadership theory.

Graphic depiction of 360 degree feedback http://www.icompetency.com/