If you’ve been asked to give your colleague some 360 Degree Feedback, you may be wondering how to go about it. Here are a couple of guidelines:
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Think carefully about what you're saying and how you say it - your job is to give your colleague feedback that's going to help them perform better. Always ask yourself how you would feel if you got the rating or comment that you're going to give your colleague.
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Give examples - it's a lot easier to help your colleague change something specific and observed, than to act on a general comment.
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Don’t focus just on very recent events: think back to evidence throughout the whole period of the review
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Don’t focus just on negative events: give as much attention to positive actions and behaviours
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Watch the ‘halo/horns’ effect (thinking that because a person is great in some areas, they are great in all areas (halo) ; horns of course, relates to negative behaviours)
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Avoid stereotyping: don't generalise about an individual because they appear to belong to a certain group or are in a particular department, or because they may appear to be similar to someone else you know.
And if you have any examples of great ways to give feedback (or terrible ones!), we'd love to hear from you. We'll put the best examples (anonymised, if you prefer) on our website and on this blog.