Is This More Useful, Right Now, Than the Dreaded 360° Feedback Survey?

The Chief Operating Officer had a 132-question 360° feedback survey completed by his eight of his direct reports and peers.

He then asked me to coach him on the findings.

Whilst there were some common responses worth paying attention to, too much was too inconsistent to be useful.

I asked the COO what he thought of the process. 

He shook his head and said, “I wonder how the psych who designed the damn thing expects we’re qualified to answer most of those questions”.

I asked, “Would you like to do a more simple and useful process that will give us immediate actionable information?”

He said “Show me”

I showed him the KDSS template and the email request to use to seek responses.

He deployed KDSS to the same people and received the most valuable feedback he’d ever experienced.

Here’s the KDSS email request and template in a nutshell:

“Hello Bill,

Please complete the below information to help me in my continuous self-improvement.

Please choose the top two items about me for each section.  Please be candid.  I can take it!  

Thanks Bill for taking the time to help me.”

Feel free to use this.