Strengthening leaders' capabilities to broaden their impact, contribution and outcomes through 360-degree insights

Case Study

360-degree feedback program

This organisation embarked on a journey to develop its global leadership capability to drive a culture of feedback and accelerate opportunities for growth.

Challenge

A world leading education organisation was searching for a consulting partner to raise its leader’s self-awareness, build on their strengths and identify opportunities for continued growth and development.


Fifty-five leaders from Australia, New Zealand, Europe, the United Kingdom and North and South America were invited to participate in a 360-degree feedback program. Their roles were as diverse as their locations:

teaching and learning

information technology

finance

HR and operations

Feedback was sought on an individual participant’s leadership style from their peers, colleagues, direct reports and manager. A self-assessment using the same set of questions was also completed by the participant.


To encourage participation and continued involvement the language used to gather feedback was customised to the organisation’s unique environment.

Solutions

Davidson’s Experience Management team was engaged to design a 360-degree feedback program that would be delivered seamlessly and in a timely manner and most importantly, provide impact for the participating leaders and the organisation investing in the program.


To deliver the measurement component of the program, Davidson utilised Qualtrics’ 360 survey platform. The survey was designed utilising the Qualtrics 360 validated methodology and tailored to align to the organisation’s

capabilities

competencies

values and behaviours

This customisation was important to ensure clarity on the critical competencies and behaviours indicative of successful leadership within the organisation and encouraged a high response rate when conducting the assessments. It also ensured ease of interpretation of the tailored reports, aggregated results dashboards (for executive insights at a group level) and it enhanced communications throughout the engagement.


Given the number of locations participating in the project, the design of the 360-degree survey needed to be intuitive and the results reports automated to be distributed immediately upon the completion of the assessment phase.


To gain maximum value from the 360-degree feedback program, each participant was de-briefed by a registered psychologist and provided with insights and recommendations to address their development needs. This support was provided in a one-to-one environment to ensure the participant felt at ease and comfortable as they worked through and absorbed their results. Participant perceptions were directed towards forming positive and constructive outcomes and to determining a course of action to move forward.

forming positive and constructive outcomes

determining a course of action to move forward

An additional de-brief and discussion was held between the participant, their line manager and registered psychologist to ensure a mutual understanding was reached about the results, and alignment on the development opportunities that existed and the plan to achieve these.


Another key success factor was for the executive leadership to have visibility of aggregated results of all participants to highlight strengths and development areas at an organisational level. The aggregated results dashboard was developed by Davidson to meet this need and was supported with insights and recommendations that were presented to the executive leadership team.

The dashboards (and heatmaps) were key in creating a data-led discussion that could drive strategic planning decisions in relation to leadership development for the leadership cohort to

enhance their capabilities

expand their impact

and to broaden the outcomes they could achieve

Outcomes

Our client was extremely satisfied with the delivery of the program and reported that the Davidson team delivered an “excellent” quality project through an “extremely effective and proactive” approach that added a high level of value for the organisation.


The aggregated results dashboard provided the executive leadership team with a visual representation of where their leadership strengths and development areas lay. This enabled future planning to leverage strengths and to close any capability gaps that existed at an organisational level.


For the participants, over

0 %

reported that they were likely to recommend the current 360-degree feedback program and were “happy with the program” and what was achieved from it.

Overall, the organisation delivered a leadership development program that achieved real results for their leaders and was an enjoyable and value adding experience for participants.


Through the delivery of a tailored 360-degree feedback program, Davidson developed the position of a trusted adviser to the organisation and is now engaged in managing a Student Experience program for the organisation.


At Davidson, we see our partnerships as being for the long-term. We think ‘30 years’ not ‘30 days,’ and we’re committed to going the extra mile to achieve results that deliver sustainable outcomes.


To learn more about how the Experience Management Team at Davidson can help your organisation deliver a tailored 360-degree feedback program like the one above, contact Cameron or Danielle or fill out the contact form below:

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