Do you conduct a 360 degree review?

I just completed the administration of our firm’s 360 degree review process here at Openview Partners. It is a great way for any company, specifically an expansion stage company, to get a real foundation of communication between team members and focus on each other’s strengths and weaknesses.

We built the review process around our mission, vision, aspirations and values to evaluate each other’s progress as contributors to our firm.

We delivered a summary report that scored each question on a 1-5 scale.

I asked each team member to:
 
Read the report in totality and spend some time digesting it. While digesting, it is important not to fixate too much on specific data points. As difficult as this can be sometimes when it comes to ourselves, it’s often more helpful to focus on the general consistent messages and themes, rather than the specific words a rater might select in a particular feedback comment. It’s equally important to take a balanced view of the strengths and development areas. We can sometimes miss the strengths and focus too much on the development areas.

Remember that one of our goals for the 360 was to help open up dialogue and communication across the team, in order for all of us to identify areas of improvement that will carry the most impact for the development of the most effective team possible. Everyone took the 360 surveys very seriously and put a lot of great thought into them. The feedback, positive and negative, is really a gift to each participant. It is important to remember the strong correlation that exists between accepting/acting upon feedback and success.

What are our next steps?

·  After we’ve read through the reports and had some time to digest them, we individually think about the 1 or 2 key growth opportunities that would have the most positive impact on the individual and on the team over the coming year.

·  We will come together as a team to discuss our individual results and ask for feedback from the rest of the team about the 1-2 key growth opportunities we’ve identified for ourselves. This will also be an opportunity to lay a positive foundation for the future so that everyone has a better understanding of each individual’s strengths and weaknesses. Additionally, members can ask for help from the team to address growth areas. At that time, we will also discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the collective team.

Not bad for a Venture Capital firm huh? We practice what we preach everyday and lead by example.