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Welcome to the reload where we help unconventional

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leaders craft the life they truly want by questioning

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the assumptions they have about how life works . My

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name is Sean and I'll be your host on this journey . As

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a performance coach and special operations combat

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veteran , I help high performing executives

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kick ass in their careers while connecting with deeply

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powerful insights that fuel their lives . Hello

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, hello , welcome back . Today's

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probably going to be a pretty quick one , and

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I have been deep

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into 360 review mode

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and also

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360 refresh mode , and

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so I figured it's probably a good idea to share

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some insights and I

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don't know tips about this process

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and it's probably going to be

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a multi part series just to

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break out some of the topics a little bit

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more , and today the real

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focus is going to be on really what

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is the purpose and what are the benefits . So

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, primarily , the purpose of

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getting a 360 review done

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is so that you can have a comprehensive

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understanding of how you

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are showing up Now

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, oftentimes , at least , with

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many corporate engagements and

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not all of my clients are corporate

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sponsored , so if

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it is a situation where the client has

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paid for the 360 out of

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their own pocket , then we

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definitely lean much more in sort of a comprehensive

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direction , and so the feedback

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that we solicit is not just from their

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colleagues or their boss or their board

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of directors or

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their subordinates , but also from

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parts of their personal

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life , whether that's their partner

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, their children , their friends , family

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, etc . Etc . Now

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, as I mentioned , you

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know , ultimately the fundamental

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purpose is to

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really get those different perspectives . Now

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, why is it that one would subject

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oneself to receiving

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this feedback ? Because , let's

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face facts , sometimes the feedback is

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critical and not

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in a constructive way . Not

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everybody in your life is in

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a place where they have the emotional

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maturity to , or even

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the understanding to , really address

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something that is bothersome

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for them or challenging for them in

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a way that is constructive . Very

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frequently we are in a position of having

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those around of it and , quite honestly

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, we ourselves are often in a position

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of similar nature

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. You know , if we were to be asked

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about the difficulties we have with somebody

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, perhaps our spouse , then we

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frequently end up in sort of relaying

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it in oh

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I don't know a much more personally

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affected way , as opposed to having

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a more enlightened approach that can

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deliver news in a way that is still

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impactful but

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that bears

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into account how the listener is

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going to receive something , so

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sometimes the feedback can be pretty roughshod

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. Anyway , why

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would somebody want to subject oneself

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to this ? Generally

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, it's because either the sponsor or

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the client their self-paying wants

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to really understand

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what is happening . Now

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, some organizations , 360s

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are just a standard part of the process

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and nobody has really

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asked the client whether they

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want to do it or not . It's just expected

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that at a certain level of leadership you

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are going to be , I

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guess , introduced to this process where folks are

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going to get to weigh in on how you're doing . But

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fundamentally , from a coach's perspective

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my perspective what

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we're looking for are insights on

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where the client is

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being inconsistent , whether

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it's inconsistent in their presentation

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, behavior , leadership

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style , the

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way that they potentially have favorites

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in their relationships and

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it's not to say that we can't have favorites in our

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relationships . Obviously , I

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think it's fairly logical

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and natural for individuals to click more

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with one person than another , but

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especially when it comes to how you lead

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and manage a team , if

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there is a heavy degree of favoritism

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noted by the subordinates , then

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that typically has a pretty powerful

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impact on the

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team's perception of how things get done , and

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especially if there is a view

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of their being sort of an inside

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circle and an outside circle

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, because oftentimes

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, if you are the person

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who is unconsciously creating that environment

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as the boss , then you

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might lose some very , very talented individuals

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because they feel that it's an unfair environment

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. Now

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, another benefit

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, I guess , of doing a 360 review

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and I'll say that this

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is a possibility . Right , all of these benefits

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are possibilities , because it's not guaranteed

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that they're going to happen . But

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another benefit is that it can facilitate

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deeper discussion , or

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deeper discussions more likely

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, with team members and

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board members about how

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to improve relationships or

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the direction of the organization . Now

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, I say can , because something

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that's required for that and I'll probably talk about this more

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next week when I start to get into some of the

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challenges that come with 360s

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but it's not guaranteed that you're going to get honest

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feedback or

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that , if you do get the feedback , that you are going

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to have individuals who are willing

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to go the next step and have live

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conversations with you about the

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things that they think are challenging . And

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this is especially relevant when you are going

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to be talking to your subordinates , because they're very

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frequently concerned that they're

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going to piss off their boss and that things are not going to go well

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for their career moving forward . But

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if you are in

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an organization excuse me or on a team that

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has the capacity to

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have difficult conversations and still

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maintain respect for one another , to

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be able to call a spade a spade

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, as they say , and to

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speak directly about certain

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subjects that are tough , well

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, in that scenario then you actually

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can cut through a lot of bullshit and

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save a lot of time guessing

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at what people mean and really

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drive to the heart of okay , well , what's been going

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on ? Because quite often and this is

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what I found in my various engagements is that

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people don't typically

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intentionally

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screw up their relationships or

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screw up their team environment or the

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direction of the organization . Those

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things tend to happen in

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an unconscious way , and so if

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we can actually have a direct

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conversation , an upfront , outright

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conversation , well then you can really

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start to improve

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things dramatically . Now

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, as I mentioned , getting honest feedback is important

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, and here's another potential benefit is because

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it's being routed through an outside

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party the coach . Well

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, sometimes it's actually the only way that

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people feel comfortable providing on

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point feedback . Now

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, they may not be willing to have follow on

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conversations about it , but at

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least the issue can be flagged and

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sometimes they will

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present it merely sort of thematically

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, but then other times

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they'll give specific instances

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where something happened , and

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that specificity can

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be very , very powerful . You

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know , generally with my work I try to

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get people to focus on principles or themes

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or concepts that can

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be broadly applied , sort of like derivatives

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and mathematics , but

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to bring it into living focus and

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living color . Oftentimes having

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a specific example is very

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, very powerful . It

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sort of cements it or grounds it in

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a way that makes it tangible . Now

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, the last benefit that I've listed here is

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, when properly

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curated by the coach , the

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360 can really focus the

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feedback into specific actionable

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themes or areas . Oftentimes

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, when leaders are given feedback does

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tend to be sort of vague

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, because subordinates are

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often afraid to

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say very specifically like well

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, no , this is very counterproductive

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for me , and here

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is an example . So

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that's one area where these things tend

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to help out , but

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on top of it , it's

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sometimes especially in a 360

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, there can be so much feedback

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that's given depending on how many people you're gathering

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input from , and

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so in that , really my job

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, as I see it , is trying to focus

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so that the

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client is not overwhelmed with a million

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things that they're trying to correct or potentially

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look at and that really

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condensing it down into

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a limited number of

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specific themes that we

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can then put some real deliberate

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thought and action toward , and

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then , once those things are carried off

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or handled well , then yeah , sure

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, we can look at some other things . But

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where is the distinction between

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? This is something that

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is really affecting the team versus

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, well , this is really just affecting one

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individual and

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on top of that that one individual it's

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really more of an outlier , but because it may

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have been a fairly extreme outlier

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, it stands out in their memory . So

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really it's the attempt to figure

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out what are the patterns , and if

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it doesn't conform to a

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major contributor or major pattern , then

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can we drop this , at least

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for now , and focus on things

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that are going to be more impactful . So

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again , super quick episode for you Just

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wanted to throw that out there Just more on the tactical

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, transactional side

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of the work that I do . But

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what it does is it really sort of brings out

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the areas

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for discovery and exploration and

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allows us to get into the deeper work that I tend

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to do with clients . But we need some

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sort of entry point and

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typically a 360 is a great way to get there , because

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not only is it going to highlight some of the deeper

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issues , but it's also going to yield

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very tangible benefits in terms

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of how the organization is running

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, which is typically what executive

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level leaders are concerned with . It's

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a big part of their life . So , anyway

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, let's see . Oh

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yeah , this is where I'm supposed to ask you for

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your support , and

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that support looks like tap in

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the like button , thumbs up or whatever symbol

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or icon we're working with to say that

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you enjoyed this and

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, moreover , I always hope that these episodes are helpful

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to you . And if they are helpful to you and

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do you think that it would help somebody like

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you , then I would love it

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if you would share it with them . Otherwise

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, take care of each other and

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have a wonderful

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day .