Leadership 360s—never make them about the numbers, or who said what.

That misses the point entirely.

Debriefing leadership 360 reports with senior leaders is a joy. Not least because it's a fast way to get into meaningful coaching conversations.

I have leaders draw up a list of "interesting things" as we go, capturing their questions and queries.

Gaps are Interesting

When you're sitting in the hot-seat it's natural for your eye to be drawn to the differences in opinions for a give competency or behavior. (Sounds like a candidate there for the list of 'interesting things').

My eye is drawn to the areas of total alignment.

Agreements are just plain strange

Say we're looking at "impact and influence", and the leader, their manager, peers, and direct reports all produce a rating for the leader that is the same exact score.

How can it be that all these different groups assess the perceived impact of your "impact and influence" at the same level.

It must be that everyone has a shared common rubric, and that the behaviors the demonstrating 'impact and influence' are well understood in this organisation. I imagine there are frequent open conversations about what it is to operate with 'impact and influence'; that these ideas are examined regularly.

That would explain such close alignment, yes?

Of course not. More likely is that 'impact and influence' is never discussed, never shared. It's assumed everyone has a shared common understanding, with no nuance and no inference.

Make it explicit

Teams are so caught up in the single-loop learning of DOING there's never any time to get off the dance floor and up on to the balcony for meaningful conversation about anything else.

When did you last have an open, non-judgmental meta-conversation as a team?

What is the team collective thinking, established culture, on relevant topics.

🤔 trust

🤔 conflict

🤔 commitment

🤔 accountability

🤔 results

Or the 4 domains of psychological safety...

🤔 open conversation

🤔 attitude to risk + failure

🤔 willingness to help

🤔 diversity + inclusion

It's not enough as a leader to know that you know what these things mean; that you role model these. It's rarely that clear-cut.

People make their own meanings, and most of these ideas are muddied and made more complex by their connections with different and often conflicting ideas.

Take some time out of the work day, to sit together as a team, and get curious together about a single topic. Share the meanings you each make of it. Draw pictures of it.

Aim to leave the conversation with an expanded awareness of how your colleagues see this thing differently from you.