Entrepreneur’n Moore

Want to Develop Your Leaders –Use a 360-Degree Feedback Tool

A 360-degree feedback process is an excellent tool for giving leaders clear feedback from their peers, employees, and managers. It creates strong motivation and specific focus to improve skills and performance.

Confidentially administered 360-degree feedback by a business coach shows leaders how they are perceived as leaders in the truest sense – how much they inspire, motivate, and develop team members, or how their attempts to drive change and improvements are being perceived.

You can even determine which leader behaviors are most likely to derail a career.

Below are 5 benefits to leaders and organizations from a properly administered 360 degree-feedback tool:

1. Offers multiple perspectives:

The 360-degree evaluation provides a well-rounded and broad view of the leader and their management practices. Raters from various levels in the organization provide a realistic outlook on how the individual is perceived. Along with a self-assessment, these multiple perspectives identify the leader’s blind spots (unnoticed behaviors) and competency gaps. The variety of perspectives enables the individual to improve their working relationships and optimize their leadership.

2. Enhances skills & behaviors:

Research on leadership has shown that there are critical skills and behaviors that effective leaders have in common. These key competencies can be used in the evaluation to determine the individual’s strengths, areas for improvement, and potential for advancement. The 360-feedback coupled with coaching will allow the leader to develop new skills and/or modify behavior to maximize their impact. 3. Customizes development:

Some organizations create development programs without taking individual needs into consideration. One of the key benefits of 360 evaluations is that they form the basis for customized individual development plans. As the purpose of 360 evaluation is development, leaders are motivated to control their career paths. Along with a coach, the leader creates a tailored training & development action plan to strengthen or acquire new competencies for continuous improvement.

4. Accountability:

The enemy of accountability is ambiguity. The more vague something is, the harder it becomes to hold people responsible. Similarly, it is how coworkers end up talking past each other. Something simple like, “I’ll take care of it,” becomes a semantic battle of what “take care” and “it” even means.

You cannot tell someone to “be a better leader” or “demonstrate company values” without providing specifics for what that means. This is precisely what 360-degree feedback assessments do. They clarify behaviors which then allow you to make a legitimate judgment on whether a person demonstrated the behavior or not. Which, in turn, enables you to hold someone accountable for those behaviors. But the best part is, you can take a lot of the burden off your shoulders. If you made the behaviors clear enough, the individual would hold himself or herself responsible.

5. Creates a culture of learning:

Organizations that use 360 feedback for development are creating a culture of learning and continuous improvement. Every individual within the company is encouraged to develop personal training and development goals. Since support for 360 comes from the top down, this shows a strong commitment from senior administration to workplace learning. Through 360 feedback, potential and current leaders can be encouraged and motivated to attain a higher achievement level.

In summary, whether you are a larger organization identifying and looking to grow high potential employees (More than 85% of all the Fortune 500 companies use the 360-degree feedback process for the overall leadership development plan) or a small business owner looking to grow their leadership team or bench so that the business works without the owner, the 360-degree feedback process is a worthy investment to consider to attract, engage and retain key management personnel.

Henry Dumas, Business Coach

ICF Credentialed Coach – MCC linkedin.com/in/henrydumas Moore Norman Technology Center 405-801-3540 • mntc.edu

Club Pilates

Provides Key to Life-Long Quality of Life

ADDRESS: 12301 S. Western Avenue PHONE: 405-759-7111 HOURS: Mon 6:00am – 9:00pm Tue 5:00am – 9:00pm Wed 6:00am – 9:00pm Thu 5:00am – 9:00pm Fri 6:00am – 9:00pm Sat 8:00am – 2:00pm Sun 12:00pm – 6:00pm WEBSITE: clubpilates.com/moore

Allie Webb, the South OKC Club Pilates owner, says her passion for this powerful form of exercise comes from her own personal experience.

"I suffer from scoliosis," said Webb, "So I've always struggled with a lot of chronic back and hip pain. When I discovered Pilates, I finally started getting some lasting pain relief."

Webb, who is an ER nurse at the OKC VA Health Care System, began to look deeper into Pilates and discovered a business called Club Pilates, with franchise opportunities. It was an easy call for her to take a leap of faith and open a franchise on the metro's south side.

"I just felt an urge to bring this form of fitness into our community," said Webb. "Apart from my time in college, I've on the southside of OKC for the majority of my life, and I've had to travel really far to find these kinds of things. I felt that this could really help a lot of people achieve a better quality of life without chronic pain."

Pilates is a form of exercise created by Joseph Pilates, an anatomist who is also considered a mechanical genius. The purest form of Pilates exercise takes place on a device called a "reformer." It's a low-impact, resistance-based machine that strengthens muscles while also improving postural alignment and flexibility. Rachael Delany, the Club Pilates general manager, says Pilates is perfect for people looking for a type of exercise they can do for their entire lives.

"Pilates is basically a full-body exercise that is going to take your body to its highest potential," said Delany. "It focuses on your core, which is the powerhouse of your body. The control you gain from it can help with pretty much every issue you might have, including back and hip pain."

Webb says that newcomers to Pilates are welcome to drop by their Club Pilates location in the well-known "wavy building" located just north of Westmoore High School.

"For some people, Pilates can be sort of intimidating," said Webb. "If you've never done it or you're just curious about it, you can take a free class and tour the studio. We love it when people drop in. We're here seven days a week to answer your questions."

Clients will find a wide range of classes designed to meet anyone's fitness goals at any age. Those classes include a FIT class, which is a mix of high-intensity, calorie-blasting cardio (think HITT classes); Cardio Sculpt, a high-energy, low-impact class using the Pilates jump board for an aerobic workout that won't stress the joints; Center + Balance, a light-movement and deep-stretching class that helps reduce soreness and muscle fatigue; and Suspend, a Reformer-based workout that incorporates the TRX suspension training system to enhance strength, coordination, mobility, and balance. age groups and body types. The Club Pilates team gets tremendous satisfaction watching the changes their clients go through as they embrace the unique exercise routine.

"I think that's probably one of the most satisfying things working in the fitness community is watching someone grow and accomplish things that they didn't think that their bodies were capable of," said Delany.

Webb said, "We also offer private training for people looking for more one-on-one training or maybe are recovering from surgery or something like plantar fasciitis."

Club Pilates is also offering a special "Spa Package Giveaway" between now and March 15th. The giveaway includes a Gucci purse, a spa package at All About You Rejoice Day Spa, and five free classes at the Club Pilates studio. For more information on how to enter and find out more about Club Pilates, visit their Facebook page: @clubpilatesmoore. You can also find more information on the website at clubpilates.com/moore or by emailing Allie or Rachael at moore@clubpilates.com.

Rachael Delany (l) and Allie Webb