Why conduct
Organisations spend a significant amount of time, money and effort appraising the performance of and developing their CEO and the senior management team.
Very few organisations, however, spend much time, money or effort appraising the performance of and developing their directors. Those organisations that do spend the time, money and effort to appraise and develop their directors testify to the importance of such action and the significant return they achieve on that investment.
Our Director 360 Survey is also known as a director-peer survey. It is an invaluable tool in the learning, development and improvement program for individual directors. In the survey, directors are taken through a comprehensive range of issues relevant to their effectiveness as directors in a structured way. The Director 360 Survey is an important part of a board’s corporate governance toolkit.
A director self assessment can be done by using the Director 360 Survey, either separately or in conjunction with director and management interviews, review of the board and its committees in session and the like by experienced board and 360 degree feedback specialists.
Once the survey phase is completed, a personalised Director Effectiveness Report is produced for each director that can be easily understood, promotes self-awareness and provides guidance for improvement. A consolidated report is also provided to the board showing the mean of all individual director self-assessments, the mean of the assessment by directors of others and the related gap. This report helps to identify any issues that can be addressed by the board as a whole.
Feedback to individual directors
Each director receives a personalised action oriented report. The report includes the director’s self assessment, the average survey response of other directors and the related gap. Short written comments by others on a director’s strengths and areas for improvement add context and improve the usability of the report.
The way results are fed back to individual directors should be determined and agreed prior to your Director 360 Survey project commencing, as clarity and appropriate sensitivity is needed. Whether the board chair, any other director or any other person is to receive a copy of an individual director’s Director Effectiveness Report needs to be agreed and understood. Some of the options to share the results of each director assessment include:
- all the survey results can be provided to the board chair who then manages and delivers feedback to the individual directors
- the survey results can be provided directly to an individual director with a face-to-face or telephone feedback session by a board and/or 360 degree feedback specialist from Insync Surveys
- the survey results can be provided directly to an individual director who has the option of a debrief by the board chair, a board and/or 360 degree feedback specialist from Insync Surveys or another third party consultant
- survey results can be provided directly to each individual director without being seen by the board chair or any other party
