A 360-degree diagnostic questionnaire, commonly used in leadership development and performance management, offers several benefits for individuals and organizations:
Comprehensive Feedback: It gathers input from multiple perspectives, including supervisors, peers, subordinates, and sometimes external stakeholders, providing a well-rounded view of an individual’s strengths and areas for improvement.
Increased Self-Awareness: By comparing self-assessment with others’ feedback, individuals can identify blind spots and better understand how their behavior and skills are perceived.
Personal Development: The results highlight specific areas where individuals can improve, making it easier to tailor development plans to their actual needs.
Enhanced Communication: Engaging in a 360-degree review process fosters open dialogue and trust between team members, improving overall workplace communication.
Improved Leadership and Team Dynamics: Leaders can become more effective when they understand how their actions impact others. Team dynamics improve when individuals work on feedback that promotes collaboration.
Objective Performance Review: Since feedback is sourced from various levels, it provides a more objective and balanced assessment compared to traditional top-down reviews.
Motivation and Engagement: Constructive feedback helps employees feel valued and understood, often leading to higher motivation and engagement when they know their input is considered.
Overall, a 360-degree diagnostic questionnaire can promote a culture of continuous improvement, encouraging personal growth and enhancing organizational performance.
About the author
Dennis Roberts is a personal coach, small business mentor and founder of CoachPRO – The Coaching Professionals. His work has won critical acclaim in both the academic and business communities.
Visit www.coachpro.com.au
Category Archives: Goal Setting
Is it time for a digital detox?
A digital detox involves taking a break from digital devices and technology to reduce stress, improve focus, and reconnect with the offline world. Here’s a guide to help you effectively manage a digital detox:
1. Set Clear Goals
- Define your purpose: Are you looking to reduce screen time, improve mental health, or focus on relationships? Knowing your “why” makes the detox more intentional.
- Decide on duration: Choose a specific time frame, such as a weekend, week, or month.
2. Plan Your Detox
- Identify problem areas: Note which devices or apps consume the most time (e.g., social media, news sites, games).
- Set boundaries: Decide when and where you’ll use digital devices. For example, no phones at meals or after 8 p.m.
- Schedule tech-free activities: Replace screen time with hobbies, exercise, or nature walks.
3. Gradual Disconnect
- Start small: Begin with short periods of disconnection, like 1 hour per day or a screen-free evening, and gradually extend the duration.
- Turn off non-essential notifications: Disable alerts for social media, news apps, or anything that’s not urgent.
4. Create Tech-Free Zones
- Physical spaces: Make areas of your home, such as the bedroom or dining room, tech-free zones.
- Work boundaries: Limit after-hours work emails or set an auto-response during off-hours.
5. Find Alternatives
- Replace scrolling: Carry a book, notebook, or activity to engage in when you would typically reach for your phone.
- Engage offline: Prioritize face-to-face conversations or outdoor activities.
6. Use Technology to Help
- Time-tracking apps: Use apps like “Screen Time” (iOS) or “Digital Wellbeing” (Android) to monitor your device use and set limits.
- Block distracting apps: Apps like “Freedom” or “Offtime” can block access to websites and apps during your detox.
7. Involve Others
- Social support: Share your detox goals with friends or family to make it a joint effort. This helps with accountability.
- Communicate boundaries: Let people know you’ll be less available, so they understand why you might not respond immediately.
8. Reflect and Adjust
- Track benefits: After the detox period, reflect on how you feel mentally and physically.
- Reintegrate mindfully: When reintroducing digital devices, establish healthier long-term habits like scheduled screen breaks or intentional use of apps.
By balancing mindful use of technology with time away from screens, a digital detox can help you recharge and reconnect with what matters most offline.
About the author
Dennis Roberts is a personal coach, small business mentor and founder of CoachPRO – The Coaching Professionals. His work has won critical acclaim in both the academic and business communities.
Visit www.coachpro.com.au
The five secrets to active listening
The five secrets to active listening are often regarded as essential skills to truly engage with and understand others during communication. Here’s a breakdown:
- Pay Full Attention: Give the speaker your undivided focus. This means eliminating distractions (e.g., phones, multitasking) and maintaining eye contact to show you’re fully present. It helps convey that you value what the speaker is saying.
- Reflect Back What You’ve Heard: Paraphrasing or summarizing what the speaker has said shows that you understand their message. You can use phrases like, “So what you’re saying is…” or “It sounds like you’re feeling…” This confirms understanding and clarifies any potential confusion.
- Avoid Interrupting: Let the speaker express themselves fully without cutting them off. Interruptions can signal that you’re more focused on your response than their message. Practice patience, and allow the speaker to complete their thought.
- Show Empathy: Respond not just to the words, but to the emotions behind them. Acknowledge the speaker’s feelings, and validate their perspective, even if you don’t agree with it. Phrases like “I can understand why you feel that way” can help create connection and trust.
- Ask Open-Ended Questions: Encourage deeper conversation by asking questions that invite elaboration. Instead of yes/no questions, ask “How did that make you feel?” or “What do you think about…?” This shows curiosity and engagement in what the speaker is saying.
These practices enhance connection, build trust, and foster better communication in personal and professional settings.
About the author
Dennis Roberts is a personal coach, small business mentor and founder of CoachPRO – The Coaching Professionals. His work has won critical acclaim in both the academic and business communities. Visit www.coachpro.com.au
The keys to improving your performance
When your financial rewards are performance based, you are confronted with a major challenge – How do you lift and sustain your performance levels?
As a real estate professional, you have to contend with variables such as increasing competition for listings, margin squeeze, unrealistic reserve prices and mounting pressure to work around the clock and more. Yet, whilst they are valid concerns these issues are business issues and not true performance issues.
End Goals v Performance Goals
When setting goals many miss the fundamental distinction between End Goals and Performance Goals.
End Goals are the outcomes or results you achieve from doing something, for example sales turnover, commission fees, clearance rates, profit margin are all End Goals. They are measured ex post facto (after the fact). They are also known as lag indicators. End Goals are the rewards or the carrots that motivate you to achieve them.
Performance Goals, on the other hand, are the drivers that get you the results. For example, property listings, outbound calls, open days, number of prospects, word or mouth referrals. This is where the hard yards are done. Your performance incentive schemes must incorporate these measures to encourage the right behaviour. Measurement of these lead indicators will give you predictive measures of future success. Success is the cumulative effect of doing the little things day-by-day.
“Performance Goals are the cause,
End Goals are the effect.”
Lead and Lag indicators form an integral part of what Harvard academics, Kaplan and Norton, call a Balanced Scorecard. Many of the larger real estate franchise groups use Balanced Scorecard measures, as do large corporations. They are equally applicable to small firms and are essential to driving performance to higher levels.
What drives Performance?
So, if performance drives results, what drives performance?
Two things drive performance:
– Skill (the learned knowledge of how to do a task), and
– Behaviour (the making of a conscious/subconscious choice)
To determine which you are dealing with ask yourself the question – Does this person know how or what to do? If the answer is yes, then as they have the skill and it’s likely to be a behavioural issue. If they answer no, then a training solution may be appropriate. With a well-trained sales professional I’d be betting on behaviours most of the time.
Behaviour is about choice. Given the circumstances, what choice did you make? Ok, so sometimes you make a good choice and sometimes you don’t. I’ll leave it for you to judge what is good and bad. In the process consider:
- Did I make a conscious choice? and
- Do I accept the consequences of my choices?
The one unescapable fact of life is that you will make mistakes and that’s ok. Just learn your lessons and don’t make them twice! Having said that, there does come a time where if you have a performer that just doesn’t cut it, then this is a great model to manage a poor performer.
I’ll assume you know what it takes to be successful. So, we have the skills. Let’s explore your behaviour. Aha, let me get this clear, you know what you need to do but you didn’t do it? Houston, we have a problem! What we may have here is a self-defeating behaviour. Short of surgical removing your frontal lobes what I’d suggest is that we explore what choice you made. By merely raising it to your conscious awareness we now empower you to, you guessed it, make a choice.
The Secrets to my Success
We enact our behaviour. Often we do so subconsciously. That’s why I emphasise making conscious choices to start. Most of us can relate to making the same mistakes. You know the one – the negative patterns we fall for over and over again. We repeat these behaviours because we have relegated them into our subconscious – the realm of our autopilot.
Yes, behaviours do run in patterns because you have essentially programmed them into your subconscious.
Now, for the good news!
These behavioural patterns apply to your positive behaviours too! You have your own unique DNA formula for your successes in life. Just as you repeat the same negative behaviours that cause you dysfunctional, the opposite is also true. You repeat your successful choices, as subconscious patterns, too.
Isn’t it about time you balanced the ledger and paid attention to the good decisions you are making? If you can unlock and understand what works for you, imagine what you may begin to achieve in your life. You can have anything.
I encourage you to read up on Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) for it is the study of how to unlock your patterns of success. It is the basis of Anthony Robbins works a well as most personal development gurus. It is a must read topic.
Most business coaches rely upon a key principal of performance measurement. And to let you in on there secret, here it is:
“The very act of measuring something focuses
your energy and attention on it. You cannot help
but improve your performance.”
When you have clearly set goals, objective performance measures, regular performance reviews and take consistent actions to towards your goals you have an empowered model for sustainable performance improvement.
I’ll leave with these words of wisdom – if you accept that the universal Law of Abundance does prevail and you can have anything you want, there is really only one question to ask yourself – what do you want?
About the author
Dennis Roberts is a personal coach, small business mentor and founder of CoachPRO – The Coaching Professionals. His work has won critical acclaim in both the academic and business communities. Visit www.coachpro.com.au