Congratulations!
You've been asked to act as a Rater for a colleague who is undergoing a 360 degree Predictable Success Leadership Skills Assessment. That means your opinion counts for a lot!
You may or may not have done this before, so here as a guide (or as a refresher) are some tips on how to make the process work best:
Here are some guidelines to bear in mind when you are completing your self-assessment:
Relax and enjoy
This isn't a test, and there are no wrong answers. No-one is trying to trip you up. There's no 'gotcha'. This is just a simple exercise to see how you view your colleague's leadership skills.
Our software will add your view of the participant to those of others, and your combined views will be compared with the participant's self-assessment, to identify his or her strengths, weaknesses and blind spots (if any). Simple as that.
Be honest
Resist the temptation to guess what you think the participant (or their manager) would want to hear. Enter your own responses, as honestly as you can, irrespective of whether you think your opinion is the same as anyone else's.
Don't let single events cloud your responses
Take 10-15 seconds per question to think on each aspect of the persons' management style that you're being asked about. Focus on your complete response to the underlying issue, not just on a recent example.
Say, for example, you're being asked about someone's ability to communicate effectively in times of stress. Maybe they handled the last example of that happening very well, or very poorly. Don't let those single events cloud your response unduly. Put them in context of how you have seen them operate as a whole, and answer accordingly.
Don't use this as an opportunity for venting
Try to be objective.
With most people, we have one or two areas that we find particularly irritating or annoying. In the worst case, you might even have had a blow-up with the participant recently that's been hanging between you for a while.
Please take this in the way it's intended: you Rater assessment is not meant as therapy for you! 🙂
Stay objective, and try to separate your feelings from your objective assessment of the individual. That way, the resulting analysis will provide a solid, objective basis for dealing with any issues that arise.
Use the 'comments' section wisely
This is a specific example of the point above. It's easy to view the comments section of the assessment as an opportunity to vent. Don't.
Here's a great tip: If you find yourself writing about your feelings about an individual, stop, analyse exactly why you feel that way, and instead, write about the specific events or actions that make you feel that way.
Provide data, not emotions.
Don't ask others
Your assessment is just that - your assessment. Other people will get the chance to give their views in the process. If you're not sure about your response to a specific question, move on and come back to it later - you'll be surprised how your subconscious will have dealt with the issue in the meantime.