The Leader’s Mirror is a competency-based 360-degree feedback process that enables an organization’s leaders to develop a customized leadership competency model for meeting current business challenges and driving their organization into the future. Typically this process starts by asking senior leaders to tell stories about times when leaders have impressed them and times when leadership was missing. Next focus groups of leaders from across the organization repeat this process. Then the stories are used to create a first draft of a leadership competency model that’s finalized by senior leaders. The result is a set of leadership competencies that are specific to the organization’s culture and needs.
The competency model is turned into a customized 360˚ feedback tool that generates a 360˚ Feedback Report. Like our generic 360˚ Feedback tool – the LCA, this assessment generates numerical ratings and extensive comments that bring the numbers to life. The reports are the basis for one-on-one feedback and development planning. The data are also used to create team and organizational profiles that validate collective strengths and form the basis for action plans to address institutional weaknesses.
The 5 steps of the Leader’s Mirror process are:
1. Developing a Competency Model to Meet Business Challenges
A highly interactive process consisting of interviews and focus groups is conducted to articulate the company’s key business challenges and the core competencies needed to address them.
2. Creating a Competency-Based 360˚ Questionnaire
Based on the competency model developed in step one, an assessment instrument is developed that will provide executives with both quantitative and qualitative data regarding their effectiveness in each of the identified competencies.
3. Administering the 360˚ Questionnaire
Executives request full spectrum feedback on their performance against the identified competencies from managers, peers, and direct reports as well as their own self-assessment. The feedback includes numerical ratings and verbatim comments.
4. Executive Feedback and Coaching
Each executive participates in a personal feedback session with a Charter Oak coach who has broad experience coaching senior executives. This session provides assistance with interpreting the feedback and formulating a development plan to improve leadership effectiveness in a way that will positively impact business results.
5. Team Development and Planning
Each leadership team that goes through the Leader’s Mirror process participates in a team meeting to understand each individual’s development plans, learn how to help each other become stronger leaders, review the team’s collective strengths and development needs, and create organization development action plans for increasing overall team effectiveness.