360-degree Feedback for Water Leaders

What is this form of feedback?

360-degree feedback is a powerful leadership development method that involves completing an online questionnaire in relation to your leadership behaviours and performance. Both you and an invited group of your colleagues (e.g. your manager, a group of peers and direct reports if you have them) complete this questionnaire.

The questionnaire has been developed by the IWC specifically for emerging and established water leaders. It includes 20 questions that involve a numerical rating scale which relate to aspects of leadership performance, leadership fundamentals and transformational leadership. It also includes four open questions to gather qualitative feedback on strengths, areas to improve, and opportunities to grow as a water leader. There is no limit to the number of colleagues you can include in this feedback process.

At the IWC, we define ‘water leaders’ as water professionals/practitioners who engage in ‘leadership’ which is a social process of influence that delivers direction, alignment of activities towards that direction, and personal commitment to collective success. From this perspective, water leaders may be ‘emerging’ (e.g. someone making the transition from being an individual specialist to someone who needs to engage in influence without much authority or lead a project team) or ‘established’ (e.g. someone occupying an organisational role that requires significant leadership such as a team leader, ‘middle manager’ or executive leader).

What benefits could you enjoy?

This form of feedback can help you to:

• assess and build self-awareness (e.g. by comparing self-assessed ratings to equivalent ratings by others);
• uncover any ‘blind spots’ you may have;
• recognise and understand differences in the perspective of different groups of colleagues in relation to your leadership behaviour and performance;
• identify specific leadership-related strengths, weaknesses and opportunities to improve;
• focus future developmental activities to accelerate progress towards the leader you want to become;
• identify new ideas to help you grow as a water leader;
• trust your intuition as a leader; and/or
• build confidence that you are on the right track.

Who is likely to benefit the most?

Emerging and established water leaders who:

• are ready for a comprehensive form of feedback on their leadership behaviours and performance from a group of people they respect;
• haven’t recently done a comprehensive 360-degree feedback process (e.g. in the last 6-12 months);
• find it difficult to get rich, developmental feedback from colleagues;
• lead a group of direct reports and want to serve them well by creating a psychologically safe way for them to anonymously provide feedback (we recommend that team leaders who lead a team of staff engage in some form of 360-degree feedback at least annually);
• would like to focus their leadership development activities but are not sure where best to spend their time and energy; and/or
• would like to work with an IWC coach to help interpret the feedback and develop an action plan to positively respond.

What is the timing of this process?

• An expression of interest to participate can be sent to the IWC at any time. However, the process will commence in early December each year to coincide with the IWC Water Leadership Program’s annual 360-degree feedback process.
• A one-to-one coaching session can be scheduled from mid-February to discuss your feedback with your coach. Additional coaching sessions, if needed, can be scheduled after that.

What is the cost?

tbc

Who are our leadership coaches?

watercentre.org/leadership-coaching/

How do you get started?

• Let us know that you’re interested in participating in the 360-degree feedback process in December-February by contacting us here: https://watercentre.org/contact/ There is no obligation to proceed beyond this step.
• We will then contact you to discuss your situation to ensure that the 360-degree feedback process and coaching process will meet your needs. We would also be happy to provide you with an example 360-degree feedback report upon request (i.e. a real report but with all personal information redacted).
• We will then liaise with you in early December to identify who you want to include in the feedback process.
• Your survey will become live in mid-December and run until early February.
• We will also select a suitable IWC leadership coach in consultation with you. If you have a preference regarding which coach to work with, please let us know.
• The IWC will introduce you to your coach via email, and your coach would liaise with you to schedule your first one hour coaching session which would occur via videoconference.
• Two hours prior to your coaching session, your coach will email you a copy of your confidential report (as a PDF), along with a short video on how to navigate the report and interpret the feedback.
• The first coaching session will focus on identifying the key messages from the report and positive actions to respond to those messages. Your coach will also discuss with you whether you want to have some additional coaching sessions to help you implement your actions.
• The IWC will send you or your organisation an invoice for this service.

Who can you speak to for more information?

An IWC program manager will contact you once you express an interest here: https://watercentre.org/contact/