Preparation

Your assignment is to conduct a "mini-360" evaluation of yourself. Other people often see us in a different way, so personal development is most effective when we can include others in our feedback program. After all, can we ever really know the extent of our ignorance?

Read and review the material on 360 feedback in Chapter 20.

Steps

1. Conduct a mini 360 evaluation of yourself.
   • You are to pick 6 individuals--2 "supervisors", 2 "peers", and 2 "direct reports" for this project.
     • "Supervisors" are persons that have been "above" you in some sense--a boss at work, a teacher in a class, a mentor, an internship preceptor, etc.
     • "Peers" are those who are "at your level"---fellow students, co-workers, etc.
     • "Direct Reports" are persons that are "below you"--someone you have supervised in some way (even a younger sibling might work).
     • If you do not have anyone in these specific categories, think about people you may have interacted with in a community, civic, sports, or similar group that could provide feedback about your leadership skills, work ethic, etc.
   • Send an email to those you selected (example shown below) asking for their honest feedback.
2. Collect feedback, summarize it and compare and contrast it to your own assessment of your strengths and weaknesses.
3. Apply the feedback you received to the personal and professional goals you outlined.
   • What actions do you need to take or things do you need to change to achieve them?
   • What strengths do you have that will help you achieve your goals?
   • What obstacles are you likely to encounter and how will your weaknesses prevent you from overcoming those obstacles?
   • What do you need to do to improve upon your identified weakness to surmount that obstacle?
4. Makea developmental plan for at least 1 of your professional and 1 of your personal goals.
   • This exercise is designed to move you from where you are to where you want to be. You need a plan, a map, a strategy to do that.
   • There's no set way to explain a developmental plan, but the questions you considered in step 3 are important to the process.
     • The text has an example (Appendix B).
     • Take some initiative and search online for other examples.

Sample Email

Dear x:

As part of a class I am taking on healthcare leadership, I have to finish an exercise in gathering feedback from other people on my strengths and weaknesses. I would like you to be one of the people who provide that feedback. I would appreciate it if you could respond to this email with a reply to the following questions:

What would you say are my greatest strengths as a leader? What am I good at already?

What are my greatest areas of challenge as a leader? Where do I need to improve?

Please be as candid as you can in your responses. My goal is to understand those areas of personal development to focus on so that I can reach my potential as a leader in health care. Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions and help with this assignment.

Sincerely,

Z