Client Name
360 Assessments
Submitted by:
Date
Philosophy/Approach
Zenger Folkman is one of the world’s premier providers of leadership research,
assessment, development and implementation programs. We are best known for our
unique evidence-driven, strengths-based approach to developing extraordinary leaders
at all levels and demonstrating the business results and performance improvements
they generate for their organizations.
Zenger Folkman was co-founded by Dr. Jack Zenger and Dr. Joe Folkman in 2003. The
firm grew out of the ground-breaking research behind The Extraordinary Leader:
Turning Good Managers into Great Leaders (McGraw-Hill, 2001).
Dr. Jack Zenger is considered an international expert in the field of leadership
development. He was honored in 2011 with the American Society of Training and
Development Lifetime Achievement Award in Workplace Learning and Performance. Dr.
Joe Folkman is a noted psychometrician recognized for his expertise in creating
statistically valid assessments. Their work has been published in the Harvard Business
Review, Wall Street Journal’s National Business Employment Weekly, Newsweek, and
other publications worldwide.
What is your 360 assessment philosophy?
Zenger Folkman recognizes that 360 degree multi-rater feedback provides leaders with
valuable empirical data revealing how others perceive their strengths and weaknesses.
Our strength based approach is powerful as it resonates with the end user. They see
that by working on a few areas that they select and are passionate about they can have
true impact on their performance and the performance of the business. The approach is
manageable and engaging.
Our research on the best-in-class 360s identified these components of the most
effective instruments:
Focus on empirically derived competencies and items which truly differentiate
high performers from mid and low performers
Response scale that avoids false positive
Scores compared to a high standard, recognizing the incredible
organizational impact of the highest performing leaders
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Measure of a leader’s current impact on direct reports which highlights the
correlation between the effectiveness of a leader and the satisfaction and
engagement of employees
Identification of the most important competencies for a given role recognizing
that for a given leader, not all competencies are equally relevant
An emphasis on building strengths to transform a potential negative
experience into a positive one of self-discovery and increased awareness
Written comments focused on fixing fatal flaws, not making minor
improvements, recognizing that extraordinary leadership is not the absence of
weakness, but the possession of a handful of profound strengths
Data security and administration by a third party to protect the confidential
nature of 360-degree assessment and increase responder certainty that their
candid feedback is anonymous
Reports that are simple and intuitive allow participants to understand and act
on the feedback
Designed to provide insights to build on strengths in a way that is more
effective than intuitive, linear behavior focused on filling the gaps or fixing
weaknesses
Please describe the research used to develop your 360 tool.
In the initial research, Zenger Folkman gathered statistical data on over 2,000 items
from 200,000 evaluations of 20,000 leaders. The data was analyzed to determine what
items differentiated the best from the worst performers. The research also identified
powerful combinations of behaviors at the heart of non-linear development. These
combinations are the foundation of our strengths-based approach shared in the
Competency Companion Development guide that accompanies the personal feedback
reports.
How much capability do you have to customize your templates, tools and
assessments based on Clients needs?
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Our customization process includes:
o Review current Client Leadership Capabilities
o Explore synergies between Zenger Folkman’s database and Client model to
identify already researched items and those where additional study is
necessary
o Build a first draft 360 that includes a variety of items including those from our
foundational research, custom projects and new research based on items
unique to Client
o Consult with a Clients’ steering committee to select the items that most
resonate with the organization’s culture and goals. Work with steering
committee to gain appropriate executive approval
o Set-up and test the survey on Zenger Folkman and Clients systems
o Customize support materials including but not limited to participant materials,
non-linear development guide, step-by-step feedback analysis, and individual
development plan
o Conduct pilot program and incorporate feedback
o Launch, monitor feedback and revise as necessary
o Update norms as data pool grows
Share your philosophy regarding ownership of response data and results.
We believe that the individual data belongs to the participant to be used as a tool for
development. We can provide the organization with aggregate data that preserves
anonymity while giving leadership important insights into general profiles and trends,
Including highest scored items, lowest scored items, competencies collectively rated as
most important, etc.
Administration
Provide a description of the process flow. Who all needs to be involved?
Client has internal administrative resources trained by Zenger Folkman and access to
our 360 degree feedback assessment platform. This enables you to initiate surveys,
register respondents, monitor response rates and print reports.
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Participant information is provided to internal Client administrators or Zenger
Folkman Client Services
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Clients’ administrators or Zenger Folkman Client Services set up a new project
and adds participants to Zenger Folkman’s assessment system.
The Zenger Folkman assessment system sends an email to participants
providing them with a URL link, containing a unique ID and password for each
participant. The email will also contain instructions for inviting respondents
(feedback requests).
Each participant must enter the names and email addresses of their
respondents and identify the relationship between each of the respondents and
the participant.
Each participant completes a self-assessment that is accessed through the same
URL provided by the Zenger Folkman assessment system for the initial
participant set-up.
The Zenger Folkman assessment system sends an email with the applicable
assessment, and assessment submission deadline, to each respondent.
Every seven days until the survey is completed or the assessment deadline has
been reached, the Zenger Folkman assessment system will send an email to the
Client Coordinator containing a status report of all participants and the number of
surveys completed by their respective respondents. The system will send followup emails to all respondents until they have provided the requested feedback by
completing the survey.
Nine calendar days prior to the start of the upcoming workshop, the Clients’
administrators or Zenger Folkman Client Services will close the survey,
generate the feedback reports and print and ship them along with the
workshop materials.
What type of administrative support do you provide during the entire assessment
process?
The Client Services team at Zenger Folkman supports the instrument administration
from initial set-up to distribution of the feedback report and support materials.
Zenger Folkman's 360 system has a feature that allows one or more individuals within
a client organization to monitor the progress of people who are participating in the
360 survey process. These individuals can view how many people are registered in
the projects they are monitoring, how many feedback survey responses they have
received, etc
Client Services monitors an email box for questions/issues and provides support within
a matter of hours.
Will detailed instructions be provided?
Yes. A communication is sent to participants when the survey is launched. It includes
information about identifying and inviting respondents, completing self-assessment,
monitoring response rate and preparing for the debrief process.
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In addition, our experience tell us that an intracompany email message (from the Client
Coordinator or Stakeholder) providing detail about the outcome of the survey,
suggestions for selecting respondents and from whom the survey communication will
come is very effective.
Additionally, we work with clients to customize messaging to support an effective
implementation. One element of additional instruction includes prerecorded slide shows
to provide instruction for participants, their managers and respondents.
(Need to get current URL addresses from Utah- English only)
What type of global support do you provide?
Zenger Folkman has a global network of trusted international partners. With our global
database of over 50,000 leaders, Zenger Folkman and our partner network have proven
that our approach to leadership development is universal and delivers improved
business outcomes in all parts of the world.
Our network of strategic partners have been carefully selected and qualified, and our
leadership development programs are now being delivered in more than 30 countries
and a dozen languages. These partnerships give Zenger Folkman the capability to
effectively manage and deliver global leadership development implementations with
local delivery and language expertise. Folkman S
Europe
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United Kingdom (English)
The Netherlands (Dutch, English)
Italy (Italian, English, German, French)
Spain (Spanish, Portuguese, English)
Portugal (Portuguese, Spanish, English)
Asia/Pacific
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Australia (English)
China (Mandarin, English)
Hong Kong (English)
India (English)
Japan (Japanese, English)
New Zealand (English)
Singapore (English)
Vietnam (Vietnamese, English)
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Latin America
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Mexico (Spanish, English)
Columbia (Spanish, English)
Brazil (Portuguese, English)
Middle East / Africa
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South Africa (Afrikaans, English)
Egypt (Arabic, English)
United Arab Emirates (Arabic, English)
Mozambique (Portuguese, English)
Many of our standard assessments and participant materials have been localized and
are available in multiple languages, including Castilian and Latin Spanish, Simplified
Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Brazilian and European Portuguese, German,
French and Arabic.
We have 90+ certified facilitators and 250+ consultants in the UK, UAE, Hong Kong,
Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Italy, Netherlands,
India, Mozambique, Vietnam, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Columbia, Panama, Peru,
Ecuador, Costa Rica, Argentina, Japan, Mexico, South Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa,
Egypt, Qatar, UAE.
Where will your core team supporting Client be located?
The Client Services group is based near Salt Lake City, Utah. The current account
management team is located in North Carolina, Illinois and Florida.
What rating scale do you use? Is it flexible?
The rating scale on the standard Extraordinary Leader 360 degree feedback report is a
5 point scale with an option to indicate “Don’t Know - Not Applicable”. This scale was
designed to avoid false positives associated with “Agree/Disagree” scales.
The rating options are:
5: Outstanding Strength
4: Strength - Top Quartile
3: Competent - Good Performance
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2: Needs Some Improvement - Inconsistent Performance
1: Needs Significant Improvement - Poor Performance
We are able to customize the scale to meet unique needs of our customers.
Do you have a recommendation for total number of respondents and groups
needed to make the data relevant?
Available respondent groups include: Manager, Peer, Direct Report and Other.
We suggest participants invite feedback from at least 5 individuals in each of the
categories of Peer and Direct Report. If applicable, Other can be used to solicit
feedback from second level direct reports, team members or internal/external
customers. If there are fewer than 3 respondents in any of those groups, the data is
combined with another rater category for reporting. This protects the anonymity of the
respondents.
Manager data is reported on its own, even when just one manager provides feedback.
What is specifically required of Client to initiate the process?
Client has internal resources that can access the Zenger Folkman system that enable
you to initiate surveys, register respondents, monitor response rates, and print reports.
If preferred, we are able to complete these activities on your behalf.
To initiate the process, we simply need:
o The date of The Extraordinary Leader Workshop or debrief session
o The start and end date of the data collection period
o The name of the contact for the project
o A list of the names and email addresses for the participants
An order form is available for capturing this information.
We can provide a template if you prefer for Zenger Folkman to enter the names of the
respondents to generate invitations on behalf of the participant.
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What metrics and measurements do you put in place to make sure the project is
on track, meeting expectations, and functioning efficiently?
The key to a successful, impactful 360 degree assessment is having enough data from
selected respondents. We provide the means for the project coordinator and individual
participants to monitor response rates. We do not disclose which individuals have
responded, but do share the return rate.
System-generated reminders are emailed to those who have not completed the survey.
Our best practice is to send reminders two weeks before the deadline, one week before
the deadline and on the deadline date. The frequency of these reminders can be
adjusted to meet your needs.
Share your timeline for assessment implementation.
Sample guidelines to prepare for an assessment and development event are:
Step 1. Choose a date for the workshop or debrief session. This should
be determined 6 to 8 weeks prior to launching the survey
process within your organization
 Confirm date
 Schedule the facilitator or debriefer
 Communicate date to internal administrator or ZFCO
Step 2. Set Survey Launch (Start) date
 Ideally, this should be 5 to 8 weeks prior to the event date
 Additionally, set a date 1 to 5 days prior to the launch date
for sending out an email (pre-survey launch communication)
to participants telling them that they have been selected to
participate, how this ties to the organization’s leadership
development goals, what the survey process consists of,
etc.
Step 3. Set survey deadline—the date by which all survey submissions
must be received
 This should be approx 3 to 4 weeks following the launch
date and at least 7 to 10 days prior to the debrief date
Step 4. Initiate with internal Client resource or complete the Project
Order Form and submit to Zenger Folkman Client Services
 Email it to your Client Services representative 72 hours prior
to the requested survey launch date
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Send your pre-survey launch communication to all
participants as scheduled
Technology & Reporting
Does your tool offer flexibility or the ability to customize?
The Zenger Folkman 360 degree feedback survey can be customized to measure
behaviors related to client’s leadership competency areas.
How many assessors are allowed to be involved in any given participant`s 360
assessment?
There is no maximum number of people who can respond. Our experience suggests
that asking more people does not always give more insightful results. We guide people
to thoughtfully select those they have worked with on a professional level for a long
enough period of time to accurately assess the participant’s leadership skills.
What types of reports are generated?
Zenger Folkman programmers can format individual and aggregate reports to meet your
needs.
Standard reports include:
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Full individual feedback report
Reassessment feedback report
Aggregate report
Executive summary
All reports compare scores to 75th and 90th percentile of our global database. When
applicable, the Client norms can be regularly updated to reflect current data. Zenger
Folkman global norms are updated annually.
Do you provide any summary reports? How Often?
We provide summary/aggregate reports as requested.
What type of report do you provide to the employee following their assessment?
Individuals taking the assessment the first time receive a Participant Feedback Report.
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Those who are taking the Zenger Folkman 360 for a second time receive a report
comparing the scores from the two assessments.
Do your standard reports have some type of development component?
The Zenger Folkman standard feedback report is designed to provide insights on how a
participant can develop strengths or remedy any fatal flaws. During the analysis
process that is conducted in a one-day workshop or a one-on-one coaching format;
participants use their results to consider their competence, passion and the
organization’s needs in order to identify a developmental focus and complete an
individual development plan. In addition, Zenger Folkman’s Competency Companion
Development Guide is an important companion piece designed to enable participants to
leverage powerful combinations in their development effort.
What type of aggregate analysis do you provide?
Zenger Folkman can provide aggregate analysis in any combination of like surveys that
you would find valuable. It can be presented in an aggregate report or in an executive
overview slide deck.
Participant Experience
Describe what processes you have in place to ensure a positive experience for
the end user when completing a 360 assessment.
The most impactful cost of a 360-degree assessment is the time it takes personnel to
complete it. With this is mind, our surveys are designed to be completed in 15 to 20
minutes. We find the completion rate of a shorter survey is much higher than for a
longer survey.
It is also important for respondents to feel they are providing feedback on areas that
matter to the participant and to the organization. We have been able to identify 4-5
predictive items for each competency that are descriptive of the related behavior. We
focus on what is most important.
Directions for a survey must be easy to follow. We provide clear instructionss in the
email that contains the link to the survey and with the survey itself. The process itself is
quite intuitive.
Finally, respondents must feel confident that their responses are anonymous. Data
security and respondent confidentiality is the highest priority for Zenger Folkman. Our
experience and research shows us that anonymity is one of the most important drivers
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behind honest feedback. If users feel there is a risk that potentially negative feedback
can be tied back to them, they are less likely to be truly honest. Anonymity produces
more accurate feedback. More information about the protections we have in place is
available upon request.
What is required of each participant during the process?
Participants are asked to:
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watch their inbox for instructions for completing the survey
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identify and invite respondents
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complete their own self-assessment
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monitor their response rate
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set aside time for the workshop or one-on-one debrief
What type of upfront development do you provide to those being assessed and
their assessors?
360s have the best results in organizations where expectations are clear. It is
particularly important that it is clear that the assessment is for developmental purposes
and is not for performance evaluation.
Our support varies according to our client organization’s needs. We have created and
delivered client-specific webinars to prepare the organization and tie the assessment to
key business initiatives.
Coaching Model/Approach
Do you have a specified model for the de-briefing process?
There are two options for debriefing the 360 assessment: a 1 day workshop or one-onone coaching conversations.
The key insights and tools of The Extraordinary Leader workshop are:
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“Good” does not equal “great”
You don’t have to be perfect to be an extraordinary leader.
Perceptions of you are others’ reality.
To get where you are going, you need to know where you are.
o Tool: 360 Assessment Feedback Report
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When choosing which strengths to develop, play to your passions!
When building on strengths, often the best approach is to build around them.
o Tool: The Competency Companion Development Guide
The more people you involve in your development, the greater the likelihood of
improvement.
One-on-one debriefs are based on the same elements, formatted to accommodate
individual conversations.
Client facilitators and coaches can be certified to conduct de-briefs in either format. In
addition to your team, Zenger Folkman has resources to deliver the workshop and debrief sessions.
Do de-briefers need to be certified? What is that process?
Yes. The Zenger Folkman Coaching the Extraordinary Leader workshop (CTEL) is a
one-day program which provides skilled coaches with the training and license to use the
Extraordinary Leader 360-degree Assessment and Development Guide with those they
coach.
The CTEL workshop is designed to 1) educate de-briefers about the Extraordinary
Leader research and strengths-based approach to development, and 2) equip them with
a proven process and the necessary tools and skills to coach leaders using Zenger
Folkman’s Extraordinary Leader 360-degree Assessment.
De-briefers are presented with the key highlights from The Extraordinary Leader
Workshop, including:
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The Extraordinary Leader strengths-based development concepts and research
The purpose and unique components of the 360-degree assessment
How to interpret appropriately and use the reported feedback
How to use the Extraordinary Leader Competency Companion Development
Guide to build a strengths-based, actionable development plan
CTEL can be delivered in a one-day workshop or through a series of live webinars.
What ongoing support do you provide for de-briefers?
De-briefers have access to support from a variety of Zenger Folkman resources. We
are quite willing to partner with Client to craft a formal support process that supports
your needs. Elements can include a dedicated resource for questions and concerns,
periodic conference calls for the de-briefer group, and formal continuing education
experiences.
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Do you offer tools and resources for the employees to analyze their own results
following the de-briefing? If so, what are they?
During the de-brief process participants should receive a Step-by-Step Analysis,
Development Plan and a Competency Companion Development Guide. These tools all
lend themselves to support employee’s post-debrief analysis.
Discuss the level of support provided for interpreting the results?
Client has several internal resources who have been certified as de-briefers. Zenger
Folkman can support their further development, certify additional resources, or provide
executive coaches and facilitators to assist in interpretation and leadership development
planning.
What tools do you have, if any, beyond the 360 assessment to help employees
and leaders take positive action based on the feedback and become better
leaders (i.e., what happens after the debrief on the results)?
Zenger Folkman believes that the 360 assessment is only the beginning of a leader’s
developmental path. The next steps and tools that must be implemented are:
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The Extraordinary Leader workshop or one-on-one coaching by a Zenger
Folkman certified coach to understand the feedback
The Competency Companion Development Guide which enables leaders to
understand the relationship between competencies and how best to leverage
strengths by building around those behaviors during their development
The Extraordinary Leader Development Plan that includes specific and
intentional behaviors that will be incorporated into a leader’s daily role to increase
their leadership effectiveness
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