Conduct your own 360 review
Most company reviews suck. Find out the hard truth about what’s holding you back.
👋 Hi, it’s Greg and Taylor. Welcome to our newsletter on how to make high-stakes professional and personal decisions in your 30s.
I did my third “360 review” of my career last year. I’m not talking about the 360 that most companies do – where your peers and a few direct reports submit feedback on you, and your boss takes that into account in your review.
This 360 was led by my coach. She spent 30-45 minutes on the phone with 10 people I work closely with, getting raw, unfiltered feedback on my superpowers and what holds me back. This type of 360 is usually reserved for executives – it can cost $5,000 (or more), but is incredibly valuable.
In this most recent review, I was reminded of a few superpowers that my colleagues value:
I have a keen strategic sense of both opportunities and risks, and I’m decisive in dealing with risk and investing in opportunity
I’m calm under pressure, listen well, and act as a demanding but empathetic thought partner
I’m able to work high-low – zooming out to focus on long-term value creation, then zoom in and focus on making the plan.
And I got some hard truths around behaviors that were holding me back:
I jump into conversations my staff are driving without context, which derails projects and discourages confident decision-making
I often turn a company success into a conversation about “how we need to do better next time,” which hurts team morale
My habit of thinking out loud (in meetings, Slack, or email) confuses or distracts the team – “Is this an idea or a directive?’
I haven’t fixed all these things. I’m sure my team would say I still do a lot of them. But hearing the hard truth about my weaknesses has helped me be aware of the impact of my behavior – which is the first step to remediation.
You likely can’t (and shouldn’t) spend $5,000 or more to get a coach to run a 360 process. But you can get 80% of the value by conducting your own 360 review. Here’s how.
– Greg
Why you need a 360
Honest, career-level feedback is very hard to get at work.
Depending on your manager, you’ll hear “you need to do X better to hit X goal” or simply “you’re doing great” (they’ve probably got a lower-performer taking more of their energy).
But to excel, especially as you move up in an organization, you need the hard truth about your talents and flaws – the stuff that will supercharge or plague your whole career.
A 360 review gets this feedback by doing three things:
Sourcing from 5-10 people – those above you (your managers), sideways (your colleagues), and below you (your direct reports). These can be from your current job, but they can also be former colleagues or people you work with in your community.
Asking the right questions. These aren’t about how you can hit your goals – they’re about your superpowers as an employee, and the 2-3 big things holding you back from real impact.
Synthesizing. A good 360 takes feedback from many people and turns it into a clear (anonymized) message: Your [superpower] makes you stand out, and you should leverage that by [doing action]. But your [flaw] holds you back, and you should work on that by [taking action].
You won’t get this from your manager (so don’t hold your breath)
99% of managers will not give you this feedback. Why?
They’re focused on company goals, not your career. So they’ll focus their feedback on what you need to do to hit a certain OKR, not what you need to do to become an executive.
They’ve got an agenda. If you’re a good performer, they want to retain you. So they’ll downplay the bad stuff and emphasize the compliments. We’ve gotten reviews where the boss said, “Just keep doing what you’re doing.”
They’re busy. They’re probably writing your review the night before it’s due. They’ve Slacked a few people, “Can you give me some feedback on Taylor?” and those people are also busy, so they’ve jotted down a few sentences, colored by their most recent interaction with you (again, mostly small or complimentary stuff).
How to get a 360 review without your manager’s help
The expensive way – hire a coach to do it for you ($5,000 and up). They’ll interview 5-6 people you work with, and compile interviews into an anonymized report. Part of what you’re paying for is anonymity, but a good reviewer will also push your interviewees for really, really honest feedback about you.
Is it worth it? Unless you’ve got money to burn, probably not. Try the cheap way first and see if you need to upgrade.
The cheap way – do it yourself.
Make a Typeform or Google form, and send it to 10 colleagues. The only identifiable information should be whether they manage you, report to you, or are your colleague.
Tell them explicitly: I’m doing a 360 review with current and former coworkers, and I want ruthless feedback that helps me improve. Your feedback will be anonymous.
Ask specifically about your superpowers. Focus less on accomplishments and more on behaviors.
What do I do really well that others don’t do (aka, what’s my “superpower”)?
What jobs or roles would I be really good at?
When I join a project, what changes?
Then ask about your weaknesses – what’s holding you back.
What’s one thing I do professionally that’s holding me back?
What do I do that drives you crazy?
If you could change one thing about my working style, what would it be?
Once your colleagues submit, feed their responses into ChatGPT or Claude and ask it to synthesize your strengths and weaknesses, using examples from the text.
AI prompt to steal: “Act as a career coach and create a report on my professional strengths and weaknesses, using the attached feedback on my work performance from my colleagues. Please synthesize their findings into three areas:
Fix – problems I need to address right away (e.g., I’m not on time to meetings, or my communication style isn’t working)
Build – things I need to do to get to the next level (e.g., I need to stay high-level before getting into the details in meetings, I need to create a culture of positivity on my team)
Hone – things I’m great at that I should double down on (e.g., I’m an unusually creative thinker, and I should delegate project management so I can focus on creative projects). Tell me how to describe these “superpowers” as well, so that I can promote myself.”
Once you have this report, take 60 minutes to sit and reflect on it. Read the report twice without mentally defending yourself (“Well, I only do that because …”).
Then start making a list of ways you’ll incorporate this feedback. Pick one focus area for the year, tell other people you’re working on it, and make a list of places you can work on it (in meetings, in 1:1s, etc.). Then follow up with people to see if you’re improving.
Re-read the 360 every 6 months, and assume it’s good for three years – then you should probably do another one.
Our advice
Don’t work for 10+ years without a real review: an independent 360, where you learn about your superpowers and your Achilles heels. If your company or boss won’t pay up for one, do it yourself – and then do it again in moments of crisis, change, or promotion.
Every professional athlete knows their strengths and weaknesses and works them. Anyone serious about their career in business should do the same.
Own your career – and get access to the tools and knowledge usually reserved for executives or ‘chosen ones’. Choose yourself.
To the next 10 years,
Greg & Taylor
P.S. If you need a lift after a bad week/month/quarter at work, email your work friends and ask them to send you an email or fill out a form with only one question: What do I do really well that others don’t do (aka, what’s my “superpower”)? You’ll hear some amazing feedback about your qualities. We all need more of this – and we just have to ask.