Why 360 Degree Feedback Is Useful At Early Stage Startups

It doesn’t matter whether it is a large company or a startup; feedback is vital for the growth of every business. These opinions shared by others help in highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of a business. This way, it becomes easier to know what area to improve upon to guarantee long-term success.

There will always be negative and positive feedback for every business, and that is why knowing how to manage feedback is vital. Every startup should know how to filter the feedback they get, sorting the good from the bad; understanding feedback is important for future success.

Generally, feedback comes from customers who have engaged with your business. It can be because they have purchased a product or gotten any of the services that your startup offers. Then, there is the 360 degree feedback that comes from within.

Businesses are ideas turned into reality. With 360 degree feedback, you can keep your business growing.

360 Degree Feedback: What is is and How it Can be Beneficial

360 degree feedback is an assessment tool that provides an honest analysis of the performance of individuals in a work environment.

Key stakeholders, who are also employees of the startup, usually give this assessment. This tool is effective because it analyzes from within, taking to account every detail of activities.

360 degree feedback is mainly used by large and established companies with a large workforce. This is because, after a while of operations, many things start to set in, such as employee burnout and a weak hierarchy system.

To restore normalcy to the operations of these businesses, this type of feedback is considered. When conducted properly, it has proven to be effective in improving the work morale of employees. But who says startups cannot use 360 degree feedback?

As a startup in its early stages, you can use this feedback to build a healthy work environment where your employees are accountable to everyone and not just a single boss.

If you are a business owner and still sitting on the fence as to whether to use 360 degree feedback, here are significant reasons why you should make up your mind already.

• It creates a passionate work environment.

360 degree feedback ensures that employees put in the required effort to achieve a particular result. By doing so, everyone in the startup becomes passionate about the tasks they are responsible for.

Employees, knowing fully well that they can comment on the work rate of others, will be cautious of their own work rate. This way, a dynamic work environment can be created where everyone loves what they do, gets rewarded for it, and the startup’s goals can be achieved.

• It encourages sincere and straightforward feedback.

With external feedback, some users are not always sincere about their opinions. Sometimes, these opinions are harshly expressed to downplay the offers of a business.

At other times, these opinions are just exaggerations of what the startup represents. By dwelling on external feedback alone, it might be difficult to correctly analyze your startup’s strengths and weaknesses.

With 360 degree feedback, you can get sincere and straightforward opinions directed towards the productivity levels of individuals in a work environment.

• It helps to keep goals benchmarked as the startup grows.

At every point of growth for a startup, the values that drive the business and the goals it seeks to achieve must be reiterated. To achieve set goals faster, everyone has to be on the same page with the goals.

360 degree feedback helps keep every employee on the same page with the startup’s goals set to be achieved.

With the assessment that 360 degree feedback provides, the performance of everyone on the team is measured side by side with the startup’s goals.

For a startup to thrive, everyone needs to be on the same page.

• It creates accountability and keeps everyone on the same page.

Trust, respect, and communication are vital points for the growth of every startup. Of these three points, the most important is trust, and it comes from being accountable.

The whole idea of 360 degree feedback is that a worker analyzes the performance of another based on what they can see. This touches on how effective such a worker is at the task assigned to them.

You may be wondering, how does this create accountability between employees? 360 degree feedback creates accountability – not just to the task but to your co-workers.

Accountability replaces “eye service,” which appears to be the norm where performance reviews come from one person alone. In such a case, you find people acting when their boss is around while doing otherwise in their absence.

Knowing fully well that you are accountable to the next person in a work environment as much as you are to every other person helps keep everyone on the same page. With everyone on the same page, it becomes easy to live the startup’s values and achieve its set goals.

• It aids the establishment of healthy roots.

The foundation for the long-term success of any startup is created during its early stages. This is why founders are always encouraged to put in the right efforts at this stage.

The seeds you sow in terms of management of the business and the team at the early stages have ripple effects on the startup as it grows.

One important reason why 360 degree is useful for startups at an early stage is that it aids in the establishment of healthy roots by creating a viable work environment. Everyone works as a team accountable to one another and the startup as a whole.

In the long run, the effect of these healthy roots is seen in the business’s productivity level, how well it manages uncertainties, and lives up to the very motives that were the foundation for its launch.

Conclusion

360 degree feedback provides insights into areas where employees of a startup need professional development. The essence of this feedback system is not to condemn employees. Instead, it ensures everyone working for the startup is doing so in line with the business’ goals.

360 degree feedback at an early stage of a startup helps to create a foundation for long-term success. It encourages accountability, creates a healthy work environment where everyone is passionate about what they do and ensures the goals and values of the startup are benchmarked.