360 Degree Feedback
My bumbling employers recently matriculated me in what they call a 360 degree feedback. What this consists of is a survey regarding how people perceive me. I get to pick the people that get the survey, and I purposely chose a nice mix of my direct reports, staff, peers, managers and customers. I didn't go by whether they were people I did or did not have a good relationship with, I went with those I interacted with frequently. I've seen co-workers in the past pad the survey respondent population on these with their supporters, which to me is a huge cop out. While I do consider myself the best thing to hit mankind since sliced bread, I'm smart enough to realize I can and do piss people off frequently, and that I could benefit from improving on a few aspects and core competencies of my makeup. Not to mention capitalizing more on my many strengths.
I have a very low threshold for bullshit and politics, and my guiding principle is to get the job done the best way possible for all parties involved. That sometimes means doing things that some (and on occasion none) are completely happy with. People today fail to understand that all too often there isn't a perfect solution to be had, despite Hollywood's indications to the contrary.
That being said, I was very surprised to see myself graded highly in almost all categories by my peers and direct reports, and significantly lower by my bosses. This is especially telling since I'm in a company that rotates management types more often than regular folks change underwear. I have never, ever met any of my past 3 managers, and none of them have remained as my managers beyond a year. A couple of the many 'managers' I've had with this company in my 5 year stint with them were my managers for a few months only. Contrast that with my last company, where I reported to the same person for almost 4 years, with several promotions involved for both him and me during that period of time.
Interesting how people can be so opinionated over someone they've never met and interact with so infrequently. I'll give greater weight to the responses by those who deal with me every day, of course. But I guess I'll have to play a bit of the political bullshit game if I'm to leapfrog another level of management soon.
