Along with the growing use of 360-degree feedback in organizations today, there is much disagreement over how it should be employed: strictly to help the manager develop or also to help those who work with the manager decide such issues as pay and promotion? This publication features the insights of a group of experienced professionals on both sides of the issue. To set the stage, George P. Hollenbeck, a management psychologist and adjunct faculty member at Boston University's Graduate School of Management, discusses the popularity of 360-degree feedback today.

Managers and executives do not typically become more effective as the result of a single training program or other intervention. Rather, development requires a range of ongoing and integrated activities. Drawn from CCL's "Tools for Developing Successful Executives" program, the six-step model described in this report provides the basics for designing a system that works. The steps, each covered in its own section, range from "Find and use organizational support for creating a process" to "Define and communicate the critical role of the manager." The sections contain commonsense information about the issues to consider when designing a development system plus numerous practical examples.

Almost all managers regard job experiences and the lessons they provide essential for their development as leaders. But not all of those managers are successful at learning those lessons. That difficulty is often related to a manager 's relying too much on one preferred learning tactic--a tactic that might not be suited for gleaning the lessons of a particular job experience. By increasing the number of learning tactics and becoming a more versatile learner, managers can better position themselves to take advantage of the lessons that job experiences offer and contribute to their leadership development.