Death Spiral: 360 Feedback

The key employees started disobeying orders of CEO and this clearly implied leadership failure for one of the Japanese Multinational. There is a saying that employees don't quit companies, they quit bosses!

When leadership failure is at the CEO level, it is common for various senior executives to try to fill the vacuum. Without a clear decision on direction by the CEO, the Japanese Organization was facing protracted power struggles and a further deterioration in competitive market position as the senior executives blocked or undermined each other's initiatives.

Key employees got frustrated with this lack of proper, needed action and left the company, degrading its strengths even more. Also, various incorrect habits were formed in the organization which made it much harder to lead in the future.

The leadership at this Japanese Multinational in India always failed to provide proper direction, inspiration and vision for their company from the start. The Controlling Management at Japan just kept on changing its strategy and the leadership except the consulting firm with which it had entered into a long term contract. Continuous consulting interventions by the Japan were faulty and unwarranted, which made the local leaders to think that inaction is a viable choice.

Unfortunately, they believed that they can continue to do what they like. They were comfortable with status-quo irrespective of what market conditions demanded. They did implement some changes, but at a rate or time that was convenient.

The Controlling Management at Japan then thought of carrying a 360 Review just to find a death spiral.

Implementing a 360 degree review process can either be a destructive and devastating experience, or a developmental epiphany for those involved, depending entirely on how the process is structured and the level of preparedness.

Although it is required that leaders should seek-out candid feedback from colleagues and subordinates using a 360-degree review in order to discover blind spots that reduced the performance but success lies in taking stock of their personal strengths and weaknesses and the commitment to take necessary steps to achieve personal as well as organizational change.

The 360, is only a tool that provides quantitative and qualitative evidence of the causal link between management behavior and business outcomes. If any one agrees that managerial behavior significantly impacts productivity, employee attitudes, morale, retention, teaming, and therefore the quality of customer interaction and overall business results, then one must exert the same level of scrutiny upon behavior as is traditionally imposed upon the functions. Unless and until top management is willing to exert that level of scrutiny, the impact of management behaviors on organizational performance will not be measurable, and will therefore remain invisible, free to impede business results with impunity.

More people would learn from their mistakes if they weren't busy denying they made them.