Nuru Kenya Pilots 360 Evaluations to Promote a Feedback Culture

A 360 evaluation is an all-around process of giving feedback in order to create a positive change and growth to individual leaders and the organization as a whole. It involves receiving feedback from direct reports, peers and evaluating yourself. Nuru Kenya adapted the concept from Nuru International and piloted it in November 2014 with all the Program Managers. As an organization that values feedback, Nuru Kenya strongly believes it is important to get feedback on the leaders’ performance from various sources such as performance evaluations, staff leadership reviews, staff surveys and one-on-one sessions.

The process of piloting 360 evaluations in Nuru Kenya was interesting but challenging with the Leadership Program leading the process and ensuring that the challenges were overcome. Some of the challenges experienced were fear of compromised confidentiality, unfamiliarity with the process and anxiety about the outcome. The Leadership Program handled these challenges by conducting a one-day training to explain the entire process of 360 evaluations and the level of confidentiality. As a result the program staff was able to give feedback to the Program Managers, honestly evaluate themselves and received feedback from their direct reports and their peers. This will help them grow as leaders and improve overall organization performance.

The 360 evaluation was piloted at the end and the outcome, based on the feedback, was very positive. The Program Managers recommended this type of evaluation as one commented, “This is a good process of improving an areas of weakness which you may not identify but are identified by others.” Another pilot with a sample group of the Field Managers and Field Officers, and rolling out the process with all staff was highly recommended. Therefore a second pilot will be done in April 2015 and the full process rolled out in October 2015.

As the Leadership Program, we are responsible for leadership sustainability and improvement for leader’s performance. Therefore the 360 evaluation will help Nuru Kenya with leadership sustainability and the local leaders achieve both personal and professional growth.