Setting the Stage: Feedback Environment Improves Outcomes for a 360-Degree-Feedback Leader-Development Program

This study examined the role of the feedback environment and the individual attributes of feedback orientation, self-awareness, and learning agility on leadership-development outcomes after participation in a leadership-development program that had 360-degree feedback as its basis. Participants included 55 leaders who participated in the program and their supervisors who rated their improvement in leader effectiveness and capability 2 months after the program. The feedback environment, self-awareness, and learning agility were associated with improved leader performance. This finding suggests that contextual and individual factors play an important role in the outcomes of a feedback-intensive leader-development program. Focus on these factors should improve the return on the investment of these programs in terms of improved leader performance. Although feedback orientation was not directly associated with perceptions of improved performance, it did interact with the feedback environment in an unexpected way. Those with low feedback orientation had the most improvement under a favorable feedback environment. This suggests that the feedback environment plays a particularly strong role for those who value feedback the least. It is also possible that those who value feedback but do not have the good fortune to work in a favorable feedback environment will still embrace the opportunity to receive feedback in a leader-development program. What's It Mean? Implications for Consulting Psychology This study found that leaders who work in a favorable feedback environment prior to attending a leadership-development program that incorporates 360-degree feedback had better outcomes than those who work in an unfavorable feedback environment. These results will help practitioners maximize the effectiveness of costly leader-development programs by improving workplace feedback processes prior to leadership-development interventions. Self-awareness and learning agility were also related to postprogram leader improvement. Evidence suggests these individual attributes can be developed.