When designed and delivered well, 360 degree feedback can be one of the most powerful tools for leadership development, personal growth, and organisational improvement. Yet too often, organisations fall short, implementing feedback processes that generate data, but little action.
This guide outlines 360 feedback best practices based on research, coaching experience, and insights from hundreds of organisations. Follow these principles to ensure your process delivers real, lasting value.
Clarity of purpose is essential. Are you using 360 feedback to support individual development, evaluate performance, or embed cultural change? Your design, communication, and process must be tailored to this goal. 360 feedback best practices begin by aligning the tool with the intended outcome.
Your feedback approach should reflect your organisation’s leadership model, values, and future aspirations. Avoid generic questionnaires that don’t fit your context. A customised, relevant framework leads to more trust and more useful feedback.
Visible support from senior leaders is a critical success factor. Involve the top team early - let them shape the tool and be first to use it. Their advocacy helps normalise the process and boost participation across the organisation.
Many feedback processes fall short due to a handful of avoidable errors. The most successful organisations consistently steer clear of these:
How participants are supported to understand and act on their feedback is one of the biggest drivers of impact. According to research by Lumus360, organisations use a variety of support models:
There’s no one-size-fits-all model, but a key 360 feedback best practice is to ensure participants are never left to navigate feedback alone - unless they have the maturity and tools to do so successfully.
The first step is often the hardest - helping participants hear and accept their feedback in an open, non-defensive way. Without support, people tend to downplay praise and deflect criticism, missing valuable insights.
Create a safe environment for participants to explore emotional reactions, surface key themes, and build an accurate picture of how they’re perceived. Help them treat both positive and negative messages as inputs for learning and growth.
This is more than reading a report. It’s about understanding patterns, clustering comments, and identifying underlying drivers of behaviour.
Once feedback is understood, participants should move to action planning. But rather than generating a wish list, they should focus on 3-4 high-impact goals that are meaningful, measurable, and achievable.
Effective action plans:
Goals should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound). A short reflection period of 5-10 days before formalising the plan can help participants clarify key insights and their response to them.
One of the most important yet often overlooked 360 feedback best practices is to help participants build not just plans, but genuine commitment to change.
Many organisations stop after the plan - but that’s when the real work begins. Successful 360 feedback requires a clear follow-through strategy. Four elements are especially important:
This discussion should be expected from the start and supported with a suggested agenda.
This creates a structure of accountability and keeps momentum going.
Getting 360 feedback right means doing more than collecting ratings and comments. It means embedding the process in your culture, aligning it with business goals, and supporting people through the emotional and practical journey of feedback.
By following these 360 feedback best practices, organisations can build stronger leaders, more engaged teams, and a culture of continuous development.
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