1. We have all experienced it and don’t we love it? Someone comes up to us and says ‘I met xx and he had
some very good things to say about you’. Post this conversation, we have a spring in our step and find it
difficult to walk through doors due to our heads being swollen.
The converse is seldom true. Rarely do people come up to us and tell us how terrible we are or point
out our deficiencies. If they do, we assume they have a hidden agenda and are jealous or envious of us.
Yet deep down within each of us, there is a strong need to know where we can improve so that we can
aspire to be the perfect human being. Not that there is any such person! Is there a contradiction in what
I have just said? We yearn for feedback, yet when we receive it we feel agitated and our defences are all
full form to defend our weaknesses.
Our boss gives us the feedback and we feel he is never satisfied, our reportees do so and we feel they
would since we are demanding of them. The spouse likes to complain quite a lot and the c hildren are
now becoming too big for their boots. The bottom line is we are not bold enough to accept criticism. Our
egos are bloated and we have lost the humility to accept that all of us require some improvement.
The 360 degree feedback is a tool used by companies to throw some light on our blind spots. However,
my experience is that most companies ask for feedback on a certain number of parameters restricting
the aspects on which one can provide feedback. Why can’t there be space to provide free format
feedback rather than a multiple choice, restrictive questionnaire?
My previous company had an excellent 360 degree feedback mechanism. It was special in three ways:
 Any employee could provide feedback on any colleague regardless of the hierarchy.
 The CEO was also included in this feedback.
 As for the last, brace yourself, all managers who had manpower reporting to them, had their feedback
published on the Intranet. Yes, uncensored actual feedback for the entire company to see. That
included the feedback the employees had on the CEO as well.
Was this a way to strip managers in front of the company and insult them? Not really. Managers could
opt out of publication of their reports on the Intranet but that would raise even more suspicion within
the employees concluding that the manager had something to hide.
Ever since I joined Infosys, I run an anonymous feedback mechanism. Use whichever way you fancy.
Create a Dropbox account and provide access to your team who could enter feedback or create a
Sharepoint site. I find this a very powerful tool for self-improvement since very rarely does one get such
undiluted feedback with no fear of being traced. The one condition is that you need a fair amount of
reportees so that the feedback is truly anonymous and cannot be traced to any single individual. Doing it
with two or three reportees would not give them the confidence it would remain anonymous with no fear
of it being traced back.
So how did this help me? Tremendously. Most feedback would pertain to one’s personal style of
managing the team. However sometimes you do come across feedback pertaining to personal habits.
How many times we want to tell a colleague they have bad breath but unable to do so. I can share one
which was concerning a personal habit. I used to be a smoker and before entering into a meeting I
would rush outside to have my fix of nicotine to keep me going. One of my reportees gave me the
feedback that my breath stank of smoke and it was repulsive. Invaluable and I pity my clients who smelt

2. that whiff of smoke when I walked in. Having given up smoking now, I realise how strong the body
odour of a smoker can be.
I had a recent review with my manager’s manager. As a person I tend to be very direct and sometimes
people do not appreciate the frankness. The feedback I got was invaluable. If I was a super performer
people would listen else they would brush me off as a brash and arrogant person. Very useful advice.
Obviously since this was from a position in the hierarchy there was more direct feedback than trying to
anonymise it.
Try the feedback mechanism with your team and I can assure you it will throw up some insights which
we never thought about. Be hard boiled though and learn to accept the criticism which comes with it.
Some of us would have learnt about the Johari Window which aims to expand the Arena quadrant and
help us remove our blind spots. Embrace this and you will relish the insights which come with it. Yes we
all have our secrets and hide them in a façade but then that is what people quickly see through and
make a judgement about our character saying we are put on and not to be trusted.