Evals latest move to root out toxic leaders - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Evals latest move to root out toxic leaders

Soldiers will now be asked — and expected — to rate their bosses. Effective Oct. 1, officers will be required to assert that they have completed a 360-degree evaluation — where the officer is graded by his subordinates, peers, subordinates and superiors — within the past three years.

Requiring officers to complete 360-degree evaluations should encourage them to grow and, at the same time, weed out potential toxic habits among officers, officials said.

A recent survey of more than 22,630 soldiers from the rank of E-5 through O-6 and Army civilians showed that roughly one in five sees his superior as “toxic and unethical,” while 27 percent said they believe their organization allows the frank and free flow of ideas.

The survey, conducted by the Center for Army Leadership, also stated that rooting out toxic leadership from the ranks requires “accurate and consistent assessment, input from subordinates, and a focus beyond what gets done in the short-term.”

Gen. Martin Dempsey, now chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said when he was the Army chief of staff that senior leaders must “change the culture of the Army to embrace 360s” and develop a culture where leaders want to know how they’re viewed by their peers and subordinates.

The 360-degree evaluation now required of officers is called the Army 360 Multi-Source Assessment and Feedback. This addition to the Officer Evaluation Record is among a list of changes the Army is making to the officer evaluation policy. The changes apply to OERs with a “thru date” of Nov. 1 and later.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno said he believes “multidimensional feedback is an important component to holistic leader development.”

“By encouraging input from peers, subordinates and superiors alike, leaders can better ‘see themselves’ and increase self-awareness,” Odierno said in a statement to Army Times. “A 360-degree approach applies equally to junior leaders at the squad, platoon and company levels, as well as to senior leaders. The ability to receive honest and candid feedback, in an anonymous manner, is a great opportunity to facilitate positive leadership growth.”

The MSAF program is not new but until now has been voluntary and was not tied to the OER, said Col. Thomas Guthrie, director of the Center for Army Leadership, which developed the MSAF.

Commander’s Assessment Tool

In addition to the 360 MSAF, the Army is working on a Commander’s Assessment Tool, which also is an initiative from Dempsey, Guthrie said.

The tool, which is being developed by the Center for Army Leadership, is similar to a 360-degree evaluation and will be used to inform a command selection board as it evaluates officers for command.

The Army this year has relieved four brigade commanders, the highest number since 2005. At least two of the firings had nothing to do with misconduct or battlefield performance, but were related to toxic leadership issues.

The goal is to launch a pilot program in fiscal 2012 to test the assessment tool in the brigade command selection board, Guthrie said. If things go well, the assessment tool will be implemented in fiscal 2013 and could be added to command selection boards at the battalion level, he said.

Since Jan. 1, about 10,000 officers and about 10,000 noncommissioned officers have chosen to complete a 360 MSAF, Guthrie said.

He said he anticipates the number of officers taking the evaluation to grow with this new requirement on the OER. However, officers only have to show that they have completed a 360 MSAF. The results of the 360 MSAF will not be part of their OER, Guthrie said.

“The Army is trying to get its leaders to be lifelong learners,” Guthrie said. “If you check ‘No,’ [on your OER], it doesn’t mean you’ll be kicked out of the Army or get a bad OER. Right now, the intent is to encourage people to acknowledge they need to be self-developed.”

Once every 3 years

However, in the future, Guthrie said he expects the 360 MSAF to be mandatory at least once every three years and be included in the Army regulation governing training and leader development.

“We don’t want people rushing to an MSAF event just because they have an OER coming up in 45 days,” Guthrie said. “Checking ‘No’ is not a discriminator right now, but certainly with it becoming mandatory, I would expect that unless under extreme circumstances, everyone will be able to check ‘Yes’ [on their OERs].”

Once all the responses are submitted, they are pulled together by the MSAF experts and a report is provided to the officer who’s being evaluated.

Individual responses will not be available. Instead, the officer will see an aggregate of the responses from each category of soldiers — superiors, peers and subordinates, Guthrie said. That means the officer will not be able to attribute specific comments to a specific soldier, guaranteeing anonymity, he said.

The officer will then be able to compare the report with his self-evaluation, Guthrie said.

The officer being evaluated is the only person who receives a copy of the report, he said.

“It was designed to be for the individual’s self-development, self-awareness and growth,” Guthrie said.

Commanders receiving a unit MSAF also will receive, in addition to an individual assessment, a picture of how his command climate is viewed by the evaluating soldiers, Guthrie said.

As an officer reviews his report, he should find what Guthrie calls blind spots and hidden strengths.

“If you use how you view yourself as a baseline and you compare it, you should say, ‘Hey, I rated myself very high on this attribute, but my subordinates rated me low.’ We call that a blind spot,” Guthrie said. “On the converse side, you may think you rate yourself pretty average on these few competencies and everyone else rates you as superior. I like to say you pat yourself on the back for the hidden strengths.”

But don’t stop there, Guthrie said.

For blind spots or areas where officers want or need improvement, MSAF offers coaches — retired senior officers and NCOs — who will work directly with an individual and provide advice or a developmental plan. Officers also can access the Army’s Virtual Improvement Center for online workshops, videos and slides. These two resources, however, are voluntary and must be requested by the officer being evaluated, Guthrie said.

“Quite frankly, there are probably guys who look at [their report] and go, ‘That was mildly interesting, and I disagree with what everyone said,’” Guthrie said. “But we’re trying to encourage people to work on self-development.”

Positive responses

Several officers contacted by Army Times found the evaluations valuable. Maj. Nate Palisca, an armor officer attending Intermediate-Level Education at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., said he has completed two 360-degree evaluations, one when he was a young captain and the second when he was preparing to attend ILE.

“I wanted to get an azimuth check of where I stood,” Palisca said. “It’s not always easy to see yourself, and I think that’s the value of the MSAF, to get that take on how people see you.”

“I don’t mind honest feedback … but I’m glad to see the feedback given on the MSAF will not impact the OER,” he said.

Palisca said that even if the MSAF was not required, he likely would continue seeking 360-degree evaluations. One of the lessons Palisca said he took away from his 360-degree evaluations was feedback that told him he didn’t give enough recognition to subordinates for their contributions.

“I thought I was, but I’ve made a conscious decision to make a concerted effort to recognize the contributions of the people I’m working with,” he said. “There’s a reason you ask for feedback from subordinates, peers and superiors, because they look at you through different lenses.”