Battalion and brigade commanders across the Army will be required to undergo 360-degree assessments under a new policy that took effect Oct. 1.
The new reviews mean junior officers and enlisted soldiers could be asked to weigh in and rate their bosses. And while the reviews aren't factored into promotions, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno said it is under consideration.
The Commander 360 is part of the Army's continuing push to rid the ranks of toxic leaders and help commanders further develop their skills and abilities. The effort is the result of a plan spearheaded by Odierno, who has said that leader development is his top priority.
About 1,200 centrally selected lieutenant colonels and colonels in the active Army must take the Commander 360.
Between 2,400 and 2,600 Army National Guard and Army Reserve battalion and brigade commanders will be required to take these 360s a year from now, beginning Oct. 1, 2015.
"This is the newest item in the portfolio of assessment tools that we have," said Col. Christopher Croft, director of the Center for Army Leadership. "It's another tool to help in the awareness of the leader and to help them in their self-development."
The Army will continue to watch and adjust the Commander 360 as the program moves forward, Odierno said.
"The question I usually get is 'Are we going to use it to evaluate and promote?' " he said. "Not yet. The intent now is for it to be developmental, but as we use it longer, and we're used to using it, there's a potential that could happen. But we haven't made that decision yet."
The Army also just finished developing a 360-degree assessment for general officers, Odierno said. It will be required each time the general officer gets promoted, he said.
"Those [assessments] are really important," he said. "I did a 360 when I became the chief. It's very valuable. It allows you to see yourself and also your organization and what they think. That's part of what I'm trying to do as we implement this."
Odierno believes the Army's "asymmetric advantage" is its leaders, Croft said.
"This [assessment] is part of it," he said. "You have to understand you, and how your behaviors are being received by your subordinates and your peers and your superiors, to help you become the best you can be."
The Commander 360 is designed to be taken twice during a commander's tenure.
The first must be done between the third and sixth months of the commander's tour; the second is done between months 15 and 18, Croft said.
And just like the Multi-Source Assessment and Feedback, the Army's existing 360-degree assessment required every three years of all officers from the time they're lieutenants, the Commander 360 is mandatory, Croft said.
"This is just another requirement we've levied on the commander," he said.
Unlike the MSAF, however, the Commander 360 does not allow the officer being assessed to choose who participates and provides feedback. Instead, it's a rater's program, Croft said.
The commander's rater will initiate the assessment and identify the people who will provide feedback.
The commander can nominate people to provide feedback, but the final decision lies with the rater, who chooses who and how many people he wants to participate, Croft said.
The rater could choose anyone in the commander's organization to participate, he said.
"They'll pick people who can provide rich feedback," he said. "It can be anyone in the organization."
Each assessment must have at least three superiors, five peers and five subordinates responding and providing feedback, but there's no maximum, he said.
"We don't want to limit it," he said. "In many cases, we've seen raters pick up to 40 subordinates. The point is how much feedback you want to get."
Soldiers providing feedback will answer a series of multiple choice-type questions, but they also will be able to write in additional comments or observations throughout the assessment.
For example, respondents will be asked to rate their commander based on whether he or she "encourages others to take initiative and find solutions to problems without seeking his/her direct input;" or whether he or she "creates a learning environment, actively promoting the sharing of experiences and exchange of expertise among unit members."
Once the assessment is complete, the rater and the commander receive feedback reports. Each officer can ask for a coaching session before they meet to discuss the findings, Croft said.
The Army has specially trained coaches who can teach the rater how to interpret the feedback report, coach and counsel the commander, and create an individual development plan for the commander.
There also are coaches who can work with the commander to help them understand the feedback report before the meeting with the rater, Croft said.
"Both parties have the opportunity to prepare, and then they meet," he said. "The process completes when the rater and commander meet and have a counseling session."
Raters and commanders who use the coaches typically get better and more productive results, Croft said.
"It improves your product, your development plan, and it improves your development," he said. "That's clearly proven, and when you have someone sitting down with you, the development is richer."
The results of the assessment will not be used as part of the officer evaluation system, nor will it be shown to the commander's senior rater, Croft said. The officer only will have to annotate on his OER that he has completed the assessment.
"This is designed to help develop the individual for the future," he said. "This is guided self-development."
Croft and his staff at the Center for Army Leadership have been preparing commanders across the force for the Commander 360, including briefing every Pre-Command Course class over the past year.
"The rollout of this Commander 360 has been a very deliberate process, in wanting to make sure the field understands where we're going with this," he said.
The program is going Army-wide after a pilot program and a larger follow-up test to validate the Commander 360, Croft said.
The Commander 360 instrument was created by a team of personnel psychologists from the Center for Army Leadership, current and former battalion and brigade commanders, general officers, and experts from the School for Command Preparation and the Army Research Institute.
The pilot program ran April to July 2013.
It involved putting eight commanders — two brigade commanders and six battalion commanders — through the assessment.
The first run helped CAL refine the assessment and better shape the questions to reflect the roles and responsibilities of a commander.
From April to June this year, the CAL ran a second test. This time, 12 battalion commanders and 12 brigade commanders were put through the 360-degree assessment.
"We were just validating," Croft said. "We had refined some of the questions and wanted to make sure we were hitting the mark."
Many of the commanders in the pilot and the follow-up validation initially were skeptical of the assessment, Croft said.
"Many of them went in thinking, 'Here's another product, how is this going to affect me? I already have a lot on my plate,'" he said. "When they got in there, they found having this kind of structure and the format enables the commander and the rater to have a very enriched discussion. It helps them set the goals for the future and set the course of the organization."
The goal of the Commander 360 is to help leaders continue to develop and improve, Croft said.
"Every time you're at a different level, there are different expectations, different requirements, and you have to learn," he said. "In order to learn, you have to see yourself. Every assessment we have is an opportunity to see how your actions and behaviors are being received."
Michelle Tan is the editor of Army Times and Air Force Times. She has covered the military for Military Times since 2005, and has embedded with U.S. troops in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Haiti, Gabon and the Horn of Africa.
