The Portrait Series · episode 2
The questionnaire is the product
If the items are wrong, the report is theatre
HR hands over a Word document titled Leadership 360 FINAL v7. Half the items were written for a different company.
Composite scenario. Fictional organisation, realistic numbers. Not a client case study.
Walkthrough
Most 360 tools start from their template. Consultancies actually sell an hour deciding what to ask, in whose words, against which model.
Import the legacy list
Twenty-eight items. Two double-barrelled. One that asks about 'passion'. Three that are the same question in different clothes.
- Scoring it as-is would produce a professional-looking radar of a questionnaire, not of the leaders.
Keep, revise, remove, merge
Each item gets a recommendation and a reason. Suggested additions fill holes the client's priorities named and the list did not.
- The output is a review the client can argue with, not a black-box rewrite.
Show the holes
Priorities with no matching items. That slide is the meeting.
- Coverage is a conversation, not a score.
Three insights
The questionnaire is the engagement
Once you have collected ratings on the wrong items, no amount of narrative will save the debrief.
Templates are a default, not a diagnosis
A validated default is a gift when you have no model. It is a liability when the client already has a language.
Coverage is a conversation, not a score
The useful artefact is the gap list: priorities they named that the items do not touch.
90-minute agenda
A ready-to-run session. Keep the decision and the dated next step.
Contract the hour
Agree what this is not. Today's focus: an instrument we would defend in a debrief.
Walk the artefact
Read the relevant report or questionnaire out loud. Do not interpret yet.
The decision
One behaviour, one hole, or one language change. Write it down.
Save it where the work lives
Portal, instrument note, or calendar — not a notebook.
Date the follow-up
Wave 2, the next review, or a 30-day check-in.
FAQ
- Is this a real client?
- No. Names and scores are a composite so the method can be shown without anyone's data.
The fairest test is your own cycle, in your client's words.