360 Review Questions: How to Prepare

What is this review meant to achieve?

Ask whether the review is for personal development, a formal performance process or another purpose. These uses have different implications. Do not assume that a development report determines pay or promotion, or that a formal review has the same privacy arrangements as a personal assessment.

Useful questions include: ‘What decisions will use this feedback?’ and ‘What support is available to interpret the results?’ Clarify whether a manager or facilitator will discuss the report with you and whether sharing it is required. Follow your employer's process where applicable.

A clear purpose also helps raters. Someone answering a request for development feedback needs to understand what behaviour to consider and how their response will be used. Avoid changing the purpose after collecting answers without appropriate consent and safeguards.

Who sees the answers and report?

Ask who can access individual responses, whether comments are quoted, and whether results are combined before you see them. Confidentiality and anonymity are not interchangeable: a facilitator may know the respondent even if the recipient does not. Do not promise protection based only on the word ‘360’.

Ask what happens if too few people respond, whether small groups are reported separately, and how identifying details are handled. A tiny group or a distinctive anecdote can reveal a person even without a name. If the explanation is unclear, seek clarification before sharing sensitive work information.

EraSkills has specific safeguards: results require at least three completed raters, scores are pooled and results update in steps. Raw rater comments are not shown to the user; only AI-written themes drawn from at least two raters are shared. Other systems may operate differently, so check the process you are actually using.

Who should provide feedback?

Choose people who have had a meaningful opportunity to observe your work. Depending on your role, that could include a manager, peers, cross-team colleagues, former colleagues or clients. Select for relevant exposure and a range of perspectives rather than only seniority, friendship or likely praise.

Ask which work period the review covers and how to handle someone who has seen only part of it. A former colleague can comment on past work, but their perspective may not reflect a recent role change. Different contexts can help explain differences without establishing who is right.

Give people space to decline. Do not coach them toward favourable ratings, tell them which score you hope to receive or ask them to show their completed response. Those actions undermine the purpose and can create pressure, especially where there is a power difference.

What do behavioural review questions look like?

Behavioural questions ask about actions people can observe, not personality labels. ‘How consistently does this person clarify the next action?’ is easier to relate to work than ‘Is this person an excellent communicator?’ The question should fit the person's responsibilities and the rater's exposure.

Illustrative prompts include ‘How consistently does this person follow through or flag risks early?’, ‘How consistently does this person make room for different views?’ and ‘How consistently does this person adjust plans when priorities change?’ These relate to reliability, collaboration and adaptability without assuming a management title.

For an open prompt such as ‘What should this person continue or change?’, describe a situation, the observed behaviour and its effect. An example might be: ‘In the project review, the written summary named each owner, so our team could start without another clarification.’ Keep confidential details and other people's identities out of the answer.

How should you answer a 360 review?

Read the scale and observation period before choosing a rating. Use the defined options consistently rather than treating the middle option as an automatic safe answer. If the process offers ‘not enough opportunity to observe’, use it when appropriate; lack of exposure is not evidence of weak performance.

Avoid letting one recent interaction determine every answer. Consider relevant examples across the requested period, and distinguish a behaviour from whether you personally liked the decision. Someone may explain a difficult trade-off clearly even when you disagree with the choice.

For your self-assessment, use the same care. Record what you actually do rather than what you intend to do or what you think a leader should say. If you notice a gap later, resist the urge to rewrite your initial view to make it match the results. Reflection is more useful when the original perspective remains honest.

What should you ask when the results arrive?

Start with patterns, not a hunt for individual critics. Ask: ‘Which strengths can I support with work examples?’, ‘Where does my self-view differ from the overall view?’ and ‘What context could explain that difference?’ A gap invites investigation; it does not prove a motive or diagnose a personal flaw.

If discussing the report with a manager or coach, focus on a behaviour and the support needed to practise it. You might say: ‘I want to make priorities clearer after scope changes. Could we review the next decision summary together?’ You do not need to share private scores to ask for help with a practical goal.

Do not ask a rater which answer they gave or use results to rank colleagues. Where your own survey permits individual responses, respect the commitments made before collection. A development conversation should not become a way to work around privacy safeguards.

What happens after the review?

Choose one practice, one work opportunity and one way to check its effect. For example, close planning discussions with a decision, owner and next action, then ask whether the summary helped colleagues move forward. Finishing the report is not the same as changing a behaviour.

A later review can offer another perspective, but changes in raters, responsibilities and conditions limit direct comparisons. Reflect on comparable work examples as well as scores. EraSkills starts with a free self-assessment for adult professionals and uses private rater links without requiring raters to create an account. It supports development reflection, not a substitute for your employer's evaluation process.