As a high-level leader, you already have the necessary technical skills to succeed: you have acquired these from graduate degrees, seminars and workshops, and years of experience. Therefore, the only significant change is not in technical skills, but rather in behavioral improvements. Executive coaches work with high-level executives to help them identify behavioral shortcomings and develop a plan to address them. If an executive coach were to work with Steph Curry, a high-level athlete, she wouldn’t coach him on improving his dribbling or long-range shot (Curry already knows how to do that). Rather, she would coach him to be a more effective leader or to better collaborate with his teammates on the court.

One of the most effective behavioral assessment and change tools that I use in my executive coaching is the 360-degree feedback, commonly referred to as the “360.” The 360 for a certain leader involves asking for feedback from his direct reports, colleagues, and boss in order to obtain a comprehensive view of his leadership behaviors. In order to get the full potential from the 360, some important guidelines need to be followed:

Have the leader pick the raters and the items to be evaluated on

Marshall Goldsmith, one of the most successful executive coaches, suggests that two main reasons why leaders do not commit to behavioral change after a 360 is “wrong raters” and “wrong behaviors.” Too often, when the leader herself is not involved in the 360, she doesn’t trust or respect some of the raters providing the feedback. She also may not believe that the behavioral items included are a good representation of her role. That is why Goldsmith works with the leader to identify a list of people to get feedback from. This way she can’t say “you talked to the wrong people,” or “why should a winner like me listen to a loser like him?” The number of raters can range from 8-30, but the average is typically about 15, in order to keep things simple. Similarly, the leader is involved in choosing the behavioral items to include in the survey, by picking from a list of questions and customizing to her needs. For example, Goldsmith was working with a CEO client several years ago: “When he received feedback from his co-workers (on his own behavior), he looked skeptically at one of the lower scoring items and asked, “Who was the person that wanted to include that item?” I replied, “You!” He then remembered why he wanted to include the item. He also began to face the fact that the real problem was his own behavior, not the wording of an item.”

Work with the raters to be committed and objective

Before they are asked for their feedback, each rater is asked to commit to four things:

1. Let go of the past
2. Tell the truth (no sugar coating)
3. Be supportive and helpful, not cynical or judgmental
4. Commit to one change themselves (when they feel involved in the process they are more likely to appreciate the process)

After they provide their feedback, the coach spends one hour with each one of the raters and focuses on the following questions: What is the leader’s strengths? How can he improve?  What would you like him to do?

Develop an action plan

The action plan for each leader involves apologizing, advertising their behavioral change, and following-up with their colleagues.

Apologize: It is very important for people to apologize for previous behavior before starting the change process. They can say to their colleagues: “I am sorry, I will do better in the future.”

Advertise: You have to tell people you are trying to change, tell them how hard it is and ask them to help you with suggestions. Changing people’s perception of you is much harder than actual behavior change. For a 100% change in behavior, people will only see 10% because of cognitive dissonance; if they have already labeled you as a jerk or bad communicator, it takes a lot to have them change their perceptions.

Follow-up: Develop a follow-up process that provides the leader an opportunity for ongoing dialogue with her colleagues. Leaders are much more likely to achieve a positive, measurable change in behavior if they consistently involve selected colleagues through follow-up dialogues. These dialogues can be done by phone or in-person and need take only a few minutes.

Putting it All Together

High-level leaders can change their behaviors by working with an executive coach and using a 360-degree feedback tool. When leaders are involved in their change activities and are supported by they respected colleagues in the process, positive behavioral change is more likely to be sustainable over time.

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Dr. Amer Kaissi is a Professional Speaker, Executive Coach and an expert on Leadership, Humility & Ambition, Assuming Positive Intent, Psychological Safety & Accountability, Growth Mindsets & Resilience.