"... ??What benefits does 360 Feedback bring to my business??..." As 360 feedback systems and processes becomes more mainstream, many HR Consultancies struggle with the issue of how and when to add it to the "toolkit" that they offer to their clients. In this article we will consider these issues by examining four areas where the use of 360 Feedback is gaining momentum with consultancies. Leadership & Management Programmes Coaching and Mentoring Team Development Obtaining client buy in to projects Leadership & Management Development There is no single paradigm that defines leadership for organisations (otherwise many of us would be out of job). Although different expert and academic sources will argue over the merits of one model of leadeship or another, there is generally common agreement that leadership is situational. There is however also fairly common agreement upon the basic competencies and best practices that comprise leadership and management. The issue is how best to translate best practice in any particular organisation. 360 Feedback enables an organisation to define the situational model of leadership by taking the standard competencies and defining behaviours for them that are specific to the culture within the company. In this way detailed, relevant feedback can be obtained at both an individual and organisational level. It is a great starting point to any intervention or programme for development because it provides specific and relevant feedback to individuals so that they can more effectively focus their development. It also provides normative data for HR professionals within organisations to assist in defining and budgeting for training needs together with providing an ongoing tool for monitoring overall progress. An example; One of the classic problems for any ethical organisation is that of separating out the ever increasing burden of "forced" leadership, in terms of corporate governance, state legislation, financial services monitoring etc from the "freedom to breathe" that will allow them to innovate, create and overcome competition in their market. This in turn can often lead to frustration and conflict in executive meetings. To make matters worse many directors of companies are unclear as to their legal responsibility. Most companies overcome this by separating executive and director meetings. Director roles are fairly well defined and homogenous and, apart from different national legislative differences, can be easily monitored via a standard set of competences and behavours (the big mistake that many companies make is that they do not actually separate and monitor directorial behaviours from executive behaviours). Executive leadership is situational and while the competencies may the same from one company to the next, the behaviours will vary significantly. HR consultants who recognise these issues can provide more appropriate interventions by including both generic Board Competence frameworks together with customiseable Executive and Management frameworks that can be configured to obtain the best possible feedback for their clients.