Perceiving emotions is the ability to identify one’s own emotions. This comprises the foundation or building blocks and is the fundamental aspect of emotional intelligence; in short it is the operating system that makes all other processing of emotional information possible.

Cognitive accessing of emotions is the ability to harness emotions to facilitate various cognitive activities, such as productive thinking and problem solving abilities. The emotionally intelligent individual can quickly process their mood and separate fact from fiction, allowing them to move on with the important Challenges at hand.

Managing emotions in ourselves and others. This gives the emotionally intelligent individual a chance to harness emotions, even negative ones, and manage them in a way that allows them to achieve intended goals – in other words working with advanced empathic understanding; to put their own feelings aside as they seek to understand the needs of others in a given situation.

The individual assesses him/herself and is also assessed by groups of colleagues - managers, peers and direct reports and even customers or external suppliers. It is completely anonymous and all identities are protected.

Once the assessments are analysed, the individual is provided with a rated report and feedback delivered in the privacy of a 1-2-1 coaching session. Outcomes are shared with the line-manager or human resource manager as part of the individual’s personal development plan (PDP). Usually additional questions are used to encourage verbatim feedback on chosen areas and the completed 360° includes an area for the client to make notes in order to create their individual action plan.

• Shows us how others see us
• Highlights both strengths and development needs
• Establishes a focus for subsequent training and coaching
• Can be used to measure changes in behavior over time
• Enables self-directed professional and career development
• Increases communication between team members
• Identifies causes for breakdown in team trust and performance
• Improves the team environment as people discover how to engage in more productive interpersonal behaviors
• Supports teamwork by involving team members in the development process
• Highlights the organisation's managerial and leadership potentional
• Perhaps most importantly it supports talent management and succession planning requirements for the organisation going forward.

Increasingly this is a key business imperative. Often one of the key Challenges faced by organisations in their approach to talent management is how to identify talent and accurately match it to long-term business strategy, while taking into consideration day-to-day business needs. The 360°’s blend of competencies, traits and behavioural preferences offers an unrivalled view of the individual that allows organisations to benchmark against front line leaders who are thriving in today's complex business world.

After the 360° feedback session the individual should focus on their goals and building on their commitment to change. They are invited to work out for themselves the important messages from their 360° feedback under the guidance of their coach (rather than just telling them what it says). This helps them to identify their goals and to come up with realistic, short-term and long-term action plans. Key targets are agreed and put into the context of what is expected of them, and what development areas need work in order to achieve their goals as part of their (PDP).

The question was ‘emotional intelligence and 360° feedback – is business ready?’ In my opinion, the sooner the better.