Office hours
- Mon - Thurs: 9AM - 5:30PM ET
- Friday: 9AM - 4:30PM ET
Checkpoint 360
Checkpoint 360 is a 360-degree feedback assessment that measures leaders against 8 universal management competencies. These competencies aren’t unique to any specific industry. Rather, they are skill categories that are required for anyone to be a successful leader regardless of the organization they lead.
Checkpoint 360 measures a leader on:
- Communication
- Leadership
- Adaptability
- Relationships
- Task Management
- Production
- Development of Others
- Personal Development
A leader is evaluated against specific items within each skill set. As an example, when a leader is being evaluated on Task Management, the assessment will measure them on if they work both efficiently and competently. The questions will range from how the leader uses technology to how they plan and execute their day.
This 360 feedback tool combines assessment results from the leader rating themselves and the leader’s raters in each competency. The detailed report will highlight areas where a leader doesn’t meet expectations and also where there is a large gap between how a leader sees themself and how raters see the leader.
What does Checkpoint 360 cost?
Checkpoint 360 has a starting cost of $300.00/assessment with discounts based on quantity.
| Number of Units | Price per Unit |
|---|---|
|
1 – 19 Units |
$300.00 |
|
20 – 99 Units |
$285.00 |
|
100 – 199 Units |
$270.00 |
Checkpoint 360 Report Features
Graphing & Feedback
Checkpoint 360 captures lots of data and is able to turn it into actionable insights because of how the data is graphed and laid out. Explore what data is captured and how it's presented.
Personal Development
Checkpoint 360 takes areas that show the largest gaps between how a leader views themselves and how raters view the leader and provides strategies for how a leader can improve in those areas.
Extensive Research
Checkpoint 360 is researched for reliability and validity. John Wiley & Sons is a leader in publishing research for universities across the world and they hold their own content to the same high standards.
How does the Checkpoint 360 assessment work?
The Checkpoint 360 feedback assessment measures 8 universal management competencies. Each competency is comprised of two to three different skills. The assessment is designed to identify leadership as viewed by certain groups of individuals who know and have had the opportunity to view the leader in their work setting. The individuals who should review the leader are:
- The Leader (self)
- Boss(es)
- Direct Reports
- Peers
Leadership Competencies and their Skillsets
There are 70 leadership items that are measured during the assessment. These survey questions are grouped into 18 Leadership Skillsets which are grouped into 8 Universal Management Competencies. The 8 competencies are listed below. Click on each competency to see the individual skillsets that comprise each competancy.
- Listens to others / encourages others to share ideas and concerns
- Processes information and gets to the point. Develops logical conclusions
- Communicates effectively in writing and speaking.
- Instills trust and can be trusted
- Provides direction and establishes clear expectations. Plans steps to accomplish objectives.
- Delegates responsibility for appropriate jobs to appropriate people.
- Adjusts to circumstances and can adjust to diverse work styles.
- Thinks creatively and brings an imaginative approach to the job
- Builds personal relationships. Considerate of others’ feelings while free from biases.
- Facilitates team success and resolves conflicts fairly in a spirit of cooperation.
- Works efficiently by using technology effectively.
- Works competently and has mastered the fundamentals of the job.
- Takes action while knowing the right time to initiate action.
- Achieves results and overcomes obstacles.
- Cultivates talent. Is an effective coach and makes training available.
- Motivates successfully. Gives recognition when appropriate.
- Displays commitment and maintains a high level of energy
- Seeks improvement and learns positive lessons from mistakes.
The assessment takes around 25 minutes to complete. Raters can provide comments on each competency to give more feedback about their particular response.
Each rater reports their experience with the leader by selecting a specific rating. Checkpoint 360 uses 6 different ratings that a rater will choose between:
- 1 = Almost Never
- 2 = Seldom
- 3 = Sometimes
- 4 = Usually
- 5 = Almost Always
- N = No opportunity to observe this behavior
The assessment allows for up to 40 raters in the following categories:
- Managers / Bosses – up to 3
- Peers: 2 – 10
- Direct Report: 2 – 10
- Other: 2 – 10
Graphing and Feedback
Checkpoint 360 offers a powerful 360 feedback process because the graphing and reporting allow for easy-to-read insights.
Consider this perspective from the Johari Window: When a person gives us the gift of feedback, we can identify our blind spots. Checkpoint 360 helps us discover our blind spots by outlining the gap between our perspective of ourselves and how others perceive us on the 8 Leadership Competencies.
To understand how this works, review this sample Checkpoint 360 graph. On the graph, you will see the 8 Leadership competencies written around the outer circle. The leader will rate themself and their raters will also rate them on specific skills that comprise these competencies.
The grey shaded area is the area that a leader is aiming to achieve both their own rating and the rating from their bosses, direct reports, and peers.
The line marked with the letter ‘A’ showcases every rater’s score aggregated (everyone’s rating excluding the leader’s rating).
The line marked ‘S’ is the leader’s rating.
When there is a large gap between these two sets of data, we can help a leader identify their own blindspots based on the 8 leadership competencies.
Review this Checkpoint 360 graph.
You will see in the competency of ‘Adaptability’ that a leader (identified by the letter ‘S’) rated themself slightly lower than a 3 average. This leader’s raters (identified by the letter ‘A’) rated the leader on the same competency as a 4.
This Leader has a blindspot in how they see their performance on Adaptability.
Identifying potential blindspots is only the first step. Checkpoint 360 provides a detailed report so leaders can understand the exact differences between themselves and their raters.
When you look at the report, you can see a few items with a quick glance:
First, you will see that the Adaptability competency / Adjusting to Circumstances is identified as a critical skill set.
This is identified during the assessment process. The leader’s boss identified that this is a critical skill set, however, the leader being rated didn’t identify this section as a critical skill set. This identification is important because it will help both a leader and the leader’s boss recognize if there is any miscommunication on what aspect of a leader’s position is most important.
Next, you will see that there were discrepancies between the leader and the leader’s raters by identifying the tiny flags in different shades of blue.
Question items 26, 28, 21, and 32 all had a 3 point or higher difference between the scores. These flags will make it easy to spot wide gaps between certain assessment items.
Finally, you will see if the leader or the leader’s raters believe the leader exhibits each skill within the favorable zone.
It’s clear that the leader doesn’t recognize how well they adapt to the changing needs of their organization/team. Unfortunately, they believe they are underachieving at this particular part of their role. Having this insight will help the leader become more aligned with how their performance is seen by their team, and might help them feel more secure in their position.
Personal Development with Checkpoint 360
Checkpoint 360 provides leaders with practical ways they can improve in areas that they failed to meet a favorable score. The assessment outlines that a 3.5 – 4.25 rating is ‘favorable’ for each leadership skill that is being assessed. When a leader doesn’t reach this score, the assessment will produce Development Report that a leader can use to improve those areas that they were rated below the favorable zone.
On this sample 360 feedback report you will find that this particular leader didn’t reach the favorable zone for being able to:
- build personal relationships
- facilitate team success
- listen to others
The leader received this score because both they and their rater’s aggregate score was less than a score of 3.5 (out of 5) for these particular leadership skills.
Fortunately, the leader now has an opportunity to develop those skills and the Check Point 360 report will provide practical ways they can learn how to start their improvement process.
The development plan follows a simple method called K-S-S: identify actions you should Keep doing; actions you should Stop doing; actions you should Start doing.
The development plan is broken out into two sections per leadership skill:
- Skills, behaviors, and attitudes to adapt and practice
- Challenging activities
In this example, you can see how the leadership skill of being able to Listen Carefully is broken out into specific behaviors a leader should use to accomplish the skill. These behaviors are easily identifiable and can be referenced if the tool is being used in a coaching capacity.
Once the leader has a firm grasp of which behaviors they should use moving forward, they can start to tackle the challenging activities to start improving
History and Research of Checkpoint 360
A 360 feedback session is one of the most subjective learning processes that any leader will go through. With this in mind, Checkpoint 360 sought to create a more objective tool to help manage the subjectiveness of the process. Additionally, Checkpoint 360 was developed with these other objectives in mind:
- To solicit input from those who work with and for the individual to create a wider perspective
- To minimize the impact of a single observer’s overly biased view
- To fulfill a need in perceived accuracy and the fairness necessary to hold support
Checkpoint 360 was created in 1992 when a major oil company wanted a custom 360 instrument. Focus groups were organized to define and develop the critical competencies needed in the organization to sustain the competitive advantage in the marketplace. These groups helped define the competencies of the tool, and it was quickly piloted and tested.
The tool was developed over the course of two years. A total of 450 people were tested using the assessment. Performance metrics such as productivity figures were used to determine the validity of the feedback. Furthermore, the tool was then tested with a leading call center and a specialty equipment distributor.
The result was the standardized survey called Checkpoint 360 which included:
- 8 Management competencies
- 18 key skill sets
- 70 survey questions