Head of the class: toys and games maker Hasbro Inc. is infusing skills and knowledge at the top ranks in partnership with the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth

HR Magazine, Jan, 2005 by Ann Pomeroy

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Each participant in the Hasbro Global Leadership Development Program at Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College must have coworkers and subordinates complete a feedback form on his leadership style. When participants arrive on the first night of the weeklong program, they receive a sealed envelope containing their individual 360 assessment report. Confidentiality is paramount, says Sandra Drought, who leads the 360-degree process and serves as a coach for the Hasbro program, and no one except the participant sees the report. Participants are asked to review their feedback and pick at least one behavior they would like to change.

"An essential part of being a leader is understanding how you are perceived" by others, explains Drought, a member of Marshall Goldsmith's network of executive coaches. "[The 360 assessment] is not about performance management. It's about taking people who are already successful and helping them become even more successful." Sometimes successful people have "blind spots." The best way to learn about your blind spots, she says, is to ask.

Tuck I graduate Lorrie Browning, who serves as general manager of international marketing, U.S. brands, as well as general manager of girls' toys and Disney Entertainment, says her "blind spot" was listening. She describes herself as a multitasker who is always doing three things at once. "I know that I am paying attention to everything, but I was perceived as not listening," so Browning chose to focus on that behavior, "I learned that I need to stop what I am doing, look a person in the eye and focus only on them when we talk" to counteract that perception, she says. Browning makes a point of doing that now.

During their week at Tuck, participants take part in a group coaching session with Goldsmith, a world leader on 360 assessments, followed by individual sessions in which they review their own feedback with a coach from Goldsmith's network. Drought says they focus on "feedforward" rather than feedback. "Feedback really has a negative connotation," she says. "It's about the past." Since the past can't be changed, Goldsmith and his coaching network advise people to focus on what can be changed by providing feedforward to others and requesting feedforward--what can I change for the future?--from others.

In addition to the external coaches, each "action learning project" team works with an in-house coach like Hasbro's Jackie Boucher, senior manager for people development, organizational effectiveness and diversity. Boucher attends the Tuck program with her team and then works with the group throughout the project to help members focus on the process. She also serves as a coach for other in-house coaches, who are drawn from HR as well as from other business units.

ANN POMEROY IS SENIOR WRITER FOR HR MAGAZINE.