One limitation of professional coaching is that, except in rare cases, the coach is not present in the actual working context of the difficult employee and therefore cannot provide feedback based on direct observation. This puts the coachee in a position to present their own version of events without the coach being able to directly verify or challenge that perception.

360° feedback is a tool for systematically collecting how other people perceive the coachee’s behaviour and performance. It can be conducted with a small number of selected individuals or more broadly with direct reports, peers, senior managers, as well as clients, partners and external suppliers.

The aim is to share with the coachee the results of how other people perceive them — collected anonymously and reported back in aggregated form in order to avoid creating further conflict.

This enables the coach to trigger reflection in the coachee based on evidence drawn from subjective assessments that are nonetheless usually highly revealing of how, and to what extent, the employee is perceived by others.