At first glance, going through a 360 degree feedback report with someone can appear just like a coaching session.

Sure, there are many similarities as you guide that person through the report, exploring the different perceptions, drawing attention to the important trends & patterns that help reach a deeper understanding of his or her performance as viewed by the different respondents.

As with coaching, the person is guided by the quality of questions asked and it is equally as important that these come from a place of non judgement, empathy & congruence.

However, a closer look will show a key difference from coaching and this can be critical for a successful debrief session.

Most coaching sessions follow a structure found in the GROW model. In this ever popular framework, the coach will help clarify the goal or outcome (Goal), explore the reality of the current situation (Reality), generate a number of possible options that can achieve what he or she wants (Options) and seek to gain commitment to a clear plan or strategy (Will).

The debrief session differs from this as it does not seek to draw out solutions or commitment from the recipient.

Instead, it recognises the need for feedback to simply be recognised as valid and for the person to have time & space to enable this deeper level of acceptance.

Only once this has been achieved can the coaching cycle be completed at a later time.

Put another way, maybe the framework to use for a great debrief session is simply GR!