Beyond the Performance Review: How Senior Leaders Use 360 Feedback to Grow
This post is part of a collection on momentum—what it actually takes to keep people, teams, and businesses moving forward. The first post focused on customer value through a sales lens. The second looked at how managers turn performance reviews into real development. This one shifts perspective entirely: what does growth look like when you're already a senior leader—and the old feedback loops no longer give you the full picture?
At the VP and Director level, performance reviews change.
The feedback gets more filtered. The stakes get higher. The gap between how you think you're showing up and how the organization actually experiences you gets wider—and more expensive.
Most senior leaders don't lack ambition or capability. What they lack is an honest picture of their leadership impact across the organization.
You've earned your seat at the table. You've built credibility, managed teams, delivered results. But at this level, the rules shift in ways nobody explicitly tells you:
The feedback stops being direct. The expectations multiply. And the skills that got you here—functional excellence, individual execution, being the smartest person in the room—aren't always the skills that take you further.
This post is about what high-performing VPs and Directors do differently to keep growing—intentionally, strategically, and at the right pace.
Three Ways Senior Leaders Own Their Development
1. Recognize that the skills that got you here won't be enough.
You carry every skill you've built into your current role. Strong communication, strategic thinking, cross-functional leadership—these compound over time and increase your influence.
But at the VP and Director level, something shifts.
You're no longer being evaluated on what you can do. You're being evaluated on what you can create in others. How you influence outcomes you don't directly control. How you show up in rooms where the stakes are high and the audience is watching closely.
I've worked with senior leaders who were exceptional individual contributors—brilliant at their function, respected by their teams—who hit a wall when they moved into VP roles. Not because they weren't capable. But because nobody told them the game had changed.
The leaders who continue to grow at this level:
Stop optimizing for personal output and start optimizing for organizational impact
Build the skill of influencing without authority
Invest in understanding how they're perceived—not just how they perform
Treat leadership as a discipline to develop, not just a title to hold
2. Get the real feedback—not the filtered version.
At this level, feedback gets managed.
People tell you what they think you want to hear. Your manager is focused on bigger organizational priorities. Your peers are navigating their own politics. Your direct reports are careful about what they share upward.
The result? Most VPs and Directors are the last to know what's actually being said about their leadership.
Not because people are dishonest. But because at this level, the feedback loop breaks down.
This is where a 360 Leadership Coaching engagement changes everything.
A 360 is a structured process that gathers honest, confidential feedback from the people who experience your leadership every day—your manager, your peers, your direct reports. Not the performance review version. The real version.
The patterns people notice but don't say out loud.
The blind spots that are costing you influence, trust, or credibility without you even knowing it.
The strengths that aren't being fully leveraged because nobody's ever named them clearly.
What makes this powerful isn't the feedback itself. It's what you do with it.
Most leaders receive feedback and either defend against it or feel deflated by it. The senior leaders I work with use it differently. They ask: "What is this telling me about how I'm showing up—and what do I want to do about it?"
That's the work we do together in a 360 engagement. Not just surfacing the feedback. Processing it. Synthesizing it into a clear, actionable picture of your leadership impact—and a development plan that helps you close the gaps that matter most at this level.
What high-performing senior leaders do:
Seek feedback proactively rather than waiting for the annual cycle
Use 360 feedback as a strategic tool, not a remedial one
Invest in coaching at this level the same way they'd invest in any other high-leverage resource
Treat blind spots as information—not threats
3. Manage your visibility and influence strategically.
Here's what I've observed working with VPs and Directors across industries:
The ones who advance aren't always the most talented. They're the most intentional about how they show up.
Not in a political, performative way. In a "I understand how I'm perceived, I know what I'm building, and I show up consistently with that in mind" way.
At this level, visibility isn't about self-promotion. It's about strategic presence.
Your CEO and the leadership team above you are making decisions about your future based on a combination of your results and your leadership presence. Both matter. And yet most senior leaders invest almost entirely in results—and almost nothing in understanding how their presence lands.
The gap between how you intend to show up and how you actually land in the room?
That's the gap that determines whether you stay at this level or grow beyond it.
The leaders who close that gap aren't waiting for someone to tell them. They're creating feedback loops, investing in coaching, and staying curious about their own development even when—especially when—things are going well.
What intentional senior leaders do:
Create consistent feedback rhythms outside the annual review cycle
Stay curious about how they're perceived at the executive level
Build relationships that give them honest, real-time perspective
Invest in their leadership development before they need to—not after
The Bottom Line
Performance reviews are a snapshot in time—but at the VP and Director level, they're rarely the whole picture.
The leaders who continue to grow aren't the ones who wait for the organization to develop them. They're the ones who take ownership of their development with the same intentionality they bring to their work.
They seek the real feedback. They close the gaps that matter. They show up with strategic presence, not just functional expertise.
That's the difference between a senior leader who plateaus and one who continues to build influence, impact, and career trajectory—on their own terms.
Work With Me
If you're a VP or Director who's ready to get an honest picture of your leadership impact—and turn it into a clear development plan—here's how we can work together:
360 Leadership Coaching A structured engagement that surfaces the real feedback from your manager, peers, and direct reports—confidentially and without judgment. We synthesize what we hear into a clear picture of your leadership strengths, blind spots, and the specific gaps worth closing at this level. Then we build a development plan that helps you lead more effectively, influence more broadly, and grow with intention.
This isn't coaching for leaders who are struggling. It's for leaders who are already strong—and want to be exceptional.
Ongoing Leadership Coaching Monthly sessions for senior leaders who want a consistent thought partner—someone who understands the complexity of leading at this level, helps you navigate the politics and pressure without losing yourself, and holds the strategic thread so you keep building momentum even when the organization gets complicated.
Or read the other posts in this collection:
Put Your Customers Front and Center: A Business & Sales Leader's Responsibility
Working with an Executive Coach who has been a successful leader