Structured feedback on one’s behavior and actions at work is a crucial ingredient for personal development as a leader. The Estonian company Fontes supports leaders in their growth journey by using the Workplace Nordic 360° assessment tool.

“Every leader should receive feedback regularly—lightly in everyday conversations weekly, a bit more in-depth monthly or quarterly, and structured, comprehensive feedback annually,” says Henry G. Uriko, Talent analytics and assessment Baltic consultant at Fontes, a people analytics, assessment and development company.

Henry’s main focus is leadership development and talent management, especially for middle and senior management. Almost daily, he works with the Workplace Nordic 360° assessment tool, through which team members and other stakeholders provide anonymous, subjective feedback on a person’s way of working, giving that person valuable input to consider.

“I recommend it to anyone who wants to become a better leader and receive structured feedback on their performance,” Uriko emphasizes.

How Does a Leader’s Behavior Appear to Others?

In the early 2000s, it was still common to think that teams should adapt to their leader’s style. Today, the situation is the opposite, Uriko notes: leaders must adapt their leadership style to match the team and its goals.

That’s why it is essential to understand how a leader and their behavior are perceived by those who work with them. For this purpose, Uriko finds the Workplace Nordic 360° tool invaluable.

“It gives a clear picture of how the people around you experience your behavior. For example, you may think you’re good at giving feedback—but not all your team members would necessarily agree. Your approach might not be wrong, but it may be very different from what the people around you actually need,” he explains.

What Needs to Be Developed?

Of course, the 360° tool is not a magic wand that changes things on its own. Instead, it provides insights and understanding about where a leader should focus their attention, what should be developed, or what could be done differently.

Uriko recommends repeating the assessment after six months or a year:

“This way, we can compare the baseline to what kind of development has taken place. The most important thing is not the assessments as such, but what happens in between and afterwards—how the person’s behavior in their role evolves.”

Potential and How It Manifests

For an even broader perspective, Uriko sometimes combines the Workplace Nordic 360° assessment with a competence-based, consultant-led objective evaluation of the leader’s performance.

“This gives a complete picture: what the person’s competencies look like when objectively measured, and how these are reflected in the 360° feedback. An objective assessment alone doesn’t show how skills appear in everyday work, and a 360° alone doesn’t reveal true skill levels, since it’s based on subjective perceptions of others,” Uriko explains.

He also uses the WorkPlace Big Five personality profiling tool together with the 360° assessment.

“That way, we see the person’s potential through their personality and can compare it with how that potential is perceived by others.”

Bringing Leadership Quality into Wider Reflection

The Workplace Nordic 360° assessment benefits not only the person being assessed, but also the assessors themselves.

“Leadership is not just about assigning tasks and paying salaries—it is a service that the leader provides to their team. Through the 360° questionnaire, team members realize that leadership includes a wide range of elements they can expect from their leader. This helps create a broader organizational understanding of what good leadership means in their context,” Uriko says.

The assessment also sends a strong message: the leader cares about how they and their behavior are perceived. They want to know what people think and how they evaluate their leadership.

“Being interested in and caring about people’s feedback is an essential part of leadership,” Uriko emphasizes.

The Tool Translated into New Languages

Fontes rigorously tests new tools before deciding which ones to include in their service portfolio. The same was true for the Workplace Nordic 360°.

“There are many tools available, but not all of them are good. That’s why we always test them ourselves first, to see which are truly useful and reliable,” Uriko notes.

Together with Workplace Nordic, Fontes translated the Workplace Nordic 360° tool—first into Estonian, and later also into Latvian and Lithuanian. Fontes has since expanded its operations across the Baltics under the Figure Baltic Advisory brand.

“Workplace Nordic first prepared the draft translations, and then we reviewed and refined them with local translators to ensure that the terms used are exactly those that people in each country apply in everyday working life,” Uriko explains.

He is very satisfied with the collaboration with Workplace Nordic.

“Compared to many larger international providers, Workplace Nordic is a smaller and more agile company, and because of that, they always provide a highly personal service. I don’t see any issue with them not being Estonian—the language is no barrier, since most of the work is done in English anyway,” he adds.

The Benefits of Workplace Nordic 360° in Leadership Development

Leaders receive structured and meaningful feedback from a wide range of people.
Feedback is given anonymously (except from the direct manager), which increases honesty and openness. People dare to say things they might not bring up face-to-face.
Everyone involved in the process is invited to reflect more deeply on the quality of leadership.

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Fontes is an Estonian company focused on competence development that offers services related to leadership development, talent assessment, recruitment, and employer branding, among other things. In the Baltics they operate under the Figure Baltic Advisory brand offering salary surveys, people analytics, assessment and development services.