Many people are unaware there is a gender gap in the feedback given to employees at work. Even if male and female employees perform at precisely the same level, research finds managers prioritize kindness more when giving feedback to women than to men, which reduces the usefulness of the feedback provided.
Women are more likely to receive inflated and less actionable feedback than men, which can limit women’s development and effectiveness at work. Conversely, overly harsh feedback can reduce men’s confidence, development, and well-being and encourage workplace bullying.
Academic researchers Dr Lily Jampol, Dr Aneeta Rattan and Dr Elizabeth Baily Wolf examined 1500 MBA students, full-time employees, and managers’ experience of feedback in the United Kingdom and the United States. Their findings reveal that women are more likely to receive kinder feedback that tends to be less precise and actionable.
“The information that women receive can be different from how they’ve actually been evaluated, creating a dangerous gap where the information women get might be kind or lack helpfulness. Some of the biggest damage occurs when people talk to others about how this person may have underperformed but then give them less candid, less accurate feedback. Also, how people evaluate you might be more based on that performance review than the actual feedback you’re getting,” says Jampol.
Feedback is vital to employee development, engagement, and advancement. Rattan and Jampol share three actions leaders can take to close the feedback gender gap.
Role Model And Reward Giving Quality Feedback
To improve the quality of feedback women receive, Jampol says leaders must make giving and receiving action-oriented feedback a regular practice. This includes recognizing and encouraging employees to share honest, helpful and practical insights.
“There’s so much complexity around feedback, and I see it being done poorly in many organizations. Establishing common touch points around feedback early and often and instilling the idea that leaders welcome feedback is so important,” says Jampol.
Every leader can make it safe for all employees to give and receive helpful feedback by regularly seeking candid, actionable feedback in team meetings and one-on-one employee discussions. The more leaders role model their comfort with giving and accepting honest feedback, the more this encourages all employees to do the same.
Review Feedback For Bias
While women tend to receive lower quality feedback than men overall, this issue is compounded for racial and ethnic minority women, as a 2022 study found that Black women are nine times more likely to receive non-actionable feedback.
“Don’t assume what people need when it comes to feedback. That’s where so much bias lies. It’s important not to make assumptions based on gender or any other type of identity. Many people go into feedback sessions without thinking about the words they will say. It means managers can lose focus and lose track of the narrative of what they want to convey. Write out in advance the three things you want to get across,” says Rattan.
To mitigate bias, leaders should try to obtain feedback from multiple diverse sources and review the content of their feedback before providing it to ensure it is actionable, specific and includes examples of what can be changed.
Audit Past Feedback
Many leaders may not be aware of how they have provided biased feedback to women. To improve the quality of feedback provided, leaders can review past performance reviews or development feedback to check if it is specific and actionable. Additionally, leaders can ask women to examine their effectiveness in providing quality feedback.
“Everyone experiences bias. We know it exists in the best of cultures. Very few people go back and audit feedback and see what was said, what advice was given, and if there are biases across race, gender or any other social identity,” says Jampol.
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