Criticize Women Strongly

Shameful! We’re lying to our women employees. The Cornell University researchers found female supervisors do it, not just the males, and the consequences stunt the professional growth of these women being lied to.
     The lies are about the quality of employee performance. In the studies, supervisors pulled punches when providing feedback to women. This happened much less often with male employees. We might think the reason is that supervisors believe women are less competent than men, so we set the standards lower. However, the research found no clear evidence of this.
     Instead, the explanation was that people believe women are less confident than men about their job performance. Supervisors want to encourage women to do well by overaccentuating the positives. Building confidence, not questioning competence.
     The problem is that the white lies deprive women employees of the constructive criticism they need in order to most quickly become superb performers. Our assumption that women have less confidence on the job than do men is probably justified on the whole.
     Gender bias and outright discrimination cause this. It also could be true that the current system feeds on itself. Since women are accustomed to punches being pulled with performance feedback, maybe they’ll have a more destructive response than will men to strongly negative reviews.
     The best remedy, though, is to be honest. Give ongoing feedback rather than save it for just an annual review. It’s easier to handle negatives and leverage positives when they come in small doses.
     The way you reference the positives and negatives also makes a difference. Here’s the formula I recommend for feedback to all employees: 

• Situation. In what situation did the good or deficient behavior occur? Placing it in context makes your review more credible and digestible. 
• Behavior. What did the employee do or fail to do? Avoid talk of attitudes or intentions. Stick to the observable behavior. 
• Consequences. In what ways was this behavior in this situation of benefit or detriment to the organizational mission? This part is too often overlooked by supervisors, who assume the employee knows why you’re pointing out this behavior. 
• Your emotional reaction. This is the optional part. Research indicates women are more likely to respond to “That thrills me” or “That concerns me” than are men. 
• Facilitators & constraints. Acknowledge that circumstances in the particular situation may have challenged or assisted the employee. This helps them plan for excellent performance.

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