Your Performance Feedback is Probably Biased - Here Is What You Can Do About It
ReadySet’s Giving and Receiving Effective Feedback workshop is one of our most popular - it’s easy to understand why: Performance feedback, especially if it is constructive feedback, is really hard to give and often can go poorly. For recipients, critical feedback can trigger all kinds of responses from defensiveness to internalization. For managers, a discomfort or fear of giving feedback can lead to delays, distortions, or avoidance of giving feedback entirely. This is problematic because performance feedback - when done well - is so important for development and organization functioning including reduced anxiety and uncertainty, higher psychological safety and trust, and productivity and engagement.
Not only is feedback often not done well, feedback can also be biased, especially to recipients with marginalized identities. Ironically, while folks from underrepresented backgrounds often experience worse workplace outcomes (e.g., not being promoted), the feedback they receive may be lacking in substance or helpfulness, may not be accurate, or they may not receive any feedback at all. Researchers find that people do not like to criticize members of under-represented groups, often omitting important negative information from evaluations (Bergsieker et al., 2012). Positive inflation occurs as well: When feedback is given directly, comments to recipients of minoritized racial backgrounds are more positive, for fear of seeming racist (Harber, 1998; Harber, Stafford, & Kennedy, 2010). Similarly, women are more likely to self-report that they receive less critical feedback in the workplace (King et al., 2012) & in my own research I find women are also more likely to be told white lies (positively inflated feedback compared to private evaluations) about their performance (Jampol & Zayas, 2020) and given more abstract, vague, less substantive feedback comments (Jampol & Zayas, 2020; Correl & Simmard, 2016). In fact, in my study, women were told they were doing nearly an entire letter grade better than how they had originally been scored. Even when substantive feedback is given, women receive less actionable and more gendered, stereotyped feedback than men, being told to “get along” and “be more confident” compared to men (Doldor et al., 2021).
While it’s not fully clear why unequal or biased feedback occurs, evidence points to social concerns, like not wanting to appear racist or sexist, and beliefs rooted in stereotypes about women wanting or needing more kindness in order to perform. Regardless of the reasons why, the impact is that the quality of the feedback we give may differ depending on the identity of the recipient, further imbalancing the playing field. In order to give less biased, and more effective feedback here are a few tips:
CREATE A CULTURE OF FEEDBACK THAT IS BASED IN A GROWTH MINDSET
Often feedback is never given or it’s given once a year. Give feedback early and often, create formal and informal opportunities to learn and grow from each other through feedback. Reduce the awkwardness of out-of-the-blue feedback by normalizing both positive and critical feedback as an essential part of the culture. Debrief most events (we use the FLIF framework at ReadySet), and make feedback a mainstay in 1:1’s. That will reduce the threat factor on both sides. Most importantly, the basis of feedback should be rooted in a growth mindset - the belief that people can improve and change.
DON’T MAKE ASSUMPTIONS
Ask yourself whether you are giving feedback to someone in a way you think will be useful or nice - Question those goals - are you making assumptions about what someone wants or needs? What are those assumptions based on? Instead, ask your direct how they like to receive feedback - most people prefer receiving helpful critical feedback but they may have a preference about when and how they receive it (for example, do they prefer written feedback or in the moment, verbal feedback?). Sharing preferences in advance will reduce the uncertainty about what someone needs or wants. It also will increase trust and understanding for both parties.
FOCUS ON THE FUTURE NOT JUST THE HERE-AND-NOW
Often, we are so focused on the immediate emotions surrounding the process of giving feedback, that we forget why we are giving it - to help someone grow. Before you enter a feedback giving situation, think about what the consequences of not sharing crucial information are. Will you be depriving someone of crucial information they might be able to use to improve? Will they be surprised when they experience consequences later because they have never received feedback? Of course, tough feedback can be demotivating so explaining why the feedback is being given can help reorient the person’s mindset toward growth and the future - saying ‘I want you to know that I see you as a potential leader, so here is where I think you can continue to grow’ will be more effective than simply calling out where someone falls short. If you still have trouble giving critical feedback in a helpful way - reframe the conversation around advice rather than feedback - what kind of advice would you give someone who was struggling?
PREP CLEAR, ACTIONABLE, AND FUTURE FEEDBACK IN ADVANCE
It’s easy to forget the most important information we need to get across when we are in the moment and nervous, or our direct report is exhibiting emotional distress. Our impulse, as empathic humans, is to resolve the emotions rather than stay the course. One of the most effective ways to reduce bias and deliver effective feedback is to prepare and review talking points and establish a plan for both the content and the delivery of feedback so if you get flustered in the moment, you don’t lose track of what you meant to say. Have clear, actionable, and strengths-focused feedback, preferably written down with specific examples, and a future-oriented narrative.
REVIEW OR AUDIT FEEDBACK AND PERFORMANCE REVIEWS
Check qualitative feedback (reviews of candidates, current employees, evaluations and other appraisals) for language or judgements steeped in stereotypes. In positive reviews, women are often praised for being team-players and organized while men are often praised for performance or ambition, the criteria upon which promotions are often made (Biernat, Tocci, & Williams, 2012). On the flip side, Women, especially Women of Color are often punished for counter-stereotypical behavior (Brescoll et al., 2010; Livingston et al., 2012), so look for words like ‘aggressive’, ‘pushy’, or ‘needs to tone it down’ in performance reviews and read into loaded words like ‘professionalism’ which can indicate evaluations of hair, clothing, and other personal choices that are based in white, cis-gendered male, Western cultural perspectives and can disadvantage Women and Men of Color. Also take a look at any quantitative discrepancies in reviews, comp, and promotions to note if inequity might be systemic. Ultimately, a bias health check up will help you understand where pain points are, and how to resolve them.
Finally, remember that giving feedback is hard, but it is an essential part of being an effective manager. If you would like to dive deeper into into understanding how performance feedback affects you and others and how to create more inclusive, equitable, and effective feedback culture (as a manager or as a team), contact inbound@thereadyset about our Giving and Receiving Effective Feedback workshop, our Inclusive Communication workshop and our Inclusive Management Learning Journey.
With a combination of enhanced awareness around how bias can creep into feedback, a bit of intentionality around shaping your feedback so it is useful, and putting some structures in place to mitigate bias and encourage a growth mindset culture, feedback can become more inclusive, equitable, and effective.