Feedback – What’s really holding you back at work?

Aneeta Rattan, PhD, Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour at London Business School and Lily Jampol, PhD, a Partner and Head of People Science and Services at ReadySet spoke to The Fix podcast recently about their research into the kindness bias associated with giving feedback, research which was co-authored with Elizabeth Baily Wolf, PhD, Assistant Professor of Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD.

The research, which is also the subject of a Harvard Business Review article, ‘Women Get “Nicer” Feedback — and It Holds Them Back’, found that the 1,500+ MBA students, full-time employees, and managers based in the US and UK involved in the studies rated kind feedback as more of a priority, and as more helpful, for women than for men.

Constructive feedback is essential for anyone’s growth, but if women get vaguer, more positively inflated feedback, and if the desire for kindness obscures candour, they might lose out on information about how to do things not just the what to do, as Aneeta explains in the podcast.

It is particularly important for members of negatively stereotyped groups to receive feedback that is true, honest and clear, and which does not carry any suspicion of stereotyping, as this helps to build the trust that is core to the experience of belonging that projects people forward in their careers and performance.

As earlier coverage of the research shows, kindness and candour are both necessary components of effective feedback and “managers should make a conscious effort to give feedback that’s both accurate and kind regardless of the gender of the recipient.” In the podcast, Lily outlines four actions that leaders can use to improve the feedback they give. Listen to the podcast episode ‘Feedback – What’s really holding you back at work’ to find out more.