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Being top of the class comes with perks, like being lavished with your manager\u2019s praise. Unless, you\u2019re a high-performing woman, that is.<\/p>\n
New analysis of more than 23,000 performance reviews across 250 U.S. workplaces shows that women at the top of their game are still put down on paper as abrasive and opinionated\u2014and it doesn\u2019t matter if their manager is male or female.<\/p>\n
Textio, the AI-powered writing platform for HR teams that ran the study, found that women have to sit through reviews that are harsher and less constructive than their male peers\u2014and more often than not, their feedback is based on poor stereotypes of their personality, not their work.<\/p>\n
For example, nearly a third of women were described as opinionated in their performance review\u2014just 4% of men were told the same.<\/p>\n
\u201cLanguage like abrasive, difficult, friendly, and helpful showed up in the majority of women\u2019s reviews, but in very few of the men\u2019s,\u201d the report notes.<\/p>\n
Over half of top performing men, on the other hand, are hailed for their confidence (54%) and ambitiousness (63%) in their performance reviews. Less than 18% of women received the same recognition.<\/p>\n
Likewise, despite being more likely to be described as \u201cnice\u201d in their performance review, the majority of high-performing women recalled also being told they\u2019re unlikable\u2014compared to just 16% of men.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf high-performing men are often told they are brilliant, and high-performing women are often told they are successful despite being unlikable, what impact does this have on their performance over time?\u201d the report warns.<\/p>\n
Despite the nonsensical feedback being conflicting, the report concludes that exhausted women are internalizing these negative stereotypes about themselves, and, as a result, watching their performance tank and their careers stagnate. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s not just whittling women down to a stereotype that\u2019s problematic. Even praise can be a problem, across the board for both genders.<\/p>\n
The issue? It\u2019s often exaggerated, perhaps for the purpose of backing up stellar scores in top-performers\u2019 reviews.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The report highlighted that it\u2019s common to find statements like, \u201cYou always bring a curious mindset to every conversation,\u201d or \u201cYou\u2019re constantly looking for ways to improve things\u201d.<\/p>\n
In reality, no one is constantly <\/em>looking for ways to improve\u2014and top performers can see through this lazy effort to make them look good on paper.<\/p>\n It\u2019s why, the report warns that \u201cmanagers aren\u2019t helping high performers by turning their feedback up to 11. Rather, managers undermine their own credibility when they provide this kind of feedback.\u201d<\/p>\n Likewise, when praise is a generic clich\u00e9, such as \u201che thinks outside the box,\u201d it does little to motivate high performers.<\/p>\n \u201cThese generic phrases have been used so often in business contexts that they have lost a great deal of their meaning,\u201d the report says, adding that managers use this thoughtless quick filler in reviews instead of actually thinking of detailed examples of when a worker has excelled. But the latter would be far more flattering.<\/p>\n Even among the best of the best, feedback can\u2019t always be good. But it must be specific.\u00a0<\/p>\n Using negative stereotypes or unactionable statements in performance reviews doesn\u2019t give workers room to work on their weaknesses and grow.<\/p>\n Instead, the report warns, it \u201ctanks performance\u201d and leaves high performers stagnating\u2014or eyeing up the exit door.<\/p>\n In 2023, Textio found that 10% of all employee attrition was down to low-quality feedback\u2014which includes positive but \u201cempty\u201d remarks.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, people who receive poor-quality feedback are 63% more likely to leave the organization within the upcoming year than people who receive actionable input from their managers.<\/p>\n \u201cIn other words, you may be trying to retain your high performers, but if you\u2019re like the thousands of managers whose feedback was included in this year\u2019s report, you are likely making performance choices that send those high performers elsewhere,\u201d the report adds.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis is especially harmful when paired with the fact that it\u2019s often easier for a high performer to get a significant pay raise when changing organizations rather than staying put.\u201d<\/p>\n The solution is easy but more time-consuming than scribbling \u201chigh achiever\u201d in yet another performance review: Always make feedback actionable, specific, and clear.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nBe specific\u2014or lose your top workers<\/h2>\n
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