Further evidence that women are more self-critical regarding their performance at work than men was reported in a recent study at the British Psychological Society's DOP (Division of Occupational Psychology) annual conference earlier this year.

In a workplace study involving over 4,000 employees, women consistently underrated their performance in 10 out of 24 competencies. In comparison, men rated themselves lower than the ratings they received from others in just 5 out of 24 competences. At the same time, the study found that women tended to give more positive performance ratings than men for 20 out of the 24 competencies when assessing other people.

Significantly, men's performance was rated more or less equally by men and women raters, whilst women's performance was rated lower by men than by women. Given that in most industries men outnumber women in senior positions, this is concerning (particularly as men tended to rate women significantly lower on competences including leadership potential and persuasive communication, key factors in promotion decisions).

Whilst an argument might have been made to suggest that such ratings are simply an accurate reflection of performance, scores of actual potential found no significant differences between men and women, with both being considered equally competent in all areas.

The nature of this problem has been known about for a considerable time and there is still little concrete understanding about the underlying causal nature of this. Irrespective of this, the study provides further evidence that this is happening and if we value equal opportunity for men and women, and if organisations wish to harness their talent to the full, more should be done to address it. Whether in targeted briefing sessions, development programmes, coaching or training, men and women need to be given information, guidance and support to address this situation. Additionally, the study indicates that steps to address 'rater bias' in 360 feedback and appraisal are required and emphasises that the use of carefully designed appraisal systems is essential.

The study was carried out by Psychological Consultancy Limited (PCL) - to see their report see here.

As executive coaches we work with large numbers of women leaders and managers. In common with their male counterparts, many of them are hugely talented, hardworking and driven people. Quite frequently during a coaching session I will hear a client reveal something such as “I suppose I fear that I will be revealed as a fraud” or “they will see that I shouldn’t really be in this role”. Most of the time these comments are made by women; rarely, by men. It is quite possible of course that men experience this feeling as often as women but are maybe less inclined to reveal it.

This belief is known as ‘Imposter Syndrome’, a term which was first termed in the late 1970s.
Regardless of what level of success they may have achieved in their chosen field of work or study, or what external proof they may have of their competence, those expressing the 'syndrome' remain convinced that they do not deserve the success they have achieved and will at some point be "found out".

It seems to affect women leaders significantly more than men and if this is true it would seem valuable to understand more about it. Imposter Syndrome expert Valerie Young says that it is not about low self-confidence but about chronic self-doubt. Why might this affect women more?

As a psychology undergraduate many years ago I researched the snappily titled “gender differences in the attribution of success and failure”. It would seem to be relevant – here’s what this area of research suggests: men and women significantly differ in how they account for success and failure. Women tend to attribute their success to external factors outside of their control (e.g. "the task was easy", "I was lucky") and attribute their failure to internal factors ("I didn’t work hard enough", "I was not sufficiently competent"). Men on the other hand are significantly more likely to do the reverse, attributing success to internal factors, and failure to external factors outside of their control. This has been repeated a number of times and these findings are consistently found across many cultures. My own research looked to establish the age at which this difference might be seen and found clear evidence of it among 6 year olds…

What are the implications for women leaders and indeed for those of us who coach them? I am interested for example in how using cognitive behavioural coaching and examining core beliefs might help in this area.

We’d love to hear from you – what are your experiences?

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