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We must apply the lens of gender and race when giving feedback to really safeguard against bias, because research shows that women — and especially women of color — receive feedback that is biased based both on their gender as well as their race.
Make it actionable
Women of color often get vague feedback. And what this means is either they’ll be told, “You’re doing great” without actual actionable feedback on what they could do more of that they’re doing great, so that they continue doing that. Or, women of color receive feedback that’s vague that essentially says, “You’re not doing that great.” But without actual actionable advice on how we could improve, what we could change to do better.
One of the reasons why women, especially women of color, receive vague feedback is because of a phenomenon called “protective hesitation.” Especially, leaders in the dominant majority might feel like it’s important for them not to provide feedback, and they feel hesitation because they want to protect women from feeling hurt or emotional – again, in itself, a biased concept – and unfortunately, this has a very detrimental impact on the careers of women if we do not get effective feedback when we need it.
Focus on substance over style
Women of color often receive biased feedback about their “leadership style” or communication style or executive presence. Giving women feedback on the style that they’re presenting, rather than the substance of what they’re saying. So, this could look like: “When in the meeting you were presenting, you were speaking with a very loud tone or with a very soft tone.” Or, “You came off as very emotional,” or “You came off as very angry.” Being docile or submissive. All of these are very biased concepts when it comes to giving feedback to women.
What most men receive and what is effective feedback is to focus on substance, rather than style. So, that would be: “The content of your presentation was either great, because it showed X, Y, and Z.” Or, “The content of your presentation could have been improved if you took steps 1, 2, 3.” So being intentionally inclusive would mean focusing on the substance of what was presented, not the style. One of the ways we can do this is using the Situation-Behavior-Impact framework where we talk about a specific situation where a person either did well or they didn’t do well. For example, “In last Tuesday’s meeting, when you delivered a presentation…” What was the behavior that they exhibited? What worked and what didn’t? And what was the impact of that action or behavior that they took? How did people around it perceive and receive the behavior that was demonstrated?
Along with SBI, I also always recommend giving women of color positive reinforcement where there’s an opportunity to do that, even if you’re delivering critical feedback. And that is because many of us do not receive the positive reinforcement we need. A big part is using words like, “I believe in you. I trust that you’re going to do great. I want to see you succeed. I know you’re a great leader, and I believe that this feedback is going to help you get to the next level.” So, when you care personally, we find that especially women of color have a greater opportunity to advance in the corporate workforce.
Be intentional and precise
One of the ways we can be more intentionally inclusive in delivering feedback is making sure that, as a manager, you state your intention. “The reason I’m giving you this feedback…” Or: “My intention in giving you this feedback is I want you to succeed.” Or: “I know you have it in you to get to the next level.” Or, “One of the ways that this company or our team rewards leaders is when they demonstrate these traits, and therefore I’d like to give you feedback on this.”
When delivering critical feedback especially, it’s a really good idea to ask the person who you just delivered the feedback to how they heard what you said. And this is ensuring that the intention with which you delivered the feedback and the exact feedback that you delivered was heard the way that you were intending it to be heard. And it could be as simple as, “Could you repeat back to me what you heard in what I just said to you?”
When it comes to creating systems around giving feedback, be very, very specific about the types of actions and behaviors and the outcomes that you are trying to assess, rather than have them be wishy-washy or not have very specific criteria that they’re assessing. Often we use subjective biases, or subjective notions, to make decisions around performance evaluations and performance assessments, and unfortunately bias creeps into a lot of them.