Things You Need to Know

Professionalism

Work Is No Meritocracy

October 21, 2009

Is it possible mature women underestimate just how well they perform at work? The answer is an unqualified “Yes,” according to Scott Taylor, a professor with the University of New Mexico School of Management.

Earlier this year, Taylor presented his findings to the Academy of Management. According to Taylor’s research, women are three times as likely as their male counterparts to underrate their bosses’ opinions of their job performance.

Taylor asked a series of managers to rate their direct reports looking at nine skills considered critical to success for most leaders. The skills included: communication ability; initiative; self-awareness; self control; empathy; bond building; team work; conflict management; and trustworthiness. Men consistently overestimated how their bosses would rate them. On average, female respondents underestimated their ratings by about 11 percent.

Interestingly, the discrepancy increases for women over the age of 55.

My own suspicion is that many more mature women managers grew up in a world in which they were consistently told, “Nice girls don’t brag.” It turns out that all of our hard work and many of our accomplishments have given women plenty to brag about, and it is increasingly important for them to do so at work.

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