A new gender bias is in town, and it’s all about pushback. A study published earlier this year by Olenka Kacperczyk of the Imperial College Business School, Peter Younkin of the University of Oregon, and Vera Rocha of the Copenhagen Business School found that employees put in fewer hours and less discretionary effort when bosses were women. The research focused on start-ups of female founders, but the team suspected the findings would apply more broadly. To that end, they conducted an experiment recruiting virtual workers for a fictitious data analytics company. The task was to identify photos of executives, and when they were done, workers were asked to do extra photo coding.
Here's what they found. When male owners requested more work, the workers mostly said yes. However, the workers were likelier to decline when the owner was a woman. And if they agreed to take on more work, they did less for the female boss.
While the quality of the work did not differ, the amount completed did when the boss was a woman.
When asked why the workers would take on more work or not, researchers received answers such as it’s easier to push back with a woman and a female boss should understand family commitments. When it came to male bosses, however, workers assumed they had no choice, male bosses wouldn’t understand work-life balance, or they may be punished in the future if they didn’t perform the additional work.
While this is just one experiment, I suspect these biases constantly crop up. Have you seen them in play? Do you make the same assumptions? And what impact does this pushback bias have?
I hear many women struggle with priority setting, scope creep, and the imbalance that comes with taking too much on. Often this is coupled with a reluctance to delegate or an overly empathetic style that has women doing the work of those levels below them. When both factors combine, it’s the perfect storm. I call it the double pushback conundrum. Employees push back on you, and you don’t push back on others, creating an untenable situation. A proverbial dumping ground. Here’s what you can do about it.
When you’re the boss
Balancing authority with empathy as a leader is tricky. But it’s a skill set you need to hone to be successful today. If you are the manager receiving pushback on you, consider these tips:
Understand what the person has on their plate, and the time it takes to complete it. Bosses often get blamed for not knowing how long tasks take. This goes for work and personal priorities (to the extent the person is willing to share).
Assess whether the individual is spending time on the right priorities and realign and reprioritize as necessary. Focus discussions on how and when work gets done, not if it gets done.
Keep calm and create an open environment for the discussion. Encourage individuals to raise conversations early and often to avoid breaking point scenarios.
Make your expectations clear, and don’t be afraid to ask for what you need from the team. Your job is to make work manageable and problem-solve, but not the person picking up all the slack.
Invest time to regularly coach and give feedback to ramp up the capabilities of your team and continually assess if you have the team you need to achieve the priorities you are on the hook for.
When you’re the employee
When you need to pushback on your boss or colleagues, consider these tips:
Separate the person from the position. Someone may be more senior than you, but it doesn’t mean you can’t negotiate your priorities with them. It’s expected that you will do that. If you are the dumping ground, it’s probably because you let yourself be.
Determine if you fall prey to pushback bias by avoiding conversations with males or others or making assumptions that they will not understand your predicaments. Maybe they will, maybe they won’t. You still need to have the conversation.
Stay calm, agreeable, and firm. Discuss your priorities and ask for help in reassessing them if you’re with your boss. Discuss how you add value and what is in the best interest of the larger goals now. If you’re with a colleague, share what you are expected to deliver and what people count on you for. Be sure to continue to build your credibility and deliver great work so that these conversations are about capacity and not capability.
Help figure out how the work can get accomplished by suggesting options that don’t include you. If you need to be included, negotiate the extent.
Raise conversations often by sharing your accomplishments and by sharing your priorities. Make it a habit to ensure people know your contributions and your limits.
The pushback game is a dance in any organization. Sometimes you’ll win, and sometimes you’ll lose. But it’s a skill you need to get great at to ensure you’re not always on the losing side. Let’s nip this bias in the bud by getting into the pushback game and ensuring that this vital conversation is normalized across the board.
What’s your experience with the pushback bias?