Beware the HR tendency to favour relationships over data, says Jan Hills
I don’t usually write about women in business but the recent interest in Sheryl Sandberg’s ‘lean in’ approach, along with two other pieces of research, got me thinking about just how much work still needs to be done. As HR continues to comprise a disproportionate number of women these two studies may be helpful.
The first is research by Amy Cuddy and colleagues that found that 80 per cent of how we evaluate people is based on two variables; warmth and competence. Warmth is about whether the person projects a feeling of warm or coolness when you first meet them. It probably has roots in survival and being able to sense whether someone is friend or foe, or whether their intentions are good or bad. This is the first perception people have. Competence is assayed next: how capable is someone of carrying out their intentions?
This is where the interesting part comes. Our self-perception tends to value competence over warmth. Hence in work we put more value and effort into seeming competent at our job rather than warm and friendly. Cuddy says: “We want other people to be warm, but we want to be competent. We’d rather have people respect us than like us.” Neuroscience is saying this is a mistake and relationships will take you much further. But we also make different judgments about these two dimensions. When we rate someone as competent in one thing – knowing complex HR legal rules for example – we tend to generalise that view and assume they are competent in virtually everything. But with warmth people tend to need to demonstrate it over and over. Just because someone is warm on the first meeting or does a kind act does not mean people assume they are generally warm or nice. These different perceptions mean we assume a single act reveals the person’s character. The assumption is that warmth can be put on but competence cannot be faked.
But it gets worse – at least for women and warm, relationship oriented people. People judge warmth and competence as inversely related. If you have a lot of warmth it is assumed you are not very competent. In a business this equates to “the more competent you are, the less nice you must be. And vice versa: Someone who comes across as really nice must not be too smart,” says Cuddy. So beware the HR tendency to favour relationships over data.
Cuddy also found that working mothers are seen as nicer but less competent. She calls this the ‘motherhood penalty’, whilst men with children were seen as nicer and competent - the ‘fatherhood bonus.’
Cuddy believes non-verbal data are powerful in determining judgments of others and this brings me to the second piece of research on perceptions of presence. The Center for Talent Innovation (CTI) wanted to understand the factors in executive presence. Their research found three factors which were connected; how you act (gravitas), how you speak (communication), and how you look (appearance). Gravitas provides the real weight, according to 67 per cent of the senior executives surveyed. It was more important than either communication (28 per cent) or appearance (5 per cent). But they also found that for women, appearance can override the other two factors. Also, women tended not to get feedback on how they are viewed. So women are judged much more on how they look and dress than their male peers, but are 32 per cent less likely to get feedback on what they need to adjust, according to the research.
The survey also found that if women did get feedback it tended to be contradictory. For example, unkempt nails detracted from a female executive's presence but “overly done” nails were seen to be “unleader-like”. Too much make-up undermined a woman’s credibility, but respondents also faulted women for wearing too little or no make-up and looking like they were not trying. Being too assertive was also criticised for women, but so was not being assertive enough. The research says the contradictions “went on and on”. It’s little wonder that 81 per cent of women who do receive feedback say they have trouble understanding it.
So what can we learn from this? Make those relationships matter but also have a strategy to demonstrate your competence whilst managing the relationship. You can get some help from our free HR tools on the web site. Oh, and paint your nails in a neutral colour.
I had thought that all of this would cease to matter by the time my daughter was in the workforce. Unfortunately, I got that very wrong.