Experienced female consultants are less confident than their male counterparts
Our novel data urges us to consider why and how it matters
Before we embark on a consulting skills training course, we survey the people due to attend. One of things we ask them to do is rate their confidence using 10-20 relevant consulting skills. We also survey their age and how experienced they are with using these skills. As our data grew into the hundreds of responses we began to notice something.
Experienced female consultants report lower confidence in their own capability across an array of consulting skills than do their male counterparts.
This matters. A lack of confidence holds people back from making suggestions or contributions. It holds them back from applying for promotions. It means you may not have the most capable people in important roles in your firm. And it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you see someone of similar tenure promoted ahead of you (because they were more confident) it reinforces the idea that you aren’t as capable, and your confidence drops a bit further.
The reasons for this phenomenon are likely to be complex and multi-faceted. Societal expectations, motherhood, and menopause may all play their part. But, our data is from a narrow demographic - consultants employed in boutique consulting firms. They are all doing the same job and we experience them all as equivalently capable. So, why are the women lacking in confidence?
What the data shows us
We ask people to rate their confidence using a particular consulting skill on a 5-point Likert scale. We position the response options as:
1 - I don’t know if I can do this
2 - I can do this with guidance
3 - I’m only confident in some situations
4 - I’m confident in most situations
5 - I can teach others this skill
From the hundreds of responses we have collected we notice that male consultants grow in confidence in a fairly linear way as they progress through their career. Although they always rank higher in confidence than female consultants, at the beginning of their careers there isn’t a significant difference between the two. But, once consultants reach 30, males continue to grow in confidence and females don’t to the same extent.
The linear correlation demonstrated by male consultants makes sense. As you progress through your career you gain in experience. As you gain in experience you gain in confidence. So you should.
Why then, are experienced female consultants doubting themselves?
Are certain personality traits holding women back?
I delve into the realm of personality difference by gender somewhat tentatively. There is substantial overlap on all personality traits between men and women and, on many facets, no significant difference at all. We cannot say that any individual possesses or lacks a personality trait based on their gender, yet when we consider the population as a whole there are a few consistent trends.
For this debate, whether the trends are the result of evolutionary difference or socio-cultural influence or something else entirely is moot. They exist and they may be showing up in your workplace or for you.
Most personality trait research has focused on The Big Five domains with groups of specific traits/facets under each domain. Although a lack of consensus on the identity and number of specific facets presents a challenge, it is consistently reported that, at a Big Five level, women score significantly higher than men on Agreeableness and Neuroticism.
Agreeableness comprises traits relating to altruism, such as empathy and kindness…and involves the tendency toward cooperation, maintenance of social harmony, and consideration of the concerns of others (as opposed to exploitation or victimization of others). Neuroticism describes the tendency to experience negative emotion and related processes in response to perceived threat and punishment; these include anxiety, depression, anger, self-consciousness, and emotional lability. The one facet of Neuroticism in which women do not always exhibit higher scores than men is anger1.
There is logic in the idea that someone higher in Neuroticism and Agreeableness would be less likely to report confidence in their own abilities. They are more anxious and self-conscious, and they are more attuned to maintaining harmony and preserving the feelings of others. That all adds up to a recipe for ‘holding myself back’.
Is Imposter Syndrome tripping capable women up?
Impostor syndrome was first described in 1978 in an academic paper titled ‘The impostor phenomenon in high achieving women’2. The authors reflect on years of psychotherapeutic work with successful women who ‘do not experience an internal sense of success’ despite tangible evidence of their academic and professional excellence.
“Unlike men, who tend to own success as attributable to a quality inherent in themselves, women are more likely either to project the cause of success outward to an external cause (luck) or to a temporary internal quality (effort) that they do not equate with inherent ability.”
Impostor syndrome is something that resonates with many people, and it can show up in different ways. It is now acknowledged as affecting men too, but it tends to be more prevalent in women. Fundamentally it involves an individual assessing their own ability as lesser than others facing the same situation. They feel more inadequate, despite objectively being competent.
Dr. Valerie Young has studied impostor syndrome over her lifetime, and describes five different types in her book The Secret Thoughts of Successful Women. Each type describes a different set of personal expectations which, when not achieved, evoke feelings of failure and shame. Which of the types resonate for you?
Imposter syndrome can become a voice in your head that holds you back.
I should be able to do it all perfectly. I should know everything that’s needed. I should be able to do it all on my own. I should be able to do it quickly and easily. I should be able to manage all these things.
If you believe that voice, you doubt your capability versus others. But, if you are able to identify that voice as imposter syndrome, you are better placed to start overcoming it.
The challenge for consulting firms
This data unveils a leadership challenge. If confidence is not a reliable proxy for capability, how do you effectively manage your team? Do you focus on enabling your female consultants to feel more confident in themselves, or do you ensure that your processes don’t reward confidence over capability?
Solving this challenge is high stakes. All companies want to have their most capable people in their most important roles. What if some of your most capable people are currently being held back by agreeableness or imposter syndrome?
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Gender Differences in Personality across the Ten Aspects of the Big Five. Frontiers in Psychology, 2011
Clance, P.R. and Imes, S.A., 1978. The imposter phenomenon in high achieving women: Dynamics and therapeutic intervention. Psychotherapy: Theory, research & practice, 15(3), p.241.
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