Feature
Emotional. Difficult. Unlikeable. If you are a woman, chances are high you've heard one or several of these words when receiving performance feedback.
Performance feedback can help employees learn and grow. However, if the words used in that feedback reinforce gender and racial stereotypes, they'll have the opposite effect. A new report by Textio revealed the many ways language bias appears in performance feedback and the chilling effect they can have.
Women are negatively stereotyped up to seven times more often than men in performance feedback. White and Asian people were twice as likely to be positively stereotyped as “intelligent” compared to Hispanic/Latino and Black employees, the report showed. White people were also more than twice as likely to be referred to as “likable” compared to other groups.
Women and people of color also tended to internalize negative stereotypes, meaning that even when they received a mix of positive and negative feedback, they most often remember the comments that aligned with negative stereotypes about their identity. Men were more likely to internalize positive stereotypes.
Kieran Snyder, co-founder and chief scientist emeritus at Textio, has been researching language bias in performance feedback for about 10 years. She said little has changed in that time and more work needs to be done to eliminate bias and provide higher-quality feedback.
“The things business leaders and HR leaders have been doing to improve the situation aren’t working,” she said. Biased language and low-quality feedback often lead employees to quit their jobs, she continued. However, there are several steps organizations can take to eliminate bias in performance feedback.
Actionable Ways to Avoid Language Bias in Feedback
Biases are often ingrained in us based on the culture that we live in, said Clarissa Steele, an assistant professor at Kansas State University who studies equity in organizations. “Because it’s so ingrained, we may not see it, and we bring it with us to the workplace.”
Some of these biases can end up reflected in employee performance feedback. Taking steps to learn about bias and avoid it is not only the right thing to do, but it’s also good for business, Steele said. Here are some tips:
Set Feedback Standards
Removing bias starts with establishing a process for ensuring a common foundation of feedback for everyone, including setting clear expectations, communicating openly and offering support, said Courtney Murphy, a leadership and culture consultant and author of “Life After Burnout: Reclaim, Recover, Renew.” Then, shift the focus based on performance.
“For low performers, accountability and development are paramount,” she said. “High performers crave recognition, challenge and growth opportunities.”
The Textio report found that high performers received 1.5 times more feedback than low performers, but the feedback was typically vague and unhelpful. Among employees who receive low-quality feedback, 40% plan to quit their jobs.
“You have to strike the balance between keeping the standards, but also tailoring feedback to individual needs,” said Kate Bezrukova, chair and associate professor of organization and human resources at the University at Buffalo. “That’s when you get the best outcomes.”
The feedback process should also outline clear steps for advancing their career, including skills and completed projects, Steele added. That gives employees goals to achieve and a path to advance.
Related Article: Feedback Matters. Here's How to Do It Right
Make Feedback Specific and Actionable
Feedback should be actionable — meaning it’s timely, specific, relevant and focused on behaviors that can be modified, said Satoris Howes, a management professor at Oregon State University.
For instance, instead of telling an employee that they’re an introvert, use an example of a recent meeting when they didn’t contribute to the conversation and avoided eye contact, she explained.
Snyder suggests avoiding exaggerated language, like “never” or “always;” fixed-mindset feedback, such as describing someone as “extremely intelligent;” and cliched comments, such as “You always knock it out of the park.” This low-quality feedback doesn’t tell someone how to improve.
Exaggerated language can lead to exaggerated expectations for employees, which creates a cycle of bias, Bezrukova said. It may also damage a manager’s credibility as a feedback provider, Howes said, which “could lead the feedback recipient to dismiss what you have to say.”
Actionable feedback gives an employee a “roadmap for improvement” that can emphasize their purpose and ignite their passion for their role, Murphy said.
Skip the Personality Traits
Women and people of color were likely to receive personality-focused feedback and to internalize negative stereotypes about themselves, such as “difficult,” “lazy” or “emotional,” according to Textio’s report.
Personality traits are subjective and can lead to bias, Murphy said. While personality can influence performance, feedback should focus on someone’s observable actions and behaviors. People typically can’t change aspects of their personality but they can change how it affects their work, Howes added.
For example, instead of calling an employee “brilliant,” discuss a project that they completed that was successful because it helped the company increase sales, Snyder said.
Conference
Oct
20
Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo Orlando 2025
Register
Conference
Oct
27
Gartner HR Symposium/Xpo Orlando 2025
Register
“I am less likely to internalize a label, I'm a brilliant person, and more likely to be able to repeat the pattern that made me successful,” she explained. “The same is true with critical feedback.”
Related Article: Developmental Feedback Gives Employees Room to Grow
Include Multiple Perspectives
Building an “accountability system,” where feedback quality is reviewed frequently for consistency and quality, can help minimize bias, Snyder said.
Another technique is calibration, which is when supervisors share employee feedback with other managers before giving it to the employee. Calibration has been shown to reduce bias, Steele said. When reviewers have to justify their ratings and comments to others, it can help hold them accountable, Howes added.
“The reason you need another perspective is that you have decades of lived experience that have formed the biases that you hold,” Snyder said.
Invest in Bias Training
It’s crucial to recognize that biases exist and learn to counteract them, Bezrukova said. “Perspective taking,” when you learn to consider other people’s perspectives and emotions, is one way to start.
Some organizations also benefit from regular training in recognizing and addressing bias, she adds.
“The more we know, the more educated we are, the more cognitively flexible we are, and there are fewer opportunities for bias to proliferate,” Bezrukova says.
Companies should also provide comprehensive training on using its standardized evaluation system that covers language bias, Murphy says. Also, conduct evaluation audits and highlight areas where additional training and system tweaks are needed.
Related Article: Interrupting Biases Beneath the Surface
The Benefits of Eliminating Bias
The Textio report highlights the correlation between low-quality performance feedback and an employee’s increased desire to quit. Those who received high-quality feedback were more likely to stick around.
Reducing bias and providing actionable feedback helps people thrive at work and builds trust between company leaders and employees, Murphy said. “This improves retention, engagement, candidate attraction, collaboration, problem-solving and even innovation.”
Fostering positive relationships and demonstrating your commitment to diversity by working to eliminate bias in performance feedback enables individuals and organizations to be successful, Steele said.
“When you're limiting someone's ability to become successful because you're not giving them good feedback, that's not good for that employee, it's not good for their career, and it's not good for your organization,” she emphasized.
