Becker's Hospital Review

31 WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP Making mistakes as a woman in charge: 6 things to note By Molly Gamble R esearch has shown that women are judged more harshly than men when they make a mistake, which can result in a strong aversion to risk, lower confidence and missed leadership opportunities. Here are six considerations to note about the female experience of erring: 1. When a woman makes a serious mistake, she can face greater likelihood of harm to her career in the long-term than a man does aer a serious error. For instance, physician refer- rals to female surgeons decreased 54 percent aer the death of a patient, but didn't drop for male surgeons, according to a 2017 Harvard working paper based on Medicare data cover- ing 9,140 surgeons. Female surgeons' mistakes were also more likely to influence how their female peers were treated. Aer a bad experi- ence with one female surgeon, referring phy- sicians were less likely to refer to other female surgeons in the same specialty. ere were no such spillover effects to other men aer a bad experience with one male surgeon. 2. People are less likely to support an organi- zation aer an ethical failure if the business is led by a woman, according to a study pub- lished by the American Psychological Asso- ciation. "Women incur greater penalties for ethical transgressions because of persistent gender stereotypes that tend to categorize women as having more communal traits than men, such as being more likable, sensitive and supportive of other," said lead author Ni- cole Votolato Montgomery, PhD, of the Uni- versity of Virginia in Charlottesville. 3. Women who earn below an A in intro- ductory economics classes are far more like- ly than their male peers to switch majors. Women who earned B's were half as likely as those who earned A's to stick with the major, according to an analysis, whereas a man who earned a B was just as likely to major in eco- nomics as a man who earned an A. 4. In addition to gender bias, other research has suggested that women's risk aversion is also informed by the rate and quality of feed- back they received about their missteps as children. Boys tend to experience a greater quantity of scolding and punishment, which strengthens their resiliency and ability to take failure in stride. "When we observed in grade school classrooms, we saw that boys got eight times more criticism than girls for their con- duct," Carol S. Dweck, PhD, writes in Mindset. Complicating matters, the feedback patterns differ for girls and boys. "Boys' mistakes are at- tributed to a lack of effort, whereas girls come to see mistakes as a reflection of their deeper qualities," Dr. Dweck said in e Atlantic. 5. One productive way to process mistakes is by adopting a growth, versus fixed, mind- set. As Dr. Dweck advises in Mindset: "Is there something in your past that you think measured you? A test score? A dishonest or callous action? Being fired from a job? Being rejected? Focus on that one thing. Feel all the emotions that go with it. Now put it in a growth mindset perspective. Look honestly at your role in it, but understand that it doesn't define your intelligence or personality. In- stead, ask: What did I (or can I) learn from that experience? How can I use it as a basis for growth? Carry that with you instead." 6. It is oen helpful if managers or leaders are explicit and spell out how they assess mistakes, so direct reports can adopt a sim- ilar evaluation for themselves. is may help prevent a kitchen-sink mentality in which all mistakes — from the most minor to most sub- stantial — are treated with the same amount of gravity. "As a manager, when I'm managing someone relatively new who's making mis- takes, here's what I look at to determine how concerned to be: Is the person taking the mis- takes seriously and learning lessons for next time? Are they adjusting their systems and their thinking to prevent those mistakes from happening again? Or are they being cavalier, not processing the feedback, and continuing to mess up the same things? I also look at the nature of the mistakes. If they stem from carelessness or truly bad judgement, that's go- ing to concern me a lot more than if they just reflect that that person is still in the middle of learning new processes and systems," ca- reer advice columnist Alison Green writes for New York Magazine. n Viewpoint: 'Across the world, women's independence will be a silent victim of this pandemic' By Molly Gamble T he existing workforce structure invites the likelihood that women will bear the brunt of much of the "look- ing after" labor that the COVID-19 pandemic de- mands: looking after patients, looking after self-isolating elders, looking after children kept home from school. "Purely as a physical illness, the coronavirus appears to af- fect women less severely. But in the past few days, the con- versation about the pandemic has broadened: We are not just living through a public-health crisis, but an economic one," Helen Lewis writes for The Atlantic. Women in heterosexual relationships are more likely to earn less than their male partners. When life is disrupt- ed, their jobs are generally considered lower priority. The thing about the COVID-19 disruption, however, is that it could last months. "Some women's lifetime earnings will never recover. With the schools closed, many fathers will undoubtedly step up, but that won't be universal," writes Ms. Lewis, The Atlantic's London-based staff writer. Ms. Lewis argues that the urge to categorize gender as a side issue or distraction during a global health crisis must be resisted. She also points out what she considers an op- portunity during this difficult time: "This could be the first outbreak where gender and sex differences are recorded, and taken into account by researchers and policy makers. For too long, politicians have assumed that child care and elderly care can be 'soaked up' by private citizens — mostly women — effectively providing a huge subsidy to the paid economy. This pandemic should remind us of the true scale of that distortion." n

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