{"id":49590,"date":"2024-12-10T09:46:19","date_gmt":"2024-12-10T14:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/?post_type=articles&#038;p=49590"},"modified":"2025-05-08T06:55:17","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T10:55:17","slug":"bossy-whats-gender-got-to-do-with-it","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/articles\/leading-effectively-articles\/bossy-whats-gender-got-to-do-with-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Ban Bossy: What\u2019s Gender Got to Do With It?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The word \u201cbossy\u201d and its link to leadership has been heavily discussed due to the \u201cBan Bossy\u201d campaign founded by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and backed by world-renowned women leaders and luminaries.<\/p>\n<p>The Ban Bossy campaign argues that from a young age, girls are trained to be quiet and submissive, and when they break these gender norms, they\u2019re often criticized, disliked, and called \u201cbossy\u201d \u2014 a word that can discourage girls from growing up to be leaders.<\/p>\n<p>Our researchers decided to take a look at the role of the word bossy in the workplace.<\/p>\n<p>We <a href=\"https:\/\/cclinnovation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/bossy2.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">conducted a research survey<\/a>\u00a0of 201 people (100 men and 101 women) and analyzed data from 20 years of behavioral data and promotability ratings, from our <a href=\"\/leadership-solutions\/leadership-development-tools\/leadership-assessments\/benchmarks-360-assessments\/\">Benchmarks\u00ae 360 assessments<\/a>. Results from our survey revealed:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Bossiness is a common issue in the workplace,<\/strong> as 25% of leaders surveyed said they\u2019ve been called \u201cbossy\u201d at work, and 92% of them said they\u2019ve worked with someone bossy.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The term \u201cbossy\u201d isn\u2019t a synonym for assertiveness<\/strong> or other positive executive leadership skills.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Being \u201cbossy\u201d is seen as showing a lack of interpersonal skills,<\/strong> or the 6 indicators of bossiness, which include being directive and controlling, ignoring others\u2019 perspectives, being rude and pushy, micromanaging, focusing on power, and being aggressive.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Women are referred to as \u201cbossy\u201d more often than men are.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Coworkers labeled as \u201cbossy\u201d are described as unpopular and unlikely to be successful in the future,<\/strong> and \u201cbossy\u201d women coworkers are seen as more unpopular and less successful compared to \u201cbossy\u201d\u00a0men coworkers.<\/li>\n<li><strong>When we look at bossy <em>behaviors,<\/em> though<\/strong> \u2014 without the label of \u201cbossy\u201d \u2014 we found that men are just as likely as women to exhibit bossy behaviors in the workplace.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Acting \u201cbossy\u201d is related to being seen as less promotable,<\/strong>\u00a0for both men and women. However, the relationship was stronger for women.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Altogether, our results show a consistent trend that being labeled as \u201cbossy\u201d in the workplace has negative consequences, and those consequences are particularly harsh for women. This is why we want to support the campaign to \u201cBan Bossy\u201d stereotypes.<\/p>\n<h2>What It Means to \u201cBe Bossy\u201d \u2014 6 Indicators of Bossiness<\/h2>\n<p>In our research, we asked leaders to define \u201cbossy\u201d in their own words. There was substantial agreement about what the word \u201cbossy\u201d means. Indicators of bossiness were people who:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Control others and dictate orders;<\/li>\n<li>Ignore others\u2019 perspectives;<\/li>\n<li>Are rude and pushy;<\/li>\n<li>Micromanage and prescribe specific actions (e.g., saying exactly how or when something should be done);<\/li>\n<li>Are focused on authority, power, and status; and<\/li>\n<li>Interact in aggressive ways.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>The Gender Implications of Bossiness<\/h2>\n<p>We found that 33% of women and 17% of men reported that they\u2019ve received feedback that they\u2019re \u201cbossy\u201d at work. <strong>In other words, women were twice as likely to be branded as bossy in the workplace.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yet, when leaders were asked to recall a time they worked with someone else whom they considered bossy, they were about equally likely to describe a man (48%) or a woman (52%). Men were more likely to describe bossy men coworkers, while women were more likely to describe bossy women coworkers.<\/p>\n<p>Neither bossy women nor men are seen as superstars in their organizations, according to our survey participants. Bossiness damages men\u2019s reputations as well as women\u2019s reputations, yet we found that it hurts women more.<\/p>\n<p>Contrary to what some might believe, we found women don\u2019t act bossier than men; this is true whether we look at self-report ratings of bossiness <i>or<\/i> those reported by direct reports or bosses.<\/p>\n<p>This supports the Ban Bossy campaign argument that women are often called bossy for doing the same behaviors as men. <strong>Even though women are twice as likely to be called bossy at work, they aren\u2019t more likely to act that way.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This shows that exhibiting these behaviors is not a feminine trait. If anything, the data showed that men actually exhibited slightly more bossy behaviors compared to women.<\/p>\n<h2>Is There a Penalty for Being Bossy?<\/h2>\n<p>Our findings show that being labeled \u201cbossy\u201d is a sign of bad leadership. Therefore, regardless of gender, leaders should make an effort to avoid being seen as bossy at work.<\/p>\n<p>For both men and women, bossiness was related to being seen as less promotable. Men and women are both punished for bossiness in the workplace, but we found that the link between bossiness and being unpromotable was stronger for women.<\/p>\n<p>This means that when women act bossy in the workplace, it has more serious consequences than when men do. This pattern is consistent across our 20 years of data.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, looking at this trend across time, the gender gap is actually widening. If we look back 20 years, the relationship between bossiness and not being promotable was about the same for men and women. Today, the negative relationship is significantly stronger for bossiness in women than it is for men.<\/p>\n<h2>How Can We Work to Ban Bossy?<\/h2>\n<p>Based on our research, we came up with 3 practical recommendations to \u201cban bossy\u201d in the workplace:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Be more thoughtful about tossing around the word \u201cbossy.\u201d<\/strong> Understand the term does carry more weight when applied to women, so use it with extreme caution. You may want to mentally ban \u201cbossy\u201d from your vocabulary, whether when talking about <a href=\"\/articles\/leading-effectively-articles\/7-reasons-want-women-workplace\/\">women in the workplace<\/a> or about young girls.<\/li>\n<li><strong>When giving feedback or addressing interpersonal issues<\/strong> (with men or women), be descriptive and very specific about behaviors. Try to use other more descriptive words instead of \u201cbossy\u201d \u2014 such as the 6 indicators of bossiness noted above. Learn more about <a href=\"\/articles\/leading-effectively-articles\/review-time-how-to-give-different-types-of-feedback\/\">giving effective feedback<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Learn and develop strong interpersonal skills.<\/strong> All of us should make the effort to avoid negative interpersonal behaviors to become more effective, more promotable leaders. Learn more about <a href=\"\/articles\/leading-effectively-articles\/boost-your-interpersonal-savvy\/\">boosting your interpersonal savvy<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Lastly, for tips on how to work with a \u201cbossy\u201d boss or coworkers, or if <em>you\u2019ve<\/em> been told you\u2019re bossy, get some advice<\/strong> in <a href=\"https:\/\/cclinnovation.org\/how-to-be-the-boss-without-being-the-b-word-bossy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">our white paper<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Ready to Take the Next Step?<\/h2>\n<p><em><strong>Companies that intentionally prioritize attracting and retaining talented women gain significant advantages. We can partner with you to support <a href=\"\/leadership-challenges\/womens-leadership-development\/\">women\u2019s leadership development<\/a> or to create an organizational culture to \u201cBan Bossy\u201d and other stereotypes.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Women are more likely to be branded as \u201cbossy\u201d in the workplace and receive harsher negative consequences for it. Get our 4 recommendations to ban the \u201cbossy\u201d stereotypes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":49591,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49590","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","categories-belonging","categories-womens-leadership","region-global","article-type-leading-effectively-articles"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.6 (Yoast SEO v26.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ban Bossy: What\u2019s Gender Got to Do With It? | CCL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Women are more likely to be branded as \u201cbossy\u201d in the workplace, leading to negative consequences. 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