The Dunning-Kruger Effect

Coach Musings 2:

I recently wrote about the Imposter Syndrome, Today I want to talk about something quite the converse!

Again, during one of my coaching conversations, my coachee was very exasperated with a team member. The team member believes that he is fantastic at his work. Even when he executes routine jobs, he wants huge appreciation. He is very averse to feedback, and refuses to take it, considers it as a bias of the manager. While this made me wonder about the skills of my coachee in giving feedback, it also made me think about the team member. And it took me back to a humorous memory of my mother asking my brother each time after an exam – “How was your paper?” To which each time my brother would respond – “Fantastic!” While I wallowed and wallowed in regret and self- doubt for not having done well enough, I did admire my brother for his confidence and positivity!

The Dunning- Kruger Effect.

I recently came across this term in psychology. It is a type of cognitive bias where people believe their cognitive ability is better than it is.

This happens when people are not self- aware of their learning ability and cannot assess themselves objectively which leads to an illusion of superiority. Dunning and Kruger tested their hypothesis on a batch of undergraduate students and found that the competent students underestimated their performance while the incompetent students overestimated their performance. Take this scenario back to work – the good performers learn from feedback taking it as an opportunity to better themselves, while the poor performers tend to reject feedback that suggests they need to improve. It is therefore important to encourage metacognition in your employees for continuous self- awareness and growth.

How would you do that? What would you do to ensure that your team member understands his capability based on performance, that he and you are similarly prepared for that dreaded appraisal conversation, that he is in sync with what is required of him through out the year? How would you make your team member aware without hurting his feelings?