The problem isn’t that women lack confidence — it’s that men have too much of it

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Mahoney and Carruthers realized that when management jobs open at Boston Scientific, male candidates often believe they’re eminently qualified. Women, on the other hand, frequently need a nudge to raise their hands. But this isn’t because women need “fixing” — they don’t need to practice power poses, hone negotiation skills, or agonize over whether they are dressed for success in order to advance in their careers. Rather, it’s the workplace that needs a reboot when it comes to hiring and advancement.

A growing body of research indicates that women are confident and ambitious. A 2016 Bain & Co. survey found that at midcareer, 56 percent of college-educated women who worked at companies in the United States aspired to senior leadership positions, and 57 percent of women expected to get there.

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Now Carruthers tells hiring managers that posting a job and evaluating only those who have applied isn’t good enough. “You have to think about who is not applying,” she says. “Your role is to go out and ask, and sit down and have that conversation.”

The interview process can also work against women, who tend to understate their skills, while men overstate theirs. Carruthers emphasizes to hiring managers that “confidence does not equal competence.”

Companies could also do a better job of instilling realistic expectations into male employees, says Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic [this isn't a golden nugget production, i swear], author of Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders? (And How to Fix It). “The best way to close the gap is to make men less confident, not the other way around,” says Chamorro-Premuzic, who also teaches business psychology at Columbia University.

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