Pygmalion Effect

Take the classroom as an example as there has been a lot of research carried out. A teacher's expectations of student performance become self-fulfilling prophecies for each of their students; students perform better or worse than other students based on the way their teacher expects them to perform.

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How do you think the teacher’s expectations of a child who is well-behaved and completes their homework on time vs a student who is always late, plays around in class and doesn’t listen? Day and night difference in their results.

When a teacher believes that a child will be successful they commit more resources and attention to that child. Alongside the child feeling a sense of support and expectation, they raise their game and effort which produces a far better result.

The same goes for leadership, when you set high standards and expectations and then instil a sense of belief and trust in someone, the individual digs in and achieves far more than if the leader had no interest or belief in their ability.

The leader's high expectations act as a prophecy because pre-existing beliefs lead to more effort being put in both by the person with the expectations, and the person who is being expected from, increasing the likelihood that success will ensue.

Setting high standards for all your people and having the willingness to develop even those individuals that need a little more support leads to higher-performing teams and engagement levels.

Leaders play such an important role and without knowing it at times, they are the Pygmalion.

How do you ensure the Pygmalion Effect is positively empowering?

1) Belief - instil a sense of belief and confidence in all your people, they may not be there today but with practice and action, they can achieve anything.

2) Kaizen - ensure you are setting high expectations and focusing on continuous improvement. We shouldn’t be standing still, we should be looking to improve, innovate and become better.

3) Gold - always look for the gold in everything, people will make mistakes, but there will be something to learn in there somewhere. Reminding the individual to adjust their perspective from “why is this happening to me” to “this is happening for me” is critical to ensuring they don’t dwell on setbacks.

4) Equality - whether they’re your top performers or lower performers, always ensure you are distributing your resources and time fairly and giving people opportunities. We sometimes over-commit our time to those folks who are struggling rather than committing time and helping our great performers become exceptional performers.

5) Future Self - critical, don’t see the individual as they are today, visualise what they could become with the right behaviours, nurturing and coaching. Focus on the future and not the present. Things don’t always look rosy right now, but with your encouragement, support and guidance, that individual could go on to achieve amazing things. Tell them what you see and what could be.

How are you influencing your people in a positive way and helping them reach their potential?

All the best

David

Resources Of The Week

• Book - Dr Carol Dweck - Mindset - changing the way you think to fulfil your potential. See what is possible when you change your thinking. Fixed vs Growth Mindset.

• App - Blinkist. Do you ever read books and think there was a lot of fluff in there? Blinkist saves you hours with its premium book summary app which condenses hours of reading down into a 10-15 minute summary for you to read or listen to. Try this app to save you time and learn quicker.

• YouTube - Brandon Burchard - What Great Leaders Actually Do. When I discovered this video I was instantly glued. Brendan talks through the 6 Es of Leadership and what behaviours make us great leaders.

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