Am sure in our everyday lives we come across situations were we feel let down because someone we knew and expected to perform to a particular level didn’t really come upto that level..Is there a way we could really influence the way that they performed..Lets consider the particular case which was done way back in 1964
Beverly Cantello was 23 years old and just starting out in her teaching career when a Harvard psychologist named Robert Rosenthal came to her elementary school. The principal announced that she’d given Rosenthal permission to administer a fancy-sounding new IQ test to the school’s students that spring.
Shortly thereafter, Cantello was told that Rosenthal’s Harvard Test of Inflected Acquisition revealed something remarkable: Small groups of children in each classroom were poised to “bloom” academically.
And indeed, over the next school year, the designated students at Spruce Elementary School in South San Francisco excelled, just as predicted. The youngest of them made the most dramatic gains: On average, these first-graders increased their IQ scores by more than 27 points.
Only then were Cantello and her colleagues informed that Rosenthal had not told the truth. The Test of Inflected Acquisition was just a standard IQ test. The “bloomers” had been chosen at random. It was the teachers’ belief in their pupils’ potential, not any innate advantage, that spurred the students to achieve.
Rosenthal called his discovery the Pygmalion Effect. The Pygmalion Effect is a psychological phenomenon wherein high expectations lead to improved performance in a given area. Its name comes from the story of Pygmalion, a mythical Greek sculptor. Pygmalion who carved a statue of a woman and then became enamored with it. Unable to love a human, Pygmalion appealed to Aphrodite, the goddess of love. She took pity and brought the statue to life. The couple married and went on to have a daughter, Paphos.
Meanwhile, over the past five decades, scores of scientists inspired by Rosenthal have tracked Pygmalion effects outside of educational settings. They’ve documented evidence of it in family homes, courtrooms, military training centers and businesses — anywhere where inspired leadership can make a difference.
According to these reports, when managers have high hopes for their employees, the workers become more productive. When military instructors believe trainees have superior skills, the trainees perform better. Furthermore, when college men converse by telephone with women, they’ve been told are attractive, they believe the women behave in more attractive ways.
The Pygmalion effect shows us that our reality is negotiable and can be manipulated by others — on purpose or by accident. What we achieve, how we think, how we act, and how we perceive our capabilities can be influenced by the expectations of those around us. Those expectations may be the result of biased or irrational thinking, but they have the power to affect us and change what happens. While cognitive biases distort only what we perceive, self-fulfilling prophecies alter what happens.
Of course, the Pygmalion effect works only when we are physically capable of achieving what is expected of us.The Pygmalion effect seems to involve us leveraging our full capabilities and avoiding the obstacles created by low expectations.
There are basically four factors which really enable the Pygmalion effect to take place without even our knowing
1..Climate factor
We create a more warmer climate to people whom we believe have a higher potential .Unknowingly we end up being nicer to them not only in the things that we say but also in the way we communicate non verbally
2..Input effect
We give more and more input to people whom we think are capable of using that information and building on it..So unknowingly we teach share and guide someone whom we believe has more capability
3..Response opportunity
In everyday situations we give more time for a person whom we feel has a higher capability to respond to situvations..We often give them a more patient hearing and also often guide them to reach the best response..This in turn builds on the persons confidence and develops his capability
4..Feedback
Feedback works in the following manner
a..If we have higher expectations from a person we tend to praise that person more and positively reinforce that person for giving a good response
b..We also tend to give more differentiated feedback to someone whom we feel are more capable when that person does something which we feel is not upto the expected mark. Also very often for people whom we believe are less capable we are willing to accept a much lower level of response than someone whom we feel is of much higher capability
So what does this mean for us, as leaders in the workplace? How do we motivate ourselves to become better leaders by setting higher expectations?
1. Remove negative expectations of performance
As leaders we need to remove any cultural, personal, gender, age or other stereotypes we and our peers might hold.
2. Wipe the slate clean
If there has been a history of under performance in individuals, it is important to consign discussion about those performances to the dustbin of history. Give everyone the chance to make a change to find their purpose and understand their responsibilities and what is expected of them in terms of performance.
3. Set high expectations
Don’t aim low or set small incremental gains in performance. When people are given incremental performance improvement targets, there is a high risk that their thinking will fit the norms of ‘work harder’, when what is definitely needed is ‘work smarter’. When people are given seemingly difficult goals, it forces them to think differently, especially if we help them with that different thinking.
4. Set the right expectations
Setting expectations of people can have a negative effect if we set the wrong ones, so some careful analysis and thinking is required before we set off on our journey of getting people to achieve things they thought were not possible. The law of unintended consequences applies to everyone setting performance indicators and goals.
5. Train and coach our people to be self-efficacious
After setting our ambitious goals, it is important that we support our staff in being able to reach these goals. This may include skills or knowledge training and workplace coaching or mentoring.Our people must feel it is very important to try and that we will support them through a few missteps and, where necessary, assist directly in building their skills.
6. Give feedback
Even our most able and most willing people, who need little skill or knowledge building, need feedback on how they are doing. Even if they seem embarrassed by positive feedback, it is crucial that people who have accepted the challenge of higher expectations feel that warm inner glow of having delivered something difficult.
In the same way Pygmalion’s fixation on the statue brought it to life, our focus on a belief or assumption can do the same.
A perfect illustration is the case of James Sweeney and George Johnson, as described in Pygmalion in Management. Sweeney was a teacher at Tulane University, where Johnson worked as a porter. Aware of the Pygmalion effect, Sweeney had a hunch that he could teach anyone to be a competent computer operator. He began his experiment, offering Johnson lessons each afternoon. Other university staff were dubious, especially as Johnson appeared to have a low IQ. But the Pygmalion effect won out and the former janitor eventually became responsible for training new computer operators.
The Pygmalion effect is a powerful secret weapon. Who wouldn’t want to help their children get smarter, help employees and leaders be more competent, and generally push others to do well? That’s possible if we raise our standards and see others in the best possible light…
So do start practicing this from today….
