In a recent article on his personal website, Jeroen De Flander talks about a fascinating leadership phenomenon called the Pygmalion Effect. This was my first time reading about the idea, and I decided to do more research to learn more about it. I found another interesting article about the topic published by the Harvard Business Review. Sharing some key insights from both the articles below.
The Pygmalion Effect is a psychological phenomenon whereby higher expectations by leaders result in an increase in performance by their team members. In other words - managers get what they expect.
Many of us have the habit of labeling team members.
"Jessica is a high performer."
"Joe is average."
"Mike is a low performer."
According to the Pygmalion effect, team members internalize their positive labels - and those with positive labels succeed accordingly; a similar process works in the opposite direction in the case of low expectations.
The idea behind the Pygmalion effect is that increasing the leader's expectation of the follower's performance will result in better follower performance. It explains why individuals perform better in a supportive environment and often struggle if they are perceived as an underperformer, regardless of whether or not the reputation is true.
Understanding the Pygmalion effect and how it relates to employee performance can equip you to be a stronger leader who can successfully motivate your team - and drive results for your organization.
Here are some practical tips for managers looking to leverage 'self-fulfilling prophecies' to demand high performance in the workplace:
- Present your team members with challenging tasks
- Celebrate small victories - say "I'm proud of you", and say it often
- Provide detailed and specific feedback
- Failure is important but make staying in a 'failure mindset' unacceptable
- Allow self-expression
It is important to note that there has been statistical critique of Pygmalion research over the years. The phenomenon may not be empirically strong but it resonates with my personal experience in both following good (and bad) leaders, and managing my own team.
Read more about Jeroen De Flander here: https://jeroen-de-flander.com/
The complete HBR article can be found here: https://hbr.org/2003/01/pygmalion-in-management
