Self-fulfilling prophecies and the Pygmalion effect

In ancient Greece there is a myth about a talented sculptor who carved the statue of a woman and fell in love with her, and this eventually brought her to life!
George Bernard Shaw, the famous literary genius, possibly borrowed inspiration from this mythical story. The plot of his famous play “Pygmalion”, which was then adapted for the blockbuster movie “My Fair Lady“, has the protagonist Eliza Doolittle (played by the ever beautiful Audrey Hepburn) transform herself with Professor Higgins’ help from a mere flower-girl to a fine aristocratic lady.

The pygmalion concept has always intrigued me and hence drawn me to research and understand it’s practical application at the workplace and in my personal space & relationships too. The one that I find very relevant, maybe because the mother in me always takes a front-seat, is the proven research with regards to how a teacher’s expectations around his/ her students become self-fulfilling prophecies. If a teacher believes one of the kids in the class is brilliant, that kid (conciously or unconciously) picks up on that vibe and ends up fulfilling it. Sadly, the same applies to the child whom the teacher believes to be slow.

The Pygmalion effect at work is an equally fascinating cultural phenomenon which extends its tentacles to the Line Manager’s perception about their employees’ potential and delivery patterns. The way the manager treats his/ her team members is subtly influenced by what the manager believes and expects. If the perception and confidence is around high performance, the job output is most likely to be great and vice versa.

There is also another angle to the pygmalion effect, though the cues here are generally subtle. What managers believe about themselves also influences what they believe about their own teams and this then translates into their behavior. A top performing managers’ success and confidence in his/ her ability provides the team a dramatic boost on the credibility angle. This power of high performance expectation and success makes the team go beyond the scope of their KPIs and overachieve the targets, thus continuing the fast-track journey.

Unfortunately, the Pygmalion Effect has an evil twin- the “Golem effect”, which is about the negative impressions and confidence around performance. When the manager expects low performance, his/ her expectations fuel a negative and downward spiral. It is often said that low performers get used to achieving their minimal levels predominantly because they are stigmatized and nothing more is expected of them.

If you expect the best, you may get the best. If you expect the worst, you will definitely get the worst. So, how can one then leverage the power of the pygmalion effect? Here are some simple tricks and tips that I have picked up in the last couple of years:

# Provide opportunities for challenging assignments and co-own the team member’s success at every milestone. This will help harness the power of the employee’s self-expectations.

# Have frequent 1:1 coaching conversations which focus on the plan for improving strengths and development areas.

# Make it a point to have multiple genuine positive verbal interactions which communicates your and the ecosystem’s belief in the employee’s ability to perform.

# Raise the visibility charts with other supervisors and leaders.

# Reconsider relationships with the team and replace negative comments (can be present for a few low performers) with a positive “can-do” approach.

It is beyond doubt that a leader influences the team to “achieve the seemingly unattainable” through motivation and “can do” trust.

The super-hit movie “300” is a classic example where the plot revolves around King Leonidas who leads a mere number of 300 Spartans into the battle against the Persian King Xerxes and his huge army of 3 lakh soldiers and wins the battle.

Closer to home, the inspirational true story of the Battle of Saragarhi also depicts how the brave Hawildar Ishar Singh led his bunch of 21 soldiers from the 36th Sikh regiment of the British Indian Army against the merciless 10000+ Afridi & Orakzai Pashtun tribesmen to ensure that the critical checkpost is not captured.

As managers and leaders, we can provide a great value add if we effectively communicate positive labels about our teams. When a manager actually believes and vocalizes the team member’s / team’s positive contribution to the work deliverables, the message gets teleported- either consciously or unconsciously, in a geometric progression scale.

While the equation is not so simplistic and improved performance has many other variables apart from just an encouraging manager, we can safely say that we need to create an environment where the manager assumes the role of the Greek sculptor and brings his lady (..or gentleman) to life.