Your expectations of people and their expectations of themselves are key factors in how well people perform at work. Known as the Pygmalion Effect, the power of expectations cannot be overestimated.

The Pygmalion Effect has its roots in ancient Greek mythology. Pygmalion, a Greek sculptor, carved a statue of an ideal woman and then fell in love with his creation. Eventually Venus, the goddess of love, transformed the statue into a living woman. Thus, Pygmalion’s belief in love helped him experience the real thing. The Pygmalion Effect is therefore a form of self-fulfilling prophecy.

In the business world, the Pygmalion Effect refers to the impact of one person’s positive expectations on another. You can summarise it as follows:

• Every frontline manager has expectations of the people who report to him or her
• Frontline managers communicate these expectations both consciously and unconsciously
• People pick up on, or consciously and unconsciously read, these expectations from their immediate manager
• People perform in ways that are consistent with the expectations they have picked up on from their immediate manager

Essentially the more positive a manager’s expectations, the more positive the results achieved by their people. If they are skilful and have high expectations, the self-confidence of their direct reports will grow, their capabilities will develop and their productivity will be high. According to Prof. Dov Eden from Tel Aviv University’s Faculty of Management, if a leader has high expectations then their direct reports have a three times greater chance of being above average.

J Sterling Livingston described the business impact of this in a Harvard Business Review article titled, “Pygmalion in Management”. A district office manager of a large life insurance company had observed that outstanding insurance agencies grew faster than average or poor agencies. He also noted that new insurance agents performed better in these outstanding agencies. The district manager assigned his best agents to work with the outstanding agencies. The six next-best agents were assigned to work with an average assistant manager, and the poorest performing agents were assigned to work with the person regarded as the least able assistant manager.

The impact of these different combinations produced some interesting results:

1. The group selected as the top agents was frequently referred to as the ‘super staff’. The morale of these salespeople was very high, and their sales efforts exceeded even the most optimistic expectations. Grouping the top assistant manager with the top agent in the office resulted in an overall increase in the sales of those people.




2. Grouping the poorest performing agents with the assistant manager who was perceived as being the least able also had an interesting but predictable result. The productivity of these people, which was low before the regrouping, actually declined. In addition, resignations amongst this group increased, as expected.




3. The average unit was expected to remain about the same. The district manager expected only average performance from this group, and, based upon what you now know about expectations, you might assume that its sales results would remain constant.
   
   Surprisingly, the sales of this group increased significantly. The assistant manager in charge of the middle group refused to believe that he was any less capable than the assistant manager of the ‘super staff’ group, or that his agents had any less ability than those in the top group. In every discussion with his agents he communicated his high expectations for his group and told his people that, through persistence and hard work, they could become just as good as the ‘super staff’. As a result of his expectations, the average group increased its sales production by a higher percentage than did the ‘super staff’.

What’s clear is that expectations play a strong role in influencing behaviour. Expect a lot from your people, and you’ll probably get a lot. Expect little from others and that’s probably also what you’ll get. But your high expectations also have to pass the test of reality. They have to be realistic and achievable. And the foundation for realistically high managerial expectations is your ability to train and motivate your people.

In yet another way, the ability to motivate your employees is the key to your success as a frontline leader.