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Use the Pygmalion Effect

HERE’S A PRETTY COOL CONCEPT known as the Pygmalion Effect. If you haven’t heard of it specifically, you probably have witnessed it in action. Leadership scholar Bernard Bass suggested that

In its most general form, the Pygmalion Effect is a performance-stimulating effect. People who are led to expect that they will do well will be better than those who expect to do poorly or do not have any expectations about how well or poorly they will do. People tend to try to confirm rather than disconfirm positive beliefs that others have about them.¹¹

If this is the case, then you should be thinking about how you communicate verbally and nonverbally with your team. A number of studies have confirmed this phenomenon. If nothing else, it is good to be aware of this theory, and how it can be used to influence others.

The application is fairly simple. Try this approach with your organizational “stars” at first. “Sculpt” their performance by recognizing their past performance and your confidence that they will continue down the same path. Another approach at the team level is to simply tell team members that you have every confidence they will shine in a challenging project. Of course, let them also know you are available as a resource as the project progresses. Leaders tend to spend far too much time with their poor performers and not enough time with their stars. The authors of First Break All the Rules suggest switching the time commitment between the two groups.¹² We suggest a slight alteration—spend more time with your organizational stars and remain aware of the Pygmalion Effect when working with them.

It’s not solely upon organizational stars that you should focus this strategy. This can work with other levels of performance as well. We mention it in connection with the stars because in all reality there lies the greatest likelihood for success. They are usually the most motivated and at times the most neglected from a developmental perspective. We suggest spending more quality time with them, but we also suggest trying this strategy with those of other performance levels.