Employee Leadership - Improving Team Performance: Pygmalion Effect in 5 Steps

Executives often underestimate them Effectwho set their expectations on the Motivation of the team - especially in leadership. In 5 steps you can improve the performance of your team increase.

The Pygmalion Effect: Who leads must expect!

We often underestimate the effect our expectations have on others. We should know better: if we're lucky, many of us have had a manager in our careers who has had a positive influence on ours Career would have.

If we think back, we probably remember useful things Feedback, Further training measures or continuous support. What we do not take into account, however, is the role that his expectations have played in relation to our work and our self-confidence.

Using the development potential of employees: an exciting experiment

The scientific experiment conducted by American psychologists Robert Rosenthal and Leonore Jacobson in an elementary school in 1965 is a famous example of this effect and shows how strongly our Behavior based on the expectations of others.

Teachers got the information that 20 percent of their students after an IQ test enormous development potential was found. In fact, the students were chosen completely arbitrarily.

When executives treat their employees differently, they get different results

When the intelligence quotient was later re-measured, these children had one clear higher IQ than their classmates, in whom no increased performance potential was apparently identified.

But why? The teachers had treated them differently: they were more concerned about these students, were more patient and gave more positive feedback. The teachers' expectations of the students - apparently more gifted - had come true.

Use the power of expectation in employee leadership: self-fulfilling prophecy

In Company one meets the Pygmalion effect in the same way. Because just like the students in the experiment, the employees also adapt their behavior and their work performance to the expectations of their superiors. Team leaders or managers have a certain perception of the employees' abilities and communicate these constantly - both verbally and nonverbally.

Even if they aren't aware of it, subtle signals like tone of voice, eye contact, and body language convey expectations. And subconsciously, we're all trained to interpret these signals to understand what's expected of us and adjust our behavior.

When managers believe in their employees, they encourage more

Thus, when managers believe in the potential of their team members, they behave accordingly, thereby promoting self-confidence and the efficiency of their employees.

At the same time, the opposite is also the case. If an employee fails at a task, fast assumed incapacity. In Future less and less is then expected of him and his self-confidence drops just like his Performance - A vicious circle. In the case of a negative self-fulfilling expectation, one speaks of the "Golem effect".

Increase performance: 5 steps to use the pygmalion effect

Take these five possibilities into account and use the Pygmalion Effect in your company to improve its performance in the Team to increase:

1. Go unprejudiced into cooperation: Regardless of what you know about the past performance of your employees, it is important to start the collaboration without prejudice. So give everyone the opportunity to develop positively. Maintain a corporate culture in which excellence is promoted and, in a certain way, expected.
2. Set high - but realistic - goals: Too low targets are not motivating, as are unrealistically high targets. Instead, you should set goals for your employees that lie outside their comfort zone but can be achieved with high probability.
3. Offer your support: Once you have set challenging goals for your employees, it is important to offer support. Demonstrate commitment by identifying the role you can play in attaining your goals. If an employee fails to perform a task, support him by exploring the cause together. The way we react to weaknesses or mistakes is crucial. In Shutterstock, for example, we cultivate a culture in which mistakes are definitely desired to grow.
4. Speak positively about your team: When you talk to other employees about your team members, emphasize their positive characteristics and point out the strengths and potential of your team. The way we talk about others can positively influence the opinions and expectations of others.
5. Give positive feedback: Given the fact that praise has a strong impact on our work and costs us nothing, it is surprising how rarely we praise our employees. When an employee does a good job, you should make sure that he is aware of it - to repeat this in the future and to improve further. For Shutterstock, for example, we have monthly feedback discussions with the employees, whether they reach their goals or if they need support.

Conclusion: Always expect the best from your team

So expect only the best of your team and offer them your full support - you will be rewarded with self-confident, satisfied employees and improved performance!

Top books on the subject

Read text as PDF

Acquire this text as a PDF (only for own use without passing it on according to Terms & Conditions): Please send us one after purchase eMail with the desired title supportberufebilder.de, we will then send the PDF to you immediately. You can also purchase text series.

4,99€Buy

Book eCourse on Demand

Up to 30 lessons with 4 learning tasks each + final lesson as a PDF download. Please send us one after purchase eMail with the desired title supportberufebilder.de. Alternatively, we would be happy to put your course together for you or offer you a personal, regular one eMail-Course - all further information!

29,99€Buy

Skate eBook as desired

If our store does not offer you your desired topic: We will be happy to put together a book according to your wishes and deliver it in a format of yours Wahl. Please sign us after purchase supportberufebilder.de

79,99€Buy

Corporate publishing and advice

You want to publish, increase your reach or as an employer Candidate speak to? For these and other topics we offer special Consultant packages (overview) - For example, a personal phone call (price is per hour).

299,00€Buy