The pygmalion effect

A team does as well as you and the team think they can. This idea is known as “the self-fulfilling prophecy”. When you believe the team will perform well, in some strange, magical way they do. And similarly, when you believe they won’t perform well, they don’t. There is enough experimental data to suggest that the self-fulfilling prophecy is true. One unusual experiment in 1911 concerned a very clever horse called Hans. This horse had the reputation for being able to add, multiply, subtract, and divide by tapping out the answer with its hooves. The extraordinary thing was that it could do this without its trainer being present. It only needed someone to put the questions. On investigation, it was found that when the questioner knew the answer, he or she transmitted various very subtle body language clues to Hans such as the raising of an eyebrow or the dilation of the nostrils. Hans simply picked up on these clues and continued tapping until he arrived at the required answer. The questioner expected a response and Hans obliged. In similar vein, an experiment was carried out at a British school into the performance of a new intake of pupils. At the start of the year, the pupils were each given a rating, ranging from “excellent prospect” to “unlikely to do well”. These were totally arbitrary ratings and did not reflect how well the pupils had previously performed. Nevertheless, these ratings were given to the teachers. At the end of the year, the experimenters compared the pupils’ performance with the ratings. Despite their real abilities, there was an astonishingly high correlation between performance and ratings. It seems that people perform as well as we expect them to. The self-fulfilling prophecy is also known as the Pygmalion Effect. This comes from a story by Ovid about Pygmalion, a sculptor and prince of Cyprus, who created an ivory statue of his ideal woman. The result which he called Galatea was so beautiful that he immediately fell in love with it. He begged the goddess Aphrodite to breath life into the statue and make her his own. Aphrodite granted Pygmalion his wish, the statue came to life and the couple married and lived happily ever after. The story was also the basis of George Bernard Shaw’s play “Pygmalion”, later turned into the musical “My Fair Lady”. In Shaw’s play, Professor Henry Higgins claims he can take a Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, and turn her into a duchess. But, as Eliza herself points out to Higgins’ friend Pickering, it isn’t what she learns or does that determines whether she will become a duchess, but how she’s treated. “You see, really and truly, apart from the things anyone can pick up (the dressing and the proper way of speaking and so on), the difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves but how she’s treated. I shall always be a flower girl to Professor Higgins, because he always treats me as a flower girl, and always will, but I know I can be a lady to you because you always treat me as a lady, and always will.” The implication of the Pygmalion effect for leaders and managers is massive. It means that the performance of your team depends less on them than it does on you. The performance you get from people is no more or less than what you expect: which means you must always expect the best. As Goethe said, “Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be and he will become as he can and should be.”

Leadership lessons from pope john paul ii

"Heroes are rebels with a cause. Rebels because they challenge the traditional ways of thinking and refuse to follow the herd. They have a cause, a vision, that's larger than life." - Sharif Khan, author of Psychology of the Hero Soul From a small-town Polish boy born to a retired army officer to become Pope; from a hard life in Nazi occupied Poland, his mother dead of kidney and heart failure, an older brother dead from scarlet fever, to become quite possibly “man of the century.” How did such an unlikely candidate for the head of the Roman Catholic Church rise so quickly to such prominence? What leadership lessons can we learn from this global spiritual leader who so moved the world? Here is a brief timeline snap-shot of Karol Josef Wojtyla’s exemplary leadership: Knowledge 1958: Pope Pius XII names Wojtyla auxiliary bishop of Krakow. By this time, Wojtyla was a professor of ethics and had two doctorate degrees; he had studied theology in clandestine during the oppressive Nazi occupation of Poland. Leadership lesson: leaders are readers. Specialized knowledge is key to leadership along with general studies. While Wojtyla had two doctorates in his field, he also studied philosophy and literature and was also a playwright and a poet. If you were to take an hour-a-day reading up in your field and applying the knowledge, within a period of five years you would become an ‘expert’ within your field. People are hungering and thirsting for a leader with knowledge and experience. In Wojtyla’s case, he took the time to gain knowledge of the world, himself, and beyond. As a chaplain for university students in Krakow, he used to go on frequent camping and kayaking trips and offered counseling and mentorship to the students. On these excursions, he would usually take an hour or more to be alone by himself to reflect, read, and pray. These moments of solitude gave him a strong internal compass and knowledge of self required of all great leaders. Humility 1978: Elected Pope John Paul II becoming the 264th pope and first non-Italian pope in 456 years; refuses formal papal coronation in favor of a simple inauguration ceremony and chooses not to use the royal plural “We” referring to himself plainly as “I”. Wojtyla was not impressed by the trappings of power and its symbols and made that clear from the day he was elected Pope. He had a very simple, plain, and honest way of communicating that endeared people to him. He exemplified the servant-leader role by embodying one of the titles of the Pope: Servus Servorum Dei (Servant of the Servants of God). Leadership lesson: leaders are humble. We can learn from Wojtyla’s example by not isolating ourselves in the corner office or ivory tower with each successive promotion, hiding behind closed doors and a sea of fancy titles, diplomas, awards, certificates, and press-clippings. Like Wojtyla, we can make ourselves available to our people with open doors, seeking to understand and encouraging dialogue. Leadership by walking around and talking to people and listening to their needs earns respect and trust. Heart 1979: Visits his homeland, Poland, for the first time as Pope and speaks to his people, inspiring Solidarity, the first independent labor movement in the Soviet bloc. Risking his life against the totalitarian Communist Regime in Poland, Wojtyla returned to his homeland and did not speak in the typical, official ‘visiting dignitary’ tone. He spoke from his heart, from the gut, soul-to-soul – in their language. The people of Poland saw themselves reflected in him; he encouraged them to not crawl like animals but walk tall and ‘be not afraid.’ The crowd went wild and a flame of rebellion and counter-revolution was lit in the collective consciousness of the Polish people, sparking the Solidarity movement for independence and freedom that eventually toppled the Communist Regime. Leadership lesson: leaders have heart. Intellect is not enough; both head and heart have to be married. If you want to win over people, risk letting down your guard and speak from the heart. The leader that speaks from the heart almost always wins over reason alone. Forgiveness 1983: Meets with assassin Ali Agca in prison. Just two years after the assassination attempt on his life by gunman, Mehmet Ali Agca, and several months of painful recovery, the Pope visited Agca in prison and offered forgiveness. (Much later, in 2000, the Italian government granted clemency to Agca, on the Pope’s request). Leadership lesson: leaders are willing to forgive. We are all fallible human beings that make mistakes. The mark of a true leader is his or her willingness to forgive. It’s also a smart leadership strategy in the long-term. While there’s no excuse to keep someone who consistently fails to learn from their mistakes, the boss that fires an employee for making a big mistake is often mistaken for doing so. After all, there’s always the risk that the next person hired could potentially make the same disastrous mistake. But by offering forgiveness to the person that errs, that person is unlikely to repeat that same mistake, and will most likely remain fiercely loyal to you. Responsibility 2000: Offers a day of apology for sins committed by members of the Catholic Church over the centuries; visits Israel and pays homage to the victims of the Holocaust. Wojtyla was the first pope to visit the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland in 1979, and later in 2000, he visited Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem in remembrance of the six million Jews who died in the Holocaust, praying for reconciliation between Christians and Jews and apologizing for the sin of anti-Semitism by Christians. The day that former U. S. President, John F. Kennedy, took full responsibility for the Bay of Pigs fiasco, was the day he became a leader. The day that Wojtyla apologized and took responsibility for the sins of anti-Semitism committed by Christians, was the day he became a truly respected global leader. Leadership lesson: leaders take full responsibility for their organization. Blaming and complaining is the mark of a loser. We can make excuses or we can make progress – but we certainly can’t do both. To be a leader, you must take full responsibility for your actions, your team, and ultimately the whole organization or cause you lead. Uncommon Leadership 1982 – 2003: Receives PLO leader Arafat; Meets Gorbachev as first pope to meet with a Kremlin Chief; visits Cuba and meets with Castro; becomes first pope in history to enter a mosque. Despite criticism from many corners on the controversial issues he supported, Wojtyla was not one to ever back down. He stood for what he believed in and had the courage of convictions. As a leader, he was tough but flexible. His flexibility allowed him to meet famous, and infamous, world leaders and address difficult issues that made him unpopular in certain circles. But he also had the inner toughness and steely resolve to break down walls and foster reconciliation. As Pope and head of the Roman Catholic Church he knew his role was to unify the Church while serving as an apostle of justice and peace. He stood his ground and never wavered, even if it meant alienation. Leadership lesson: leaders stand for what they believe in. Leadership is not about winning a popularity contest. Stand up for what you believe in. Be strong and be firm. A divided mind is weak; a united mind, clear and singular in purpose, is powerful beyond measure. Legacy: Rebel with a Cause 1920 – 2005: A legacy of leadership. Pope John Paul II was a rebel with a cause. A champion of human worth and dignity, a freedom fighter, a torch bearer for social justice, he left a lasting legacy of leadership and moral example that the world can follow. Asked once, if he feared retaliation from government officials, he replied (according to biographer George Weigel), “I’m not afraid of them. They are afraid of me.” Indeed, he relayed a message to the world that will echo through eternity: “Be not afraid!”