How to use "The Power of High Expectations" to Bring Out the Best in Others!

One of my best professional moments was sitting with a leadership icon on a beach in Key Biscayne, Florida.

His name is J. Sterling Livingston, a former Harvard Professor, now retired in Florida. He wrote a seminal article in The Harvard Business Review, entitled, Pygmalion in Management. It is one of the best-selling articles in the history of The Harvard Business Review and has been reprinted several times.

I heard that he was living in Key Biscayne, so I called him and he was happy to meet with me. We have had several meetings after our initial encounter. He is truly a mentor to me.

He said something in the initial part of our first conversation that rattled me. He said, "Frank, professionals are more adept at communicating negative expectations to people than they are communicating positive expectations to people, even though most professionals believe exactly the opposite!"

Imagine that!

People, including managers and leaders, are more skillful at sending out negative messages than they are at sending out positive messages!

They are more competent in bringing out the worst in people than they are in bringing out the best in people!

This is significant because your mental expectations of a person has a profound influence on your behavior toward that person and the results that you get with that person!

It looks like this:

Low Expectations → Mediocre Behavior Toward Someone → Poor Results

On the other hand,

High Expectations → Positive Behavior Toward Someone → Strong Results

Let's put it another way:

If you treat people as winners they tend to become winners!

If you treat people as losers they tend to become losers!

Sterling Livingston tells a great Harvard University research story about 3 teachers who were told that they had "intellectual bloomers" in their classes in one particular year. The Harvard research team came into the elementary school in September to let the teachers know that they were tracking these students and the teachers could expect that the students would "bloom" during the course of the year. They research team would also come back at the end of the current year to administer a test to the entire class.

The "intellectual bloomers" showed significant growth during the year. Then the researchers shocked the teachers when they told the teachers that they had actually picked the bloomers at random!!!

The teachers thought they were bloomers, treated them as bloomers, and they actually bloomed!! Sterling has indicated that he has numerous research studies that demonstrate the same principle.

So, how do you communicate high expectations to others so that you get positive results?

1. Focus on the best, not the worst, in people
2. Create a non-threatening, rapport and trust climate with others
3. When you give positive feedback to others, be sure that you are specific, not general
4. Show faith and enthusiasm for other people’s dreams and goals
5. See and help others to capture the good things happening on the job and in their lives
6. Be sure that your facial expression communicates warmth to others
7. Be sure that your tone of voice communicates interest to others

Livingston has said that if a professional is unskilled in communicating positive expectations toward others, he or she, leaves scars on the career of others, cuts deeply into their self-confidence, and distorts their image of themselves as human beings.

On the other hand, if a professional communicates high expectations toward others, their self-confidence will grow, their capabilities will expand, and they will tend to achieve more than they would on their own.

 

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