Proving Others Right

The Pygmalion effect suggests that other people's expectations can influence how we think, how we act, how we view our capabilities, and what we achieve.

In Pygmalion in Management, J. Sterling Livingston writes that managers have the ability to lower or increase the performance of their subordinates by how they treat them. If their expectations are low, productivity is likely to suffer. If managers expectations are high, productivity is likely to be excellent.